Lytro Illum Camera – Photography Just Got Better

When Lytro first introduced its light field camera two years ago, it shook up not just photography, but of technology in general.

Lytro Illum is classified as THE camera of the future and its time that you forgot just about everything else that you knew about photography.

Image courtesy : (http://uncrate.com/stuff/lytro-illum-camera/ )

Everybody knows that blurred photos cannot be made sharp after the fact but now it has all been changed with the new $1600 Lytro Illum Camera.

The Illum’s positive points are that it has a cool, futuristic design using light-field photography that take perfect shots that often feels like magic. It also has helpful tools for showing you how to shoot, however, most of the amateur photographers might find both the software and hardware a bit too buggy, albeit expensive, not to mention the difficulty in importing and editing the images. To make matters worse, if you are not a bit careful, you might miss the perfect image.

However, the photographer has to have some technical and artistical strengths as when they work with the Illum, because they have to visualize each image in a 3D format. If everything is in the same plane, then it would just look like any other photo. While it is easy to take photos of portraits, landscape photography is altogether different as you have to learn to give each item that required depth.

Instead of snapping a solitary image, the Illum captures a million light rays in a sequence what it calls a light field. In other words, it uses light field technology to take photos that could be refocused after the fact.

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(Image courtesy : http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/lytro-illum-the-future-gets-pretty-17062472 )

The above three examples are so called living images that are designed to be interactive so that the viewer can discover the different parts of the image. The new Illum makes all of this accessible to the average photographer.

The Illum is a second generation camera. While the last one was a testament to prove light-field photography, this one is a statement to announce the arrival of its second generation. In short, it is the marriage of present and future, with more emphasis on the future. The Illum comes with a superb lens, a bit baggy and hefty body, and comes with a lot of manual controls. It is heavier than the usual cameras that you have to use both hands. It looks a reduced DSLR as you can see from the image. More specifications can be found by CLICKING HERE

Lastly, for those who think the Illum is expensive, it is better that they run a check on the prices of those digital or telephoto compact fixed camera lenses in Amazon or Ebay and they will be surprised to see the prices of even the used ones. Comparatively, the Illum provides more value for money. Besides, this is only the second generation and they are only going to improve with time. As Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal aptly puts it “we are only just getting started and hope to do much, much more in the future”.

Having said that, there is little mistaking the Lytro Illum for anything else, but a camera of the future.

Native Mobile Apps Vs HTML5 Mobile Apps

Technology plays a pivotal role in today’s markets as businesses are constantly thinking of new ways to boost their revenue, and reach out to an increasing number of customers. As a result, one of the hottest competition in today’s technology markets is the rivalry between the use of Native Mobile Apps and HTML 5 Mobile Apps. While both of them have their individual gains, they also have their limitations.

Native Mobile Apps
Native apps run on your iPhone or Android device. To use them, individuals/ businesses need to purchase them from its respective distribution platforms, viz., the Apple Apps Store or Google Play. All you need to do is to install these applications directly on your tablet, smart phone or mobile device.

Benefits
Native apps not only offer total user control but you can also use the cache memory to store the last visits. Hence, the use of application is not dependent on the network or internet connectivity. They are also reliable as you can easily download apps that you want directly from the Apps Store or Google Play. Additionally, when it comes to smooth user experience and high performance, this is indeed a better choice. Monetary benefits are also more because stores generate higher revenues.

Limitations
Unlike HTML 5, native apps face higher deployment costs across multi-platforms. Similarly, there are also limitations involving updates and distribution control with native applications. Since there is no cross-platform support, one faces problems during fragmentation. The number of developers offering such apps are also less, which makes finding of such compatible apps difficult compared to HTML 5.

HTML 5 Mobile Apps
HTML 5 mobile applications use the web HTML 5 technology for their development. They can run across any platform that supports a standardized modern browser. This includes Symbian, Blackberry, iOS, and Android. Additionally, one can easily access live applications by using the web browser installed on their mobile device.

Benefits
HTML 5 apps are all about cost savings. Since it is based on the browser, compatibility with the screen size of the device is not an issue. Marketing of apps happens directly through the website.

Limitations
When it comes to performance, HTML 5 is lower than native mobile apps. It does not have a notification feature, camera access, contact and calendar access, nor pinch and spread support.


The bottom line is that there is no clear winner when it comes to comparing Native Mobile apps versus HTML 5 mobile apps, as most mobile consumers go for native apps with a higher propensity. However, for enterprise platforms, HTML 5 emerges as the clear winner.

Google Launches Public Beta of Web Designer - A Free Design Tool

Google recently launched a new advertising application in beta called Google Web Designer. The company says the tool is for creating “professional-quality design” HTML5 ads and campaigns accessible to everyone from the designer to the dabbler.

HTML5 is widely seen as the standard that everyone on the Web should adopt. In case you didn’t know, Google describes HTML5 as a “universal language for building beautiful, engaging content that can run across desktops, smartphones, and tablets.” It is thus the company’s hope that Google Web Designer will help make HTML5 accessible to people throughout the advertising industry, getting Web developers closer to the goal of “build once, run anywhere.”

Here’s the current feature list for Google Web Designer beta:

Create animated HTML5 creative, with a robust, yet intuitive set of design tools.

View and edit the code behind your designs and see your edits reflected back on the stage automatically.

Build ad creatives seamlessly for DoubleClick and AdMob, or publish them to any generic environment you choose.
Receive updates to the product automatically, without having to re-download the application.

Access all of this entirely for free.

If you prefer the visual version, Google has provided multiple YouTube videos to show off the tool. Here’s one of them:

If this piques your interest you should read the getting started guide. Google is also asking for feedback, which you can provide on its user forum and Google+ page.

Again, this is just a beta, although Google does use the tag with little regard for its meaning. That being said, the company says it is “working hard over the next couple quarters to add new features and improvements.” We’ll let you know when its stable release is available.

CEO Meg Whitman’s Turnaround Plan For HP

The chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co., Meg Whitman today announced to raise its earnings outlook for 2013 to boost its personal computer sales with the aid of enterprise computing services. As the recent quarterly results reflected the dwindling computers sales, the company raised its earnings outlook based on the turnaround plan provided by Whitman. The shares for HP gained a 14 percent hike after it projected its full-year earnings per share. The company also projected the fiscal third-quarter profit to top the analysts’ estimates.

Meg Whitman aims to recapture the former growth of the world’s largest PC maker and hopes to increase its shrinking personal computer sales figures. The company has already received a positive response from its investors. As stated by Cathie Lesjak, the chief financial officer of HP, the investments are another great deposit in their venture to make the turnaround successful. She added that the printing units and enterprise services are a bit ahead in the competition, which has further helped the company to improve its gross margin during the quarter.

Earlier, the company reported that revenues had significantly fallen, with a major decline in the personal computers segment. The sales figure from the company’s leading PC focused business unit had fallen by 20 percent to $7.58 billion. As a result, the company is focusing on massive cost cutting, pushing for layoffs and writing off its EDS services business. The company is also striving to expand its business into areas that have long-term potential such as enterprise computing services.

A year earlier, the net income of HP had dipped to $1.08 billion from $1.59 billion. However, by the second quarter, the company had steadied itself to an operating revenue of $27.6 billion. For its fiscal third quarter, it is estimated that the company’s non-GAAP earnings per share would rise from 84 cents to 87 cents, a bit higher than 83 cents that was projected by Wall Street analysts. As investors gradually earned back the confidence on HP, the share prices also rose to 51 percent in 2013.

TELUS Launches its Largest 4G LTE Wireless Network in Saint John

TELUS, the leading provider of national telecommunications services in Canada, recently announced that it is expanding its services on the country’s largest 4G LTE network to reach the customers in Saint John. With this launch, Saint John becomes the home to the leading and fastest wireless technology solution in the world. The expansion of the company’s 4G Long Term Evolution will enable the consumers of Atlantic Canada to experience remarkably faster downloads while surfing the internet, downloading the chart-topping music or videos, or reading emails. This is expected to enhance Saint John’s experience of high-speed wireless technology.

With this new launch of its 4G LTE technology in Saint John, TELUS now holds almost 70 percent of the total population in Canada. Of late, the company has successfully launched and marketed its advanced 4G LTE network in other important Atlantic regions such as Charlottetown, St. John’s, Halifax, and Moncton. Customers can seamlessly download TELUS Network Experience (TNE) application through app stores for free on advanced 4G devices that include iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. TNE will also be available for Blackberry Z10 devices in the months to follow, reported TELUS.

Of late, 4G LTE is fast emerging as the international standard in wireless technology industry, with latest advanced devices being specifically built to benefit from its incredible speed. The customers of TELUS can experience comprehensive capabilities of its 4G LTE network on most popular devices such as Samsung Galaxy S III, Blackberry Z10, Samsung Rugby LTE, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE, HTC One X+, LG Optimus G, Samsung ATIV S, and the Huawei E397 4G LTE Mobile Internet Key.

The TELUS 4G LTE network efficiently supports peak download speed of up to 75 megabits per seconds, with an average of 12 to 25 Mbps. This means that a 600MB video will take only three to seven minutes to download on 4G LTE-capable device. When the customer of TELUS travels outside the coverage areas of 4G LTE network, they will automatically move to the existing 4G HSPA network with no service disruptions. 4G LTE is the latest innovation in TELUS’ wireless network technology portfolio, which was made possible by the launch f coast-to-coast 4G HSPA wireless network service. Today, it has a reach of more than 97 percent of total Canadian population. Ever since 2000, the company has invested $30 billion to deliver the world’s most advanced wireless networks to the Canadians.

As remarked by Ken Power, director of sales, TELUS, more than 24 million Canadian consumers in thriving communities such as Saint John are now covered by the world’s fastest 4G LTE wireless network. To enhance their wireless experience, the company also launched TELUS Network Experience application that will provide an easier way to the customers to instantly report any network issues right from the mobile device.

TELUS the leading provider of national telecommunications services in Canada and the largest provider of world’s fastest 4G LTE wireless technology network. The products and services of TELUS include wireless, Internet Protocol, voice, data, entertainment, television, and video.

What are the Dangers of Cloud Computing

Every day more businesses are moving on to cloud computing from the desktop and have begun to depend on web hosted applications like Facebook, Google Docs and Flickr to store and access their email, documents and photos. Microsoft has further confirmed in a global SMB Cloud Application Study done in 2011, that within the next three years over 49% of the small businesses would be signing up for at least one cloud service.

In today’s world, where users manage multiple devices and computers, it definitely makes sense to move your documents, photos, notes and email to a web application. However, there are serious implications while transferring your personal data to the web app. There are many risks and pitfalls that your personal data could get lost in all this cloud-centric hype products and most of the risks present in the cloud frontier are oblivious to most people.

First of all, people should be aware of the fact that the internet is not the cloud and any software app or storage facility located anywhere on the Internet is not being a part of the cloud. Who would want his or her business to be looked after by someone, somewhere with a server placed in his bedroom?

Despite the fact that cloud servers can be a big money saver and comes with signification cost savings, one must keep in mind the security concerns while evaluating cloud servers. It might be future of IT, and a lot many people support the cloud concept but mentioned below are the imminent dangers of cloud computing that need to be looked into before signing up.

In a true cloud-computing world, a network of servers that are located in different parts of the world and are interconnected handles the data storage and software. A good cloud-computing firm offers data that is well managed in a significantly low cost environment and most of all secure and scalable. However, as not all cloud-computing firms are the same, it pays to do a bit of homework.

1. Are you aware of your cloud’s location?

There are many unreliable cloud-computing firms who have their servers located in a single data center. They market themselves as cloud-based services, but do not highlight the fact that they only have a single data center and which may not be reliable and legitimate. However, it may be cheaper, but this is a risk you cannot afford.

2. Does the cloud-based application have scalability?

By just being in a cloud environment does not ensure scalability for large amounts of traffic and data storage and huge volumes of users when your app grows in popularity. It should ensure scalability and this would depend on how the system was built. Look for negative comments in a forum or search Google and other search engines for comments about the cloud app, before you place too much trust in them.

3. Will this cloud –based software evolve?

This depends on the resources of the service provider as software development and upgradation is never too simple. It is time consuming and complex and if you back the wrong company, you’ll soon find the need to switch companies.

4. Is it easy to change service providers?

Although you may be able to cancel the service at any time, the key remains in getting your data back in a perfect format as many companies have lost their data after terminating the services of the service provider.

5 Is it really secure?

Good cloud computing services have dedicated and skilled resources that maintain a high level of security. However, not many have this and many of the smaller companies are to be checked prior to signing up

6 Check about the backups

Also enquire about your data back-up plan in case of an emergency and also find about the time and cost it would take to restore it.

You’ve probably agreed to a whole bunch of terms when you signed up, but if you haven’t read the fine print, then it just might be too bad, so sad. Don’t get this wrong as most of us have entrusted our data with the likes of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Yahoo. The key is to know what you're getting into when you make that choice so that you can strengthen your security mechanisms.

Tips to Create A Mobile Compatible Blog

It is projected that the mobile web will overtake the desktop web by 2014. In other words, by 2014, people will be using the mobile platform to access the web rather than a laptop or desktop. Millions of people over the people may still have no electricity but they will still be having access to the mobile web.

If we have to talk figures then just make note that the mobile traffic in 2011 was over 8 times more than the global Internet traffic during the year 2000. For the first time, over 50 percent of the traffic came from mobile video traffic in the year 2011. It is projected that by end 2012, the number of mobile devices ought to exceed the world’s population. Furthermore, it is projected that there would be round 10 billion devices by 2016. In other words, close to 1.4 mobile devices per capita exceeding the projected global population of 7.3 billion.

Having said that, over 6% of the visits to your blog are through mobile devices. Hence, unlike the people who accessed through laptops and desktops, the first time mobile and tablet users, will be linked irrespective of their location. In other words, people share content when it is happening.

Have a clean and simple blog that is easy to navigate. You must remember that mobile users use only a tiny screen and there is no presence of a mouse. Besides, not all mobile devices have the touch screen facility. So clean up the clutter and remember to use images only sparingly as images cause issues with the blog design. It may be alright if you are using a laptop but for a mobile platform, they generally appear messy and increase the amount of time while loading. However, if you must use images, then compress them. Basically, cut back on image and keep it simple and user friendly.

If you have a blogspot blog, then you must make your blogs more mobile friendly as over 15% of the users now use mobile phones, tablets and iPhones. So it is important to make your blog mobile compatible. Mentioned below is a method on how to make your blog mobile compatible. Please remember to back-up your blogger template before making any changes to your template. First, log in to your blogger dashboard and navigate setting to Email & Mobile. Then select “Yes” on the show mobile template option on mobile devices and then choose the mobile template from the options given there. Save your setting and you are done.

Just remember that optimizing your blog for the mobile platform could be one of the best moves that you have done to make your blog reader friendly and successful. Although this may mean that you may have to spend some time to install some plugins, the end result would be amazing.

Finally, the most successful blogs out there are the ones that are unique and can be navigated and read easily by both the mobile and the computer devices.

How Facebook Was Changed By Its IPO

On the afternoon of Thursday, 17th May 2012, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially opened the Facebook IPO, making it one of the biggest publicly traded companies. The company priced the IPO at $38 per share, making its market value just over $100 billion. However, the staying power of Facebook remains to be seen and how the IPO (initial public offering) will affect the company and its future.

Although the IPO will make Zuckerberg and FB investors and employee’s billionaires and millionaires, what happens to the public? Will a publicly listed company affect the average person who wants to know what is happening with their family and friends?

If anyone asked me whether I would invest in Facebook, my answer would be in the negative, because it just is too risky. Although they may have a fantastically smart man on top, at the end of the day it is just another techie company. Because you never know what can happen with such techie companies, it’s either up or down, there are no middle levels and hence I just wouldn’t risk and put any money on them. Perhaps, for a short-term investment, it might turn out good.

Personally, I feel that here are a few ways that users may experience the change firsthand.

Less privacy and more ad revenue: In order to increase its ad revenue, FB would have to compromise on its user privacy and improve its ad platform. If done correctly, ads should not overwhelm the content and the potential is virtually unlimited. Alternately, if taken too far, the results could be disastrous. They have to figure out a way to advertise without compromising privacy.

The mobile platform: Currently the mobile users account nearly for 50% of the Facebook user base. However, FB is unable to generate any revenue from its mobile platform. In other words, it has to monetize it. If not done properly, it could end up with a lot of annoying adverts instead of enhancing user interaction.

Facebook-generated content: If done properly, Facebook-generated content has tremendous potential than the current user-generated content. Facebook has the possibility to enter markets that are dominated by the likes of Craigslist and Groupon.

Then there are others who are dead convinced that Facebook will crash and may not be able to reinvent themselves. Their only USP seems to be gathering control of someone else’s web presence. As a result, this could lead to them being alienated. Another factor is that Facebook does not have a tangible product and hence there is no prospect of a long-term revenue model. Of course, Facebook has solid hidden potential, which they have not used. Having private information of nearly 1 billion is not a joke. In other words, it has the private information of 14% of the people who habitat this planet.

Now being public, Facebook has to develop new products to generate revenue from those potential 1 billion users. In my view, Facebook is not a bubble, but $100 Billion valuation is a bubble. As stated by experts, I feel that the Facebook stock will continue to go down. Once the dust settles on the Facebook IPO, I reckon that their stock would possibly range around $12 to $25 per share. This is of course if the world does not end by 2012.

AppNeta Announces The Launch Of SpeedChecker

AppNeta, the top cloud-delivered service provider for performance management, recently announced the launch of SpeedChecker, a free and accurate internet speed testing tool. According to the officials from AppNeta, it is the only absolutely accurate, free, and continuous internet speed testing tool available in the market today.

SpeedChecker is powered by “AppNeta PathView Cloud network performance management service” that provides more intelligent and accurate approach towards testing the speed and performance of network connection.

AppNeta prides in providing the industry with a more lightweight and intelligent approach for continuously monitoring and measuring the performance of network connection so that end-users can have the confidence on the results, and resolve the performance problems more efficiently and quickly. AppNeta is a leading Information Technology performance management service provider, offering first cloud-delivered solutions for end-to-end, integrated visibility across applications and network connections.

Being a pioneering provider of cloud-delivered services for enhanced performance management, this new application is expected to guide the users with historical performance data whenever a performance problem arises. It can accurately and efficiently test the speed of internet connectivity from multiple sources, enhancing performance management and problem solving in an effective manner.

With network structures becoming more intricate, slow internet connections are becoming an increasingly painful problem across organizations. Often, end users fail to get the maximum performance and speed from internet service providers in lieu of what they are paying. With SpeedChecker, users can quickly and accurately test how effective and fast, the network connection is from the user’s computer, location, and network to independent multiple, high-speed targets.

The existing internet speed checking tools are too much dependent on end-to-end network latency, and hence, require several speed testing locations to run more effectively. However, SpeedChecker from AppNeta does not depend on network latency, and allows the end users to get more relevant and accurate results, which are not affected by the test location. The tool not only tells about how fast the internet connection is at any point of time, but also delivers;

• Ongoing internet speed checking tests for multiple sources for simple performance evaluation and verification

• Continuous monitoring of internet connectivity speed and performance

• Visual Performance Charts including important elements like latency, bandwidth capacity, utilized bandwidth, available bandwidth, and data loss.

SpeedChecker performs in the way of continuously sending out data packets from the client computer, at the rate of about 20 packets every minute. Once the data packets are sent, the tool then calculates how much time it takes for the data to reach target destination, and what time it takes for the data to bounce back from the destination computer to the client computer. With this new and effective tool, AppNeta aims at improving the performance and productivity without having to waste any time on slow internet connections.

Unlike other free internet speed testing tools in the market, SpeedChecker truly delivers accurate and easy solution to test the speed and performance of client internet connection.

Synergex International Corporation Announces Launch of KitaroDB 1.0, The Highly-Scalable, Fast and Efficient NoSQL Database

Synergex International Corporation, the top business application and technology solution provider recently announced the launch of KitaroDB 1.0, a free and highly-scalable NoSQL database that natively runs on .NET environments, WinRT, and Win32. It is an efficient and fast data store that can support intrusive keys and key-value pairs, and can be successfully used across diverse platforms in Microsoft.


Designed particularly to be used by C, C#, C++, HTML5, JavaScript, and VB developers, KitaroDB 1.0 is efficient in conducting ten thousand operations every second. Popularly known as Synergy ISAM or Synergy DBMS to the professional DBL developers, this robust and highly-scalable database system is successfully used by more than 1 million users and over thousand companies every day. From medical industry to the banking institutions, ERP solutions to timeshare and resort operations, KitaroDB is a highly efficient NoSQL database system that is running unobtrusively and successfully across end-users.

KitaroDB was launched in the year 1985, and since then, Synergex has continuously enhanced and updated the cross-platform database to release the latest KitaroDB 1.o version, which is more efficient, faster and highly scalable than its predecessor. The key features of Synergex KitaroDB are that it is;

• Proven and established commercial database

• Easy to use interface for C, C#, C++, VB, HTML5 and JavaScript developers

• Has 100 TB storage capacity

• Has synchronous and asynchronous operations

• Has large sector drive support and consumes less than 1 megabyte of memory resource

• Has superior flexibility with intrusive key database or key/value data store

• Has minimal overheads and can handle close to 10,000 operations every second.

KitaroDB 1.0 has APIs for .NET CLR and Win32, in addition to WinRT environment. For development, this database system requires Visual Studio 2010, or to be more specific, ‘Visual Studio 2010 C Runtime libraries and .NET Framework 4.0.’ Certain additional updates have also been made to the version, with the most important one being intrusive key support. Users and developers can now have 255 keys, defined particularly in any provided data file. The package also supports segmented keys.

According to the officials, the developers can use the database system for storing data in any format that fits best to any situation, use the key mechanism when a rigid structure applies, and use key-value pair capabilities to save data that is retrieved via web service. The full product is available for download online. There are plans for future launch of KitaroDB versions for Linux and several other platforms, specialized server edition, and support for data records larger than 64K.

With launch of KitaroDB 1.0, Synergex also introduced open source application powered by KitaroDB.

KitaroDB 1.0 will now allow the developers to incorporate local data storage for different applications that may be lost if internet connectivity fails. Moreover, the data store remains in the same format as they would expect, thus, delivering less coding and lesser errors, he added.

With more than 35 years of professional experience, Synergex International Corporation has driven business applications and commerce across the world with high-performance technology solutions.

Cloudscaling Announces Delivery Of Its First Production-Grade Elastic Cloud Infrastructure System

Cloudscaling plans to unveil the new upgrade at OpenStack Summit to be held in San Diego this week.

As reported by the officials, OCS 2.0 will raise the bar of production-grade elastic cloud infrastructure, and will be accompanied by Cloudscaling’s leading 24/7 operational support. The new upgrade version will be the first-of-its-kind elastic cloud solution that will deliver superior performance, agility, and economic benefits of large public cloud providers, but will be only deployable in the datacenter of the client, under the control of the IT team.

In addition to thus, OCS 2.0 version is expected to be the first private cloud solution that will deliver cloud operation focused enhancements and complex IT management that will transform OpenStack from a mere component of technology to a complete sale-engineered, production-grade cloud infrastructure system.

Officials reported that key features of this latest OCS version include “on-demand compute, block storage, object storage, networking, scale-out edge, core, and block networking services, private to public cloud integration options, advanced security features, intelligent resource scheduling, cloud topology management, and modular hardware reference designs that speed time to deployment and increase reliability.”

OCS is considered to be the first elastic cloud solution that delivers the benefits of high-performance elastic public cloud in client’s datacenter. In addition to delivering the key benefits of an elastic public cloud system as a high-performance private cloud solution, OCS, for the first time, delivers the key federation capabilities that enable the clients to better manage dynamic cloud applications across supported public cloud services and private elastic cloud systems like GCE and AWS. The federation between public and private clouds will be managed more efficiently by the new version of OCS Cloud Application Manager.

OCS version 2.0 brings in new and innovative features and high performance production-grade capabilities that were earlier unavailable in the OpenStack-based cloud solutions. Officials reported that production grade refers to the ability of a cloud system to support operational environments that require critical cloud operations and high up-time features and is contrast to simple OpenStack deployments, which are better suited for development and testing.

The key features of production-grade cloud infrastructure are availability, performance, maintainability, and security.

Michael Grant, chief executive officer of Cloudscaling today said that companies wanted a private elastic cloud infrastructure that can not only be used for production but also had the support of an active open source community. They also wanted something that is low-risk with less capital investment. OCS 2.0 is the response to their requirements which will address all the customer needs through a single product.

Cloudscaling is a pioneering elastic cloud infrastructure company, offering scalable, reliable and production-grade Open Cloud System available to build elastic clouds.

What Makes The New Base CRM Mobile Apps Different From Others ?

The Base CRM apps have become popular not only because of their productivity and flexibility, but also because of the intellectual factor that these apps bring in. The mobile device based customer relation management (CRM) applications from Base make sure that they provide only the most accurate outcome for the users.

Base is a Chicago-based (sic) company that was founded sometime in 2009 by Uzi Shmilovici. It is a cross platform CRM product that is geared towards small businesses. Base offers applications to the iPhone, Android phone, Windows and the Mac and allows businesses manage their sales and customers from wherever they are. They shortly plan to release tablet and Windows Phone 7.5 application. Base has so far raised closed to $7 million through Series B funding that consists of Index Ventures with Social + Capital Partnership, OCA Ventures and the I2A Fund.

What makes the Base CRM apps different is the fact that it has used the most modern web and mobile device technology to provide their services. Most of the traditional tools for customer relation management were developed years ago for the computers and the web use. However, with the rising use of mobile devices and internet in them, the old computer and browser based applications are finding it hard to match up with the expectations. This is why many companies prefer to use Base CRM apps as these tools are developed to work on multiple mobile devices with ease. These apps can be used from any mobile device and from anywhere.

Just like the apps for the smart phones, Base CRM apps are released recently for the Android tablets and iPad. The apps are developed to be more flexible and intelligent in terms of usability. Just like the phone apps, these tablet Base CRM apps come with a range of great services for the users. These apps offer easy methods to track and capture sales leads. The apps also show the sales leads in visual forms. The contacts of the device can be managed with more options like reminder and tasks. Sending emails or using Google apps is also possible with Base.

According to the Base blog, there is a distinct difference in the feature updates a mobile CRM provider makes when compared to a desktop or SaaS service. This is one of the reasons why more traditional players are having issues with the move to mobile. However, the Base CRM apps for mobile devices are designed differently than the ones that can be used in a desktop PC. This is the main reason why the Base CRM apps for the mobile devices have become more trusted than the other app developers. Another reason is that the traditional apps lack in ideas. According to the CRM and mobile app experts, it’s very disturbing and surprising that most of the large PC and web based developers of CRM apps have missed out on the point of required changes when providing services for mobile devices. It is here where the Base CRM apps win hands down.

A study of the traditional customer relation management apps shows that they lack the use of their developing code. They are stuck with the codes used at the time of the development of their apps. This makes it harder for them to cope up with the modern needs of the users, and that’s exactly where Base CRM apps make all the difference. Base CRM apps are designed for the users, keeping in mind what they need and how they use the apps with more command. Most of the apps in the market today are unable to make sure of that because they use complicated systems.

Base is also designing a community for the CRM apps developers, which is surely a great news for the future. CRM is getting a new meaning with Base.

Top Five Automobile Repair Tips That Reduces Maintenance Expenses

In the U.S., the consumer’s automobile collision repair bill is estimated at $40 billion every year. The first fear that comes to mind of the consumer if the car has had a small scratch or a huge dent is the expense bill that the consumer has to face in fixing this, or the tiresome task involved in repairing. To remove this fear, AutoMD (http://www.AutoMD.com) has released the below five tips in celebration with the National Collision Awareness month.

AutoMD.com President Shane Evangelist has gone ahead and said that these simple body repair tips add up to potentially huge cost savings for car owners, whether they are DIYing or going to the repair shop. Of course, the best way to avoid these expenses is to carefully drive following the road rules and regulations and steer clear of collisions.

The top five auto repair tips are as follows:

1. Evaluate and verify the auto labor rates
Auto repair shops usually have two set of labor rates, one for mechanical and the other for body repairs. So make sure to evaluate the labor rates in nearby auto repair shops before getting the work done. Also, double check the bill and verify that you are paying the correct rate for the work. Many garage’s prefix their rates for different tasks. AutoMD’s Shop Finder helps to make a comparative rate study in the nearby shops.

2. Opt for paintless dent repair (PDR)
In cases where the repair is little, paintless dent repair (PDR) would be the best option. There are highly skilled technicians who can repair dents without the tedious tasks of sanding, filler and painting. This reduces the repair cost considerably.

3. Self help for small vehicle damages
Avoid going to the auto repair shops for small scratches. Instead try and obtain your car’s color code and get the right color so that it can be touched-up quickly so as to prevent rusting. Cars with minor scratches can be sand papered using fine sandpaper and soap water and then rubbed down using a rubbing compound to blend the final finish.

4. Replace new parts for the heavily damaged areas
If the damages are heavy, then replace it with new parts as it is more cost effective than repairing. This can be done by the consumer himself instead of going to the auto repair shop. DIY’s (Do it yourselfers) can save money and replace damaged parts by going online and locating replacement parts or from accessing AutoMD How-To-Guides.

5. Use products to avoid damage
Today’s market has number of products which is used to prevent damage to the vehicle like bumper protectors and door damage protectors. Use these products to reduce dents, dings, scratches and other types of damage.