Coleman Technologies Blog

Modern VR Systems

After nearly 30 years of development, VR has been adopted by a miniscule number of companies. It has, for the most part, made the biggest difference in the entertainment industry, where Samsung and Google have a lot of influence. Sony has also established itself as a major player in the VR gaming industry with its Playstation 4. In terms of business, however, these options aren’t necessarily feasible of beneficial.

Two of the most competitive options in the commercial virtual reality space are the HTC Vive (and Vive Pro) and the Oculus Rift. Oculus is owned by Facebook and has led in VR sales, while the HTC Vive and Vive Pro provides a platform for high-end computing systems that are capable of using VR. These two systems work together to provide high-end VR experiences, even if it’s mostly for gaming.

These VR options give users the ability to bring themselves into a virtual world, thus providing developers with great opportunities to build out software to capitalize on it. The applications built in VR give users the opportunity to explore the earth and space in a way that can immerse them in a simulated reality.

The Immediate Future of VR

The future of VR is leaning more in the direction of reality; unlike great journeys or expeditions to places like the moon or the bottom of the sea, VR will be used to create educational resources and training software.

Some manufacturers have already begun to anticipate this shift, using services like Microsoft’s Mixed Reality (MR) devices with hopes of business integration in 2020 a possibility. While not true virtual reality, this platform integrates virtual elements into reality, providing business professionals with great new options to achieve their goals. It’s safe to say that businesses will find some use for these virtual sandboxes to either improve performance or work out daring new ways to accomplish tasks.

What are your thoughts on VR? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

Artificial Intelligence
AI might be primitive in a lot of ways at the moment, but this doesn’t mean that it’s not growing in popularity. Machines can get smarter the way that humans do when they perform the same function several times, but unlike humans, machines don’t have various emotions to hold them back. Here are a few ways that a business can leverage AI to its advantage:

• Processing large amounts of data
• Personalizing customer experiences
• Operational automation
• Security
• Predicting demand
• And more

Businesses might have expensive operational issues that demand AI-integrated solutions to handle them, thus expanding the market and allowing for rapid adoption. Automation in particular is being adopted at an alarming rate, and this is driving the demand for artificial intelligence.

Blockchain
Blockchain has been making headlines in the news, fueled by the cryptocurrency fads that have utilized the technology. Blockchain creates a public ledger that is distributed rather than centralized, with each block storing all of the data that is relevant to a transaction. Once this data is captured, it can’t be altered without changing all data that has come afterward. This presents considerable data security benefits.

Some businesses hope to use this increased security to their benefit using a more distributed system. The more people who utilize the blockchain, the more we learn about it, meaning more tools are created to help organizations leverage the blockchain. Here are some of the ways that organizations can utilize the blockchain:

• Managing supply chains
• Identity management
• Recordkeeping & archiving
• Data security
• And more

Blockchain is so popular that even Oracle’s head of blockchain development claims that half of businesses will find a use for blockchain in the next three years.

5G
The past 40 years have shown that wireless technology has a lot of opportunity to improve. Wireless broadband will see an increase from the 4G used today to 5G. In fact, it could potentially change the world. Data speeds could reach as high as 1GB/second or higher, giving many businesses access to the following benefits:

• Faster speeds
• Reduced Latency
• Greater Capacity
• Improved Battery Life
• And more

Innovation will drive businesses to adopt faster technologies than ever before, and Qualcomm has found that 5G will become a “general purpose technology” in the near future, used so much that it will be akin to electricity or vehicles.

Virtual Reality
The consensus is that virtual reality is pretty neat, but not practical in the business environment. Unfortunately, this is far from the actual reality of the situation, as hardware and software advances have given organizations the means to use virtual reality in ways previously unheard of. VR is great for immersing users in virtual environments that can be used for practically any purpose, including training simulations, talent management, product design, and shared experience.

What are some other emerging technologies that you think will be helpful for businesses in the near future? Let us know in the comments.

OLED Foldable Screens
Compared to the traditional light-emitting diode (LED) displays, OLED devices are a step in the right direction. LED technology works by emitting light from the electricity that circulates through it (a process called electroluminescence). The electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of this light varies depending on how the photons cross the energy gap of the semiconductor.

OLED displays work through an electroluminescent anode that is made of an organic compound situated between two electrodes. The electrodes move and recombine, emitting light through the organic layer. OLED displays deeper black levels that aid in image contrast. These devices can be made much thinner and more flexible than your traditional LED devices.

Over the past five years, manufacturers have made considerable progress toward OLED displays. Some have utilized passive matrix designs or active matrix designs to great effect. The major difference between these two is that PMOLED has control over each line of pixels sequentially, whereas AMOLED displays have a transistor that accesses pixel function directly.

Bendable Displays
The organic compounds in the OLED anode allows for a much easier manipulation compared to other designs, as long as the transistor used to carry the energy is flexible, too. Once this was confirmed to work as intended, scientists had to find a substrate layer that could flex without breaking. This is why glass isn’t used in flexible screens. Some particularly flexible OLED displays contain a plastic substrate that gives them strength and flexibility required to become a foldable device.

Foldable Options
Motorola and Apple have rumored to be producing foldable smartphones in the near future, but there are others that are taking more immediate advantage of this technology. Here are a few of them.

Samsung Galaxy Fold
https://youtu.be/7r_UgNcJtzQ

In just a week, on April 26th, 2019, the Samsung Fold will become the first foldable smartphone to reach the U.S. This device can reach 5G speeds and sports an impressive foldable screen. The screen unfolded reaches 7.3 inches with a dynamic AMOLED display, while it reaches 4.6 inches folded with a super AMOLED display on the front of the phone. The innards are also quite impressive, featuring a 64-bit octa-core processor with 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of internal storage, and a 4,380 mAh battery.

Huawei Mate X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_c2KGtZP64

Chinese manufacturer Huawei is providing a foldable smartphone in the form of the Huawei Mate X. The foldable display isn’t actually protected, but it is used in a way that differs considerably from the other options. With a foldable component that wraps around the device, the Mate X has a viewfinder that helps with taking pictures. This means that there is no need for a front-facing camera on this device. Other specs for this device include a Kirin 980 octa-core processor with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of onboard storage. This device also has a 4,500 mAh battery with a 55W fast charging standard. This product will be available in the near future, so keep an eye out for it if foldable screens are what you’re looking for in a device.

What do you think about OLED technology? What about foldable screens? Let us know in the comments.

The fact of the matter is that universities have a lot of industry-specific technology that goes into making a functional institution of higher education, and that’s without mentioning secure access to student records, maintaining the productivity suites in computer labs, and providing intuitive smart technology for better lectures. We know a guy who’s well-versed in the types of solutions utilized by institutions of higher education, and we think you might find what he has to say to be interesting.

Degree Progress Management
Each student that is matriculated into a degree program has to complete a set of requisite courses. These courses will vary drastically from program to program, but the fact remains that each student must complete these requirements if they hope to graduate with a degree. Some programs have electives (any course the student wants) or selectives (any course from a selected group of classes), which complicates the process of choosing classes and opens up the door for students to take courses that don’t necessarily fulfill their degree requirements.

To minimize the risk of this happening, real-time degree progress can be viewed through programs like DegreeWorks. This program can show students, faculty, and staff advisors how many credits and courses must be completed by a student, as well as which classes fulfill specific requirements. Students can even process “what if” reports, which can show them how their degree progress is affected by something like changing their major.

Student Retention
It’s not a stretch to say that some students enter higher education underprepared for the increased workload. Whether it’s because of students not knowing how to access the proper resources, needing educational supplements like tutors, or simply requiring a support system that the student doesn’t have at home or on-campus, student retention and persistence can be a challenge for many institutions.

In an effort to improve these statistics, student retention software can be used by faculty and staff to assign flags, create to-do lists, and make appointments with students who are in need of assistance or support. In this way, the support structure that many students need to succeed is both accessible and informative for them.

Online Learning
In today’s increasingly-connected world, online learning has become a viable alternative to traditional, or synchronous, learning. When we say “synchronous,” we mean the traditional lecture style of education, in which a student must be physically present in the classroom to participate in discussions. Asynchronous learning, which is significantly less structured and more of an “at your own pace” approach to education, has provided students with limited time and geographic resources an opportunity to learn at their own pace in a less structured environment.

Depending on the institution, the online learning application might be something like BlackBoard, Angel, or Brightspace, rebranded to suit the proprietary needs of the university. Either way, the end result is generally the same. Online learning uses a centralized environment for all of a student’s learning needs, providing access to message boards, learning modules, grade books, open educational resources, and so much more.

Again, we understand that not all of our readers have stakes in the education sector; we just wanted to share some interesting solutions that are used by professionals in this industry. Are there any other industries you want to learn more about? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for more great technology-related blogs.

To begin, we have to say that anyone that is talking about 5G as a selling point for any product or service in early 2019, you are looking at a marketing strategy. As the year goes on, however, we will be getting the first 5G networks and devices that can run on them. So, while it is true that some 5G wireless networks will be online in 2019, the lion’s share of networks will be using the same wireless platform that you’ve had for the past decade.

Fourth Generation

In December 2009, 4G wireless broadband networks went online for the first time, with the U.S. finally getting 4G LTE in June of 2010. Much like 5G will be for us, 4G was a revelation for mobile consumers of the time. At the time, 3G networks were doing 200 kilobits-to-five megabits per second and boosting to 4G’s 100 megabits-to-a-gigabit per second is a huge jump. It allowed for cloud computing and streaming media to be possible, and opened up a massive market for mobile applications, and devices that could handle these applications. The effect 4G had on society was massive.

Fifth Generation

Like the 4G networks before it, 5G networks will improve bandwidth speed, reduce latency, and provide a whole new layer of application support. It will effectively bring office Internet speeds to mobile devices. With speeds up to 100 gigabits per second, the 5G connection will be nearly 1,000 times faster than current 4G speeds. This will make any streaming communications seamless and give application developers a whole new construct to work in, improving mobile computing with each new innovation. To put this into perspective, with a solid 5G connection, you could, in theory, download a full movie in a few seconds

This gives people better network stability to ensure that business-critical mobile functions are reliable and has the speeds necessary to provide users the digital tools they need to be productive anywhere they are. The problem many organizations (and individuals) will have is that with this amazing upgrade, when your area gets 5G (Verizon has announced they are launching their 5G the second week in April in Minnesota and Chicago) you will have to get a phone that is capable of working with the new 5G networks. Thus far here is the list:

• Samsung Galaxy s10 5G
• LG v50 ThinQ
• Huawei Mate X
• ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G
• Unnamed OnePlus 5G Smartphone

That’s it. No Apple version. No Eurpoean version. In fact, of these phones, the Galaxy s10 5G is the only one that will be available in the United States at the time of Verizon’s 5G launch in April.

Also, Verizon is also making available a 5G mod for the Moto z3 for $50. The retail price comes in at a cool $349.99 if it isn’t purchased in the promotional period.

Users should also know that if they are lucky enough to get access to a 5G network, they will be forced to pay extra for access to it. The price currently is an additional $120 per year on Verizon, other Telecoms haven’t announced a true 5G pricing strategy, even though most of them have rolled out some products claiming to have 5G capabilities on handsets that only offer 4G LTE speeds. As we stated above, these are marketing ploys.

Do you plan on using 5G when it’s rolled out? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. If you would like to know more information about the technology behind 5G subscribe to our blog today.

New Gestures
The latest version of Android OS contains a built-in new gesture navigation system, but it might not be turned on automatically. To turn this on, go to Settings > System > Gestures. Then you must tap on Swipe on Home Button and press the on-screen toggle switch. You will see the change propagate almost immediately--the three-icon setup will change to a singular pill-shaped icon.

Navigation isn’t much different from the other builds, either. Tap the pill icon to bring back the homescreen and long press it to bring up your Google Assistant. You can then swipe up twice or long-swipe from the home icon to bring up your app drawer.

Another change that needed to occur is that Android 9.0 Pie removes the dedicated button for recent applications. Users now need to singular short swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open up a carousel gallery that shows all recently opened apps. You can then navigate by swiping between apps or using the home icon to swipe fast-left or right to move through the apps more quickly. To clear the apps, swipe up on the specific app window. To clear all of the apps, just scroll all the way to the left and tap the Clear All button to exit out of all running applications.

Android 9.0 Pie actually tries to predict what you’re likely to need next. These commands are within the apps. If you find it useful, you can drag these suggestions, found at the top of your app drawer, onto the screen. You can then find the shortcuts offered by each app by long-pressing the specific application’s icon. This includes opening an application in split-screen mode, a considerable improvement from Android 8.0 Oreo.

Device Notes
One extremely useful feature for smartphone users is the ability to open your device using a fingerprint scanner, but an even better one is when you can use the scanner on devices that don’t feature an in-display fingerprint reader to keep your screen from turning off.

The alarm clock in Android 9.0 provides some additional functionality. When your notification panel is open (swipe down from the top), you only need to tap on the clock in the system tray to open your clock app and manage the alarms.

What do you think about Android 9.0? What are your favorite features? Let us know in the comments.

Today, we’ll be discussing some of the best IT solutions for professional services.

Software as a Service
The cloud has brought about a revolution in the way professional service firms think about and manage their software applications. Software as a Service, or SaaS for short, is the delivery of software through the cloud for a monthly fee. SaaS is usually billed per user, and it includes solutions such as Office 365 and G Suite. Software developers have created solutions that can be deployed through the cloud, providing many industries with cloud-based software that is built specifically for their needs.

Mobile Solutions
Mobility can open up a lot of doors for any business. For a professional services firm, there is more to consider, though. Many of these professional service providers need to consider federal, state, and industry requirements that demand additional layers of security for sending and receiving data. Therefore, the benefit of adding mobility to an infrastructure needs to be approached with considerable caution, as data security must be prioritized.

One of the best solutions to this dilemma is a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN provides a layer of encryption around your communications between mobile devices and the central network infrastructure for your organization. This added security protects data while it’s in transit. It’s also a great solution for a business that wants to limit its use of paper records in favor of a more digital solution.

Document Management
Having access to information gives professionals the ability to stay connected to clients and other resources as needed, whether they are in the office or not. A document management system is the ideal way to digitally store and access files in a database; and trust us when we say it is much easier to find a document in a database compared to digging it out of a filing cabinet.

Professional technicians can scan an organization’s paper files through the use of a special software to deposit them inside a database in the form of PDF files. This database and a Relational database management system give an end user the ability to search the DMS for keywords found in the documents. All of this is accessible to users through an Internet connection, making it both accessible and convenient.

Through combining DMS with a VPN and SaaS offerings, professional services companies can achieve unprecedented security and data access. To learn more about how your organization can take advantage of these tools, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

If your business is still leveraging these titles, the clock is ticking. In order to avoid the considerable difficulties that losing support brings, you need to update your solutions very soon.

What Does SQL Server 2008 Do?

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 functions as a relational database management system (RDBMS), which means it is used to securely manage how a business’ data is stored, retrieved, and accessed. Not just a little data, either… a lot of data.

This only makes sense - why would you need a database in the first place, after all? Simple - to store a lot of data that you have (or expect to have), which also means you need a means of managing this data that is capable of integrating with the applications you use. An RDBMS can provide that means.

As SQL Server 2008 has been Microsoft’s database management software solution, and with Microsoft’s solutions supporting most of the world’s enterprise servers, this retirement has the potential to affect a lot of businesses. If yours has been utilizing either version of SQL Server 2008, you need to upgrade soon, or your business may be put in a tight spot.

The Progression of this EOL

As July 9 approaches, these versions of SQL Server 2008 draw closer to losing support. While mainstream support was actually ended in July of 2014, these solutions will finally be fully put to rest precisely five years later. Once this happens, any organization that did not upgrade would be vulnerable effectively immediately, at risk of security breaches and data loss. Furthermore, a business that experiences these issues then has to cope with the damage to its reputation, an after-effect that often leads the business’ failure.

What You Can Do

You have to work fast to upgrade your database management system. Coleman Technologies can help. We can introduce you to solutions that are far superior to the ones available in 2008, with improved integrations and intelligent systems. Sure, you could host a new RDBMS locally, but you could also leverage cloud-based database management, potentially bringing even greater speeds to your business.

Regardless of what you choose to replace it with, you need to ensure that your SQL Server is migrated by July 8, 2019. This is the only way to be sure that one of your business’ most crucial assets is protected by the adequate level of data protection and security. Again, we can help you equip your business for success. All you have to do is call us at (604) 513-9428.

3D Displays
Remember that craze with the 3D movies? Manufacturers have been trying to keep people excited about 3D technology for a long time, but it has met with little long-term success. Content creators simply can’t commit to a 3D capture or post production process. A significant lack of content, combined with consumers needing a silly pair of 3D glasses and the hardware required by the display, people just preferred to stick to what had been working in the past. High-definition displays can make 2D programming look astounding, and with such a small demand for 3D picture, the technology has been abandoned.

There have been talks about resurrecting the technology through what’s called Home3D. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has found a way to emulate the 3D experience without the embarrassing glasses, but without content made for 3D, you shouldn’t expect to see too much support for this technology anytime soon.

Smart Glasses
Smart glasses, like Google Glass, used to be a hot commodity, but they fell off everyone’s radar relatively quickly. While they initially were quite anticipated, there are very few smart glasses manufacturers left today. In 2012, Google Glass was being tested by several celebrities, but in today’s technology industry, there are maybe a handful of smart glasses manufacturers at the most. These companies still don’t have a clear idea of who would be the consumers for smart glasses, but they have learned that when it comes to this particular product, less is more.

One of the nails in the coffin for Google Glass was the invasion of privacy. While users might be able to come to terms with Google tracking what you say, buy, and do online, adding a camera to your glasses was simply too much for just about everyone. It was thought for a time that smart glasses could be a viable alternative to a smartphone, but the technologies behind the device simply haven’t been perfected to the point of proper implementation.

Virtual Reality
While virtual reality might be “available” today, people have been talking about it for upwards of 40 years. Other technologies being developed and discussed in the 1980s, like VHS and audio cassettes, have come and gone, but the idea of virtual reality lingers on. This is despite the fact that practical applications of VR are few and far between.

The primary use for virtual reality--gaming--has turned out to be a major failure so far. While there is some value in giving people the ability to share experiences online through VR, it hasn’t been a priority for developers, creating a similar situation to 3D technology. VR as a technology might not be completely dead in the water yet, but there isn’t much excitement out there for the technology--at least not to the point where it can be transformative (at this moment).

What are some of your favorite technologies that haven’t been as successful as you’d have liked them to be? Let us know in the comments.

Commercially available Internet services have been available since the early 1990s, but as broadband was being implemented, the Internet, and investment in the medium was strong. In an attempt to keep control of the Internet distributed among the people that utilize the service, and not massive corporations looking to gain control over it, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under chair Kathleen Abernathy adopted neutrality principles “to preserve and promote the vibrant and open character of the Internet as the telecommunications marketplace enters the broadband age” in 2005.

For seven years, lawmakers attempted to pass bills in Congress that would secure an open future for the Internet. All of these attempts failed, leaving the future of who would control the Internet up in the air. The fear was that ISPs, which are typically huge multinational conglomerates, would be able to control bandwidth with cost, as they do with their television services. Internet freedom advocates considered the price discrimination that would arise from “local monopolies enshrined in law” to be at the helm of what has proven to be the most remarkable invention in human history, counterproductive for the establishment of an open and useful construct.

Years of litigation followed. Cases such as Verizon Communications Inc. vs. FCC, which ruled that the FCC had no regulatory power over the Internet because it was, in fact, not actually a utility, and thus, governed under Title I of the Communications Act of 1934. Immediately after this ruling, the FCC took steps to reclassify Internet delivery services into a public utility, which are governed under Title II of the Act. In February of 2015, the classifications were officially challenged as voting members agreed that Internet services met the criteria of a utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and the more recent Telecommunications Act of 1996. In April of 2015 “net neutrality” was upheld by officially declaring Internet services as a utility. The rules officially went into effect the following June.

The “final rule” turned out to be short lived, however. In April of 2017, the FCC proposed to repeal the policies that governed net neutrality, and return control to the corporations that invest in and provide broadband services. The proposed changes were met with heavy consternation, with over 20 million people providing comments during the public discourse phase of the process. It was later found that millions of the comments made in support of net neutrality repeal were made fraudulently by foreign actors. Despite the overwhelming dissention of the mass of people, the FCC repealed the net neutrality policies and followed it with a hefty amount of propaganda material claiming that the decision was “restoring Internet freedom”. The repeal became official in June of 2018.

What Is Going on with Net Neutrality Now?
Almost immediately after the change was made there have been several lawsuits filed and they seem to keep coming. States, advocacy groups, neutrality lobbies, and companies have all started lawsuits against the FCC both for their handling of the situation and for the repeal of net neutrality itself.

One way to ascertain if it has been a benefit is by looking at the claims the FCC made before dismantling the mandate:

1. Net Neutrality is hindering broadband investment. In 2018 what is known as the Big Four--Verizon, AT&T, Charter, and Comcast--collectively spent less in broadband projects than they did in 2017. It was the first time in three years that investment has dropped.
2. It doesn’t make sense for ISPs to throttle Internet traffic. The Big Four reportedly slowed internet traffic without telling customers not more than six weeks after the repeal. Sites like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime were the most targeted. Verizon was especially culpable as it was found to slow data speeds that led to slower EMS response times; a major problem as firefighters were battling massive fires in California.

The issue isn’t totally devoid of common ground, however. Almost everyone believes that ISPs shouldn’t be able to flex their muscles, so to speak. One way this is happening is that there is a push to restore older FCC mandates that prohibited ISPs to enact anticompetitive and harmful practices. Basically, everyone wants a fast, open, and unobstructed Internet, but the disagreement, usually on party lines, is who is responsible for the regulation.

An extreme majority of people support net neutrality. Most people want to return oversight over the Internet to the bureaucracy, as they believe that corporations whose stated purpose is to make profit aren’t the best organizations to manage something as important as access to the Internet, despite being the companies that sell that access. Time will tell who is right.

If you would like to do something about it, go to https://www.battleforthenet.com/ and sign up. Do you believe market forces will keep ISPs honest, and the Internet open? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

It Gets the Job Done
You can’t share information about your goods, services, or business if you can’t get the consumer’s attention. Digital signage has the potential to outperform other traditional media types to catch the viewer’s attention. If you don’t have enough room for all of the displays you want to share, digital signage might be able to help you better capture the message you want the viewer to walk away with.

It Makes Your Audience More Patient
If you find yourself at a loss for words, you can instead let the digital signage do the talking in certain cases. In other words, if you have a lot to get done but not a lot of time, you can use your digital signage to distract your audience long enough to enact what you need to accomplish. This is especially true in customer-facing establishments. After all, everyone appreciates something to look at while they’re waiting.

It’s More Affordable
Digital signage might require a significant up-front investment, but it saves you money in the long term thanks to its ability to change to anything you want your sign to say. There are minimal costs of upkeep related to digital signage, with the only real one being the occasional software update and the image it will display. You’ll save not just money, but spacial costs associated with the signs. Your solution will pay for itself in the long run.

You don’t even need a special display of any kind--just a simple television with the right inputs will work the way you need it to. If you’re looking to get started with digital signage, Coleman Technologies can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Reason 1: Mobility
Let’s begin with the most obvious reason laptops are a great option - you aren’t tied to a desk to do your work as you would be with a conventional desktop. Instead, you can just pick it up and take it with you, whether that’s to a meeting on the other side of the office or home for some remote work. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone haul an entire desktop workstation around, but if you have, you know that it just isn’t practical to do.

Potentially travelling with a laptop is also much easier. A desktop workstation would need to be carefully stowed in a vehicle, if not shipped to its destination. While it may seem like a hassle at the airport, stowing a laptop in a carry-on is a much more secure and convenient option when all is said and done.

In short, utilizing a laptop makes a lot more sense in an increasingly mobile world than does utilizing its far less mobile cousin, the desktop.

Reason 2: Concision
If the resources are there, one might make the argument that it makes more sense to utilize both a desktop and a laptop - one for the office, and one for home and travel.

Financial considerations aside, there are other issues with this strategy. The major one is the fact that it makes it that much more complicated to ensure that everything you need is where you need it to be, when you need it to be there. There is little that is more professionally frustrating than sitting down to work and realizing that the data you need is on your other device. Hopefully, you have the access to the other device at the time to make the necessary transfer.

While properly utilizing a cloud solution would be another way to approach this difficulty, why use two devices when one will suffice? That way, you can be sure that your employees always have access to the programs and data that they need to be productive.

Reason 3: Consistency
One of the most important considerations for any office technology configuration to take into account is how compatible the many devices it contains are with each other, and the solutions needed to accomplish each day’s tasks. If each employee has a different device, not only is this no longer guaranteed, you have no guarantee that each laptop will have the same shortcuts and features. For instance, if you want to encrypt the data on laptops and allow your staff to sign in with a thumbprint scanner, not all models are equipped with that. Different devices don’t tend to change how complicated it is to manage the devices, but it can vary the experience your users have and limit the policies you can set.

Standardizing your office’s devices becomes much easier when everyone has the same device, which inherently means that everyone has the same capabilities in the office. Of course, if someone needs their device to have more specialized capabilities, they should be the exception. However, for the run-of-the-mill tasks that many are responsible for, the average laptop should suit them just fine.

If you want more help in designing your technology infrastructure and setting it up for prolonged productivity, reach out to Coleman Technologies. One call to (604) 513-9428 is all it takes to start receiving the technology services that you need for success!

An infographic by Newsweaver suggests that businesses rely on smartphones for many reasons. Here are just a few of them:

• One out of five employees for large organizations are equipped to work away from their desks.
• As of 2013, three out of five small businesses in the United States have a Bring Your Own Device policy in place.
• By 2020, four out of five small businesses will have a Bring Your Own Device policy in place.
• One out of five businesses have found that mobile workstyles have resulted in productivity increases of over 30%.

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to provide the tools needed for your employees to be productive, whether it’s an application or a mobile device. After all, if you don’t provide your employees with the technology to be successful, they will find other ways to make productivity happen. This could mean them finding their own solutions, opening the floodgates to malware and other data disasters. Any devices used by your business should adhere to its BYOD policy and monitored to ensure they aren’t lost or stolen, along with the data on them.

To this end, we recommend you work with your employees to find the tools they need to be most productive in the workplace. Collect their feedback and apply the knowledge you gain to your business’s current technology situation. Here are some ideas for solutions to consider:

• Productivity suite software like Microsoft Office and Google’s G Suite
• Your email client
• Cloud storage
• Voice over Internet Protocol for telephony and communication
• Instant messaging
• Project management
• Collaboration suites

Coleman Technologies can help your business equip itself with all of the best technology solutions for mobile communications and productivity. For more information, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

The Pros
There is more than one application and way to use automation. While the uses are more general than specific, they can be applied to several different kinds of goals or processes, whether it’s customer service or data processing. In this sense, automation can be used in a pretty universal way.

Efficiency
It’s obvious that certain processes take a considerable amount of time to complete, but if they are handled by automated systems, they can be completed much more efficiently than before. In other words, since you don’t have to focus on these tasks, you can instead devote the time to something else entirely. This effectively adds more time to the workday by removing routine tasks that can be handled by an automatic process.

Minimizing Repetition
If someone has to do the same task over and over again, they are doomed to lose interest and make mistakes. If these tasks don’t require focus, then the employees will likely let their mind wander, and productivity can suffer. This makes even a quick task more likely to be repeated multiple times, making it less likely to yield a return on the investment. Automation makes it more convenient and less risky to leave monotonous tasks to employees. Trust us when we say employees will thank you for taking these tasks off their plate and freeing up their schedule for others.

Convenience
When someone reaches out to your business, it’s likely they need your help with something, and they need it fast. If you can’t provide it on a convenient time frame, chances are they will take their needs elsewhere. Automation gives them the ability to get help from a chatbot or other similar automated system without the need to staff someone at all times to address immediate needs. This gives you a better chance at being able to respond to their needs when they reach out to your organization.

Potential Cons
Automation might be quite helpful for businesses, but there are some issues that should be addressed in order to ensure it doesn’t become a liability for your business. For example, some processes are simply too complex for a machine to handle in the same way a human brain can. Most automated systems are limited by design, thus ensuring that they will be limited to the task assigned to them. After all, an automated system’s purpose isn’t being fulfilled if you have to provide constant feedback to it. Here are some ways you can make sure the faults of automation sting less:

• Use automation sparingly: Some of the services that could be automated likely don’t need to be. This is particularly true for more complex issues. Consider that many of the people who contact your business have a point of contact within your organization and regular requests, meaning that working with a human might not be such a bad thing if they are available at that time. In this way, automation supplements human contact rather than replaces it.
• Have employees direct the automation: If an automation system can’t perform a task on its own, having employees direct it during more complex tasks can work to mitigate the issue. A complicated request can be made, but still processed and understood with the right direction.
• Ingrate your automation: You don’t want to stop processes midway. As long as your automation is well-designed and thought-out, tasks can be integrated with automation to ensure they are handled in the most complete way possible.

What are some ways your organization can benefit from automation? Let us know in the comments.

Threat Background
This botnet was initially discovered in September. Since then, it has infected devices to support a huge spam email campaign. BCMUPnP_Hunter is able to zero-in on victims thanks to its ability to scan for potential targets, like routers with the BroadCom University Plug and Play feature enabled. The system can then be taken over by the hacker.

It is assumed that the network created by BCMUPnP_Hunter was created to send out spam emails. The threat creates a proxy that communicates with email servers, allowing attackers to use botnets to generate profit through fraudulent clicks. What’s more is that the malware seems to have been created by someone who has a considerable amount of skill. To make things worse is that BCMUPnP_Hunter also appears to scan from over 100,000 sources, making this botnet quite large.

How Does This Prove That Patches Aren’t Working?
In order for BCMUPnP_Hunter to work as intended, it must target devices that have BroadcomUPnP enabled to take advantage of a vulnerability. The thing is that this vulnerability has been patched since 2013 when it was first discovered, meaning that most manufacturers have issued a patch since then. Therefore, the majority of devices being used by this threat are those that haven’t been patched for some reason or another.

The Lesson Learned
A simple lesson can be learned here. It goes to show that any equipment on your infrastructure that’s not maintained could be putting your business at risk. This includes making sure that you implement patches and security updates as soon as they are released. Of course, they aren’t always broadcast to the public--after all, who would want to admit that the product they have created is vulnerable to attack, and that the vulnerability is being exploited? As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep up with the latest threats.

Granted, not all business owners have the time or luxury to focus on something like this. For those who want to minimize the threat posed by vulnerabilities, give the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428.

The Development of the PDF
The PDF is best known for promoting the sharing of information as it was created. A PDF looks the same whether it is in digital format or if it is printed to paper, no matter what OS is being used. Before this format was created, sharing information between the two was extremely difficult, but in 1990, Adobe co-founder John Warnock wrote a paper titled A Camelot Project, in which he described the limitations of sharing information. He would go on to found Team Camelot, the group of software developers that created the PDF, a file that can be universally shared across all computing platforms.

At first, however, it held very little utility as users had to purchase Adobe Acrobat in order to use the file type. Team Camelot, however, built additional functionality as the Internet got more popular, and as its utility increased, it was eventually adopted by the International Organization for Standardization and opened up to the masses.

Advantages of the PDF
Nowadays, there are multiple types of PDFs, and their utility is tied to their makeup. The types are as follows:

• Digitally Created PDFs - PDF files created in a digital environment, whatever that environment might be (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, etc.). These PDFs are fully customizable and editable.
• Scanned PDFs - A Scanned PDF is effectively an image of a document. They are not inherently customizable, but there is software that can be utilized to change that.
• Searchable PDFs - Thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software adding an editable text layer to an image layer, a PDF becomes searchable. This process enables greater interaction with PDFs like this. In a document management system, many document scanners come with the kind of software users need to convert a scanned PDF into a searchable PDF. As such, it is a core component of a paperless office.

PDFs have shown to be extraordinarily useful for businesses. They are convenient to use, universally compatible, and can be extremely secure.

For more great technology information, return to our blog regularly.

Many of the largest-growing smartphone manufacturers set their eyes on untapped markets in Africa, the Middle East, and southeast Asia. Regardless, the smartphone market has now showed negative growth for four consecutive fiscal quarters and the manufacturers are feeling the heat. The new flagships show off how the world’s most successful smartphone manufactures plan on altering their market’s forces. The new flagships include:

Apple iPhone XS Max
The world’s most profitable company’s newest flagship smartphone looks a lot like last year’s, but there are some major upgrades made to this year’s version that you may not be able to miss out on. The iPhone XS Max features Apple’s new A12 Bionic chip that improves device performance by 15 percent and a vastly-improved neural engine that accelerates machine learning on the device.

The newest iPhone has a 6.5-inch edge-to-edge display built on an aluminum chassis. The back of the device is all glass and comes with two separate 12-megapixel (MP) cameras. There is a single 7 MP camera on the front. The iPhone XS Max’s Battery is a 3,174 mAh that has an endurance rating at 78 hours. With a hefty price tag of $1099.99, consumers are paying a premium price for a premium device. It is available on all major carriers in Pace Gray, Silver, and Gold.

Specifications
Build - Stainless Steel with Glass Front/Back
Display - 6.5” Super AMOLED with ~458 ppi
Chipset - Apple A12 Bionic
Memory - 4GB RAM
Storage - 64/256/512 GB
Software - iOS 12/iOS 12.1
Cameras - 12 MP (26mm); 12 MP (52mm) with 2x optical zoom and optical image stabilization; 7 MP front-facing
Battery - 3,174 mAh (78 hours)
Additional Features - Face ID

LG V40 ThinQ
The newest LG flagship, the V40 ThinQ builds on what was LG’s best-reviewed smartphone to date: the LG V30. The V40 ThinQ offers users a 6.4-inch display that is inline with the other devices on this list. Their OLED display sets the standard for any LG-manufactured device and the build quality, a problem LG has had over the years, is premium.

One of the major upgrades of the LG V40 ThinQ is its camera setup. The device comes with two 12-megapixel cameras (one wide angle and one telephoto), as well as a 16 MP ultra-wide-angle lens. The camera app features a ‘triple-preview” that does exactly that: provides an active look through all three lenses so the user can choose which one works best. At $900, it is at least a hundred dollars cheaper than the Samsung or Apple flagship. It is available on all major carriers and can be had in New Platinum Gray, Carmine Red, New Aurora Black, and New Moroccan Blue.

Specifications
Build - Aluminum with Glass Front/Back
Display - 6.4” P-OLED with ~537 ppi
Chipset - Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Memory - 6 GB RAM
Storage - 64/128GB, microSD up to 512GB
Software - Android 8.1 Oreo
Cameras - 12 MP (27mm) optical image stabilization; 12 MP (52mm) with 2x optical zoom and optical image stabilization; 16 MP (16mm); 8 MP (26mm) and 5 MP (21mm) front-facing.
Battery - 3,300 mAh (64 hours)
Additional Features - Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner

Samsung Galaxy Note 9
Samsung has been making upper-crust mobile devices for much of the past decade, and the Galaxy Note 9 is no different. The Note 9 is made from aluminum and a whole lot of glass, Gorilla Glass 5 to be specific. On board it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and up to eight gigs of RAM and 512GB of storage space. There are many Ultrabooks that don’t have those specs.

Running on Android 8.1 Oreo, the Note 9 features two 12 MP camera lenses and an 8 MP front-facing camera. With a 4,000 mAh battery, the Note 9 seems to outpace the rest of this year’s devices in battery life and sustainability. With available colors including Metallic Copper, Lavender Purple, Midnight Black, Ocean Blue and Pure White; and, availability on all major carriers, the Note 9 can be found for $1000.

Specifications
Build - Aluminum with Glass Front/Back
Display - 6.4” Super AMOLED with ~516 ppi
Chipset - Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Memory - 6 or 8 GB of RAM
Storage - 128 or 512 GB of onboard storage and microSD up to 512 GB
Software - Android 8.1 Oreo
Cameras - 12 MP (26mm); 12 MP (52mm) with 2x optical zoom; optical image stabilization; 8 MP front-facing
Battery - 4,000 mAh (97 hours)
Additional Features - Samsung S Pen, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, iris scanner.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Huawei isn’t the type of manufacturer that is typically on a list like this. This is because the company has run into hot water with some in the west who believe that the stake that the Chinese government has in the company is a security threat to users. Whether you believe that or not, Huawei sure has made an impressive phone with the Mate 20 Pro.

Created with a Kirin 980 octa-core processor that comes in at seven nanometers, Huawei has built the Mate 20 Pro with a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, 6/8 GB of RAM and 128/256 GB of storage space. The 4,200 battery provides some of the strongest high-usage results of any manufacturer, but like the LG V40 ThinkQ, it comes with three rear-facing cameras. One is a powerful 40 MP fixed wide-angle lens, another is a 20 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and the other is an eight MP telephoto lens with a 5x optical zoom. It’s also the first device from a major manufacturer to have an in-display fingerprint reader. It may be difficult to find in the U.S., but for those who can, it comes in Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Twilight, Pink Gold, and Black, and can be had for a hefty lot of $1,100.

Specifications
Build - Aluminum frame with Glass Front/Back
Display - 6.4” AMOLED with ~538 ppi
Chipset - HiSilicon Kirin 980
Memory - 6/8GB RAM
Storage - 128/256GB with Nano Memory slot up to 256GB
Software - Android 9.0 Pie, Huawei UI
Cameras - 40 MP (27mm); 20 MP (16mm); 8 MP (80mm) with 5x optical zoom and optical image stabilization. Front facing 24 MP.
Battery - 4,200 mAh (85 hours)
Additional Features - Face ID, In-display fingerprint scanner, Qi wireless charging broadcasting, 40-Watt fast charging

Google Pixel 3 XL
The Pixel 3 XL has a crystal clear, OLED display that comes in at 6.3-inches. Currently, the Pixel 3 XL runs Android’s newest OS, 9.0 Pie. The Pixel 3 XL picks up where the Pixel 2 XL left off in terms of camera functionality. Largely lauded as the best camera on any smartphone, the Pixel 3 XL is great for content creators and consumers, alike.

The Pixel 3 XL is available in White, Black, and Not Pink; and has a few neat features that aren’t found on many other phones. With a price tag that is at least $100 less than its direct competitors it will be a popular choice for the next year.

Specifications
Build - Aluminum with Glass Front/Back
Display - 6.3” P-OLED with ~523 ppi
Chipset - Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Memory - 4GB RAM
Storage - 64/128GB
Software - Android 9.0 Pie
Cameras - 12.2 MP (28mm) with optical image stabilization
Battery - 3,430 mAh (69 hours)
Additional Features - Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, squeeze to call Google Assistant, Call screen feature, Flip to quiet notifications

Smartphones continue to be a major part of people’s lives. As long as that continues, expect manufacturers to keep improving their best devices every year. What smartphone do you use? Would you consider getting one of these flagship devices? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Tip #1: No Fear
Sometimes technology can be a tad bit intimidating, especially when people are expecting you to quickly grasp a concept with little-to-no experience. The best thing you can do is not be afraid of screwing up. After all, there aren’t many actions you can take with a computer that will break the machine, the applications you are using, or the file you are working on. If you don’t have much experience with the computer and you want to learn anything from this blog today, learn that Ctrl+Z will undo. Having a good understanding that Ctrl+Z will undo your last action in almost every application you are going to use should give you the confidence you need to stop worrying about possible failure.

Tip #2: Liberally Use Search Engines
For the computer novice, it can sometimes be intimidating to try to find applications and files within an operating system. No matter what problems you come across, keep in mind that the Internet is the world’s greatest troubleshooting guide, and you only need to know how to open your browser to get at it (on modern machines, you may not need even that). Once you have your browser open, simply type your search query in the address bar. It will return results. You may have to dig through the results, or alter your search perimeters slightly, but you will be able to find the answers to the problems you are having with the help of a search engine.

Tip #3: Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
This is typically for speed. If you can quickly learn a few basic shortcuts, you will enhance your ability to control your computer tenfold. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Ctrl+A - Select all
• Ctrl+C - Copy selected content
• Ctrl+X - Cut selected content`
• Ctrl+Z - Undo (Seriously, this one is crucial.)
• Ctrl+Y - Redo

There are many more depending on the application you are working in. Most applications will provide their shortcuts under their Help menu. Learning these will quickly make you a much more proficient user.

Tip #4: Find Your Comfort Zone
When Michael Jordan first picked up a basketball, he wasn’t a natural, so how can anyone expect to use something as complex as a computer proficiently right off the bat? If you are a new user, or just someone that isn’t proficient with a computer yet, stick to what you know. If you have a series of applications you feel some level of skillfulness with, stick to them. While our first tip suggests that you shouldn’t have fear, that mainly pertains to navigating your way around a computer, not the frustration a user can build when they continuously make mistakes. If you want to enjoy your time on the computer, stick to the applications you know, and you will have a good time.

We want everyone to remember that there was a time when we were all new to the computer; and, since computer skills are now an expectation of almost any career path (not to mention a major form of communication), learning your way around a computer will improve your standard of living. Do you have any other tips you could suggest to new users to keep them engaged and improving? Leave them in the comments section below.

Generally speaking, microchips in computers are made out of a variety of materials, but the most common is silicon. These microchips are responsible for acting as semiconductors and give your devices the ability to perform various tasks. We’ll get into the details about a couple of them here.

Memory
One of the more notable uses of microchips in devices includes temporarily storing data. These kinds of chips have a familiar name that you’ve probably heard before--Random Access Memory, or RAM. As long as the chip is receiving power, it can store data on the device. Once the device is turned off and the chips are no longer receiving power, this temporary data is wiped. Depending on what the device is used for, the computer might have many RAM chips installed on it; otherwise, the device will be slowed down considerably by resource-intensive tasks.

Microprocessors
Microprocessors have a lot to do with your device’s CPU, or central processing unit. You’ll often hear the comparison of a CPU to the brain of the human body. The CPU is responsible for processing all of the programmable commands on the device. Microprocessors generally rely on logic to function as intended. Of course, depending on the kind of device, various strength microprocessors will need to be used, as the same kind of microprocessor won’t work for every single kind of device out there.

Other Kinds of Chips
Depending on the device used, you might find various device-specific chips in use. For example, some devices that have cameras might have chips specifically designed for use with video recording or picture taking. Others that have networking abilities might have chips designed for use with those. Basically, chips are responsible for both the everyday functionality of your devices, as well as some of the specific, more advanced features that not everyone will be using.

For more information about technology or devices, stay subscribed to our blog.

What Do You Expect from Your Wi-Fi?
Many businesses have a tendency to either deal with their Wi-Fi as-is or will haphazardly add new networking components to their infrastructure as needed. Neither of these approaches is ideal, especially in light of the fact that you’ll need your Internet connections to be reliable as you grow your network.

A much better alternative is to design your Wi-Fi network keeping a few additional factors in mind, including your office’s particular setup and any future growth plans you may have. This way, you will not only create a network that works for your current needs but is also flexible enough to shift and adapt as your business does. Whether you’re first designing your office’s floor plan or taking another look at its setup, the key is to go about it from a strategy-first perspective.

The Process
Your first order of business is to determine where the demand for a signal will be the greatest. After all, if you have a group of employees reliant on their wireless connectivity huddled together in one area of the office, you aren’t going to want to place your equipment in a way that creates a dead zone there. This will help you to identify obstacles and inform you of where you may want to consider placing additional routers to make up for their effects.

Once your Wi-Fi has been set up and your employees are settled, you should still be collecting performance data and listening to the input that employees have about their connections. Remember, wireless is still an evolving technology, so as it develops it is likely that you will need to adjust your strategy to accommodate it.

Long story short, you’ll probably need to make this an ongoing process to ensure that your Internet is as usable as possible for everyone in the office.

The professionals at Coleman Technologies are also here to assist you with any of your technology needs. If you need help with your business’ IT solutions, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.