Thanks to the Internet, most people pay their bills, seek out entertainment, and get their news on-line. So it is not shocking that music streaming is as popular as it is. Many people stream their music and there are many music-streaming services to choose from. This can be very advantageous as people always have access to their music, if they have access to the Internet.

But which music-streaming services are the best? Here are several suggestions:

Pandora: Pandora is hardly a surprise choice, but there is a reason this music-streaming service remains well-liked: It’s easy to use and it can quickly introduce users to new music that they may not experience otherwise. The thought behind Pandora is simple: After logging onto the service, type in the name of a favorite artist, say “David Bowie.” Pandora will then play songs by Bowie and it will play songs from similar artists. Thus giving you a taste of other tunes that you could also like.

Grooveshark: Grooveshark is a lot like Pandora in that it generates a “radio” station based on your musical tastes. However, you can also enjoy entire albums on Grooveshark and build playlists. One unique feature of Grooveshark is the ability to upload your own music to the Grooveshark database if you can’t find what you are searching for. This is a smart and simple opportunity for Grooveshark to grow its library.

Rhapsody: Rhapsody has remained fairly popular due to its huge database of music. It has more then 14 million songs. Unfortunately, while many of the services we have mentioned offer a free version, Rhapsody does not. It is $10 a month for unlimited music.

Spotify: Spotify is a Swedish music-streaming service which was launched in 2008. It has quickly grown to one of the most recognized and widely used services out there. People like the flexibility of Spotify. When you search for an artist, you can listen to a full album or decide to use the radio function and Spotify will find similar artists for you to enjoy. Another benefit of Spotify is that you may create your own playlists and share them with other users if you so choose.

Remember when Windows was considered cool? It’s been a long time. Nevertheless, the Kinect – a motion and voice-sensing device initially meant as a nifty feature for the Xbox gaming system – could help Windows regain its long-lost coolness quotient.

Not surprisingly, a version of the Kinect is compatible with Windows-operated PCs. So shortly after this new version was launched in February, companies started coming up with creative, out-of-the-box uses for it.

Innovative Uses for the Kinect

At the Chicago Auto Show the Chief Marketing Manager for Nissan North America used the Kinect in an interesting way, by creating a virtual tour of the enhanced interior of the Pathfinder. This worked out well as they only had the outer shell of the Pathfinder to actually display. By using the Kinect, participants could actually “see” what the interior looked liked.

Microsoft is encouraging companies to find different uses for the Kinect and even cooperating with them to build applications for it. This is a good move on their part, as it not only promotes inventiveness but it also puts a Microsoft product at the heart of the creative development. One company that has worked with Microsoft in this way is Boeing. They’ve used the Kinect to develop virtual tours of their jets. Another fascinating use of the Kinect was discovered by a hospital in Canada. They are utilizing the Kinect’s gesture-recognition to swipe through CT scans. This greatly lowers, if not removes, the chance of spreading germs since you don’t have to touch the computer.

Kinect: A Solid Hit

The Kinect has been a hit for Microsoft. Last year the device helped turn the Xbox 360 into the year’s best-selling computer game console. The fact is, Microsoft has sold more than 18 million Kinect devices since November of 2010. It makes sense then, that a version developed specifically for Windows would be a hit, too.

The excitement surrounding the Kinect and its many uses can only boost Microsoft’s reputation. They may be on their way to stepping into the “cool” tech company category.

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When you sift through the possible candidates for the job you are hiring for, you want to find the super stars. You would like to find the most imaginative, enthusiastic, and motivated people you can. But you are only able to discover who fits the bill through an interview. And if you don’t ask the correct questions you may misjudge your prospects.

It’s vital that you create a job interview strategy that pin points what you are trying to find in an employee. If you ask the same cookie cutter questions that everyone else does, you are likely to get cookie cutter answers.

Ask the Right Questions

Rather then asking people what their past positions were, ask them how they positively impacted their positions at their previous employers. Did they develop any processes that improved efficiency? Did they help their employers save money, if so, how?

Another common interview question is to ask about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Most of us have a canned answer to this, as they know it will likely be asked in an interview. Instead have them tell you the things they add to the culture of a company, what do they do in nerve-racking situations, or what are some ways they keep themselves satisfied at their jobs. These answers will clue you in to the personality of the person you are interviewing, and if they will fit in with your company and the position.

Another simple way to gauge a prospective employee’s creativity is to ask them to carry out a task. For example, you could ask them to brainstorm ideas for an ad campaign, or write a short essay about their ideal work environment. Whatever it is, it is something your interviewee will not expect and it will give you a picture of their creativity.

Employers have an advantage in today’s job market. They can pick from among some of the top job seekers available, but to find the best people, employers have to first change the way they carry out their job interviews.

Traveling for business is not fun. We’re generally rushed, we don’t eat well, and we have to endure the hassle of airports and long-term parking. It’s not surprising that many companies opt toward videoconferencing instead of traveling. As videoconferencing technology advances, many people wonder if business traveling may become a thing of the past.

The End of Business Travel?

But is this something that we should strive for in business? Is it a good thing if videoconferencing replaces face-to-face meetings altogether? Maybe not, think about the differences between meetings that are face-to-face versus videoconferencing.

Fluid conversation tends to be less common when videoconferencing. It’s hard to identify exactly why. It could be due, partly, to office disruptions, and also to any lag that the videoconference has. These issues could be solved with technological advancements. But in general, when people are videoconferencing they have a tendency to stick to the main task of the meeting instead of allow discussion to flow naturally, which can result in creative ideas.

The Benefits of Face-to-Face Time

Face-to-face interactions tend to be more meaningful and allow conversation to develop easily. Meetings may go longer if this happens, but the benefits of it can be excellent. New ideas come from the creative progression of conversation. While it’s true that every meeting may not become a positive brainstorming session, it can be a great opportunity to develop interpersonal relationships in the office.

Business Travel is Here to Stay

Yes, business travel is an inconvenience and videoconferencing is a convenience. However, there are times when meeting face-to-face is the best option for generating the most imaginative business solutions. For this reason, don’t expect savvy business executives to ever entirely replace business travel with videoconferencing.

Doesn’t it feel like we should already have jetpacks? Teleporters? Or meals in capsule form? We already have some impressive technology, like tablets, which are small computers that we can carry around. We can utilize the GPS in our cars to navigate around town. We can post an update to our social media sites and reach thousands of people at once.

So, with all of this technology, why don’t we have jet packs yet? What variables are keeping us from making these technological leaps?

Building a Better Battery

As we move into a more mobile world, batteries grow in importance. They are a foundation of our technological world nowadays. Therefore, if we are restricted by their power, and capacity to hold a charge, the technology that utilizes them is also limited. For example, you wouldn’t want your jet pack to loose its charge in flight. Recently, researchers at Chicago’s Northwestern University found a way to make a much more powerful lithium-ion battery than the ones we have today. We explained this more thoroughly in a blog post last week. When these batteries finally enter the market, we will likely notice a increase in technological advancements.

Improving Internet Access

It may seem like everybody is linked to the Internet, but this is a fallacy. Most of the world doesn’t have access to the Internet. Although this may not seem like it could hold back technological advancements, it does. The idea is that by limiting the amount of people who can contribute to the interconnectedness the Internet provides, we are limiting the amount of people who can collaborate. Until the majority of people are connected, technological developments will not happen as quickly as they could.

The Business of New Tech

This might not come as a surprise, but business matters hamper technological advancements as well. For example, patent laws, and government regulations. If these things are not clear, creations can sit in red tape limbo for some time. To avoid this last step bottleneck of the creation process, laws need to be clear and easy to understand.

The good news is that none of these restrictions can truly stop technology from advancing. Just think ahead to the holiday season of 2020. Who knows what innovations will be waiting for us.

Adobe Photoshop is an excellent photo manipulation tool. With it, businesses can create professional looking marketing materials quite easily. The greatest issue with Photoshop is the cost. A person looking to purchase it can spend more then $600 for newer versions. This is not practical for many small business owners, and they probably don’t require all of the features that a $600 photo-editing program comes equipped with. Fortunately, there are many alternatives to Photoshop that are inexpensive or free.

These programs may not contain all the elements that Photoshop boasts, but they have more than enough photo-editing features for the majority of small business owners. Here are three of the highest quality free photo-editing programs available today:

GIMP

GIMP is very simple to use and contains most of the features from Photoshop that a business owner might need to create marketing material. The beauty of GIMP is that it’s absolutely free!

Paint.NET

Did you ever use MSPiant? It came with your Windows operating system and was very basic. Paint.NET is its successor and is much more powerful then its forerunner. One fantastic aspect for designers is an unlimited undo button. Paint.NET is a free program; the only negative regarding it is that it only works on Windows machines.

Picnik

Picnik is fast, free, and easy to use. It works on the Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems and you don’t have to download files to use it. It has some interesting special effects as well, making it a well liked photo-editing program.

In the end, if you are searching for a program that allows you to create professional marketing material, there’s no need to spend a lot. These programs will let you accomplish this task at no cost.

Have you ever needed your smartphone only to find that the battery has died and you’re nowhere near an outlet? It’s irritating, but in a couple of years, it could be a thing of the past.

A Better Battery on the Way?

Fortunately, a better battery might soon be on the way, due to the efforts of a team of engineers at Chicago’s Northwestern University. A recent story reports that researchers at this Big 10 university are trying to develop a battery that lasts longer and can recharge itself in mere minutes. Smartphone users across the country ought to be grateful.

What they are working on is a new lithium-ion battery that has more then 10 times the life of present batteries. Additionally, after a year of operation, which the researchers estimate to be about 150 charges, these new lithium-ion batteries would remain 5 times more efficient then today’s lithium-ion batteries.

A Charged Battery for a Week

This may be hard to believe, particularly with all the apps we run on our devices, but this new battery may stay charged for a full week. And the charging time may be less then 15 minutes. That will definitely make life easier but this technology might have a much more significant impact then that. It can be applied to the batteries used in electric cars, making them considerably more powerful, and dramatically decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Batteries Powering Technological Change

The new battery technology isn’t available yet for consumers, but the Northwestern researchers claim that it could hit the market in 3 to 5 years. This is a big step. When we look at breakthroughs in technology, we often forget about the batteries that power our latest gadgets. Battery constraints are one of the factors holding back an even greater technology revolution. The hope is that the research done at Northwestern University changes this.

When it comes to online search engines, Google remains king. Microsoft isn’t pleased with this. That’s why the company launched Bing in 2009, its own search engine and a direct competitor with Google. Ever since then, Bing has gone the way of most Google-search competitors: It’s mostly an afterthought when computer users need to search the web. Most searchers still use Google for this task. However, that doesn’t mean that Bing offers nothing for computer users. In fact, Microsoft did a lot right with Bing, and the search engine offers plenty of intriguing features that users shouldn’t dismiss.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When searching on Bing, you get more information about your search results then you do with Google. Bing includes a navigation panel on the left that allows users to focus their search easily. In addition, it organizes search results into logical categories, making it simpler to get quick answers.

Bing Goes Beyond Search Results

When you search in Bing, you get more then just search results. Bing pulls up images, and videos that are related to your search. While Google has this feature, Bing makes the navigation somewhat more user friendly. Another valuable feature is what they call Farecast Technology. This is part of the Bing Travel site and it allows users to find the cheapest airfare quickly.

Bing Video Search Shines

Bing stands out from Google with regards to searching for videos as well. Bing allows users to specify how long they would like videos to be, what resolution they would like, and what screen size they would prefer. Additionally, to get a preview of the video, users only need to hover their cursor over the video to play a portion of it without clicking on it.

These are some of the reasons why computer users should not be so quick to dismiss Bing. Yes, Google remains the go-to player when it comes to search engines. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the only choice today.

Cloud computing is extremely popular these days. The cloud is essentially a group of remote servers where people can store and access their information. People can store music, powerful programs, and essential files in the cloud. As information kept in the cloud isn’t stored on personal computers this saves tons of computer memory. The outcome of this is that people gain access to more data without having to use up space on their computer, which can slow it down.

Not All Clouds are the Same

However, not all clouds are the same. There is the public cloud, the one with which we are most familiar. But then there’s the hybrid cloud as well. As its name indicates, the hybrid cloud is a combination of two different types of clouds, the public cloud and a private cloud.

To provide a hybrid cloud, an organization may store some of their client’s more important or current data in-house and store older, archived, and less crucial files in the public cloud. They might also use the public cloud to store very large programs and keep confidential data in-house.

The Hybrid Cloud Approach Makes Sense

Taking a hybrid cloud approach to data storage allows businesses to take advantage of the space-saving features of the public cloud without also exposing their sensitive current data to third-party providers. In other words, the hybrid cloud provides businesses with protection, cost-savings, and efficiency.

It’s no surprise, then, that so many businesses today are moving toward a hybrid cloud approach. There is simply too much data floating around today for smaller businesses to properly store. At the same time, businesses in today’s competitive environment do not want to reveal company secrets and sensitive consumer data to either their rivals or hackers. The hybrid cloud could allow businesses to accomplish both feats.

Thanks to improved technology, an increasing number of employees be capable of carry out most or all of their work from home. Smartphones, tablets, teleconferencing, and WiFi-equipped bookstores and coffee shops have made this possible. This presents a huge advantage for employers: the more employees that work from home, the less money companies must spend. Many companies, for instance, don’t have assigned computers and desks for all of their workers because so much of their workforce is working remotely. In addition, employees working remotely are frequently more productive; they are not wasting time and energy driving to work every day. And they’re not exchanging office gossip in front of the water cooler when in the office.

Remote Worker Challenges

A major concern for most managers when deciding to have remote workers is, how does one monitor their work? How do you know that they are actually working and not simply watching movies all day?

By setting sensible deadlines employers can monitor their remote workers effectively. This is a change in managerial strategy; it puts the focus on the goal instead of the hours that the employee works. In the end, employees are the only ones who know when they perform most optimally, even if it is from midnight to 4am.

Setting Remote Worker Deadlines

Setting deadlines is the easiest method to monitor the work being done by remote workers. Managers can set short-term and long-term goals or make something due every Friday. In addition, a manger could have a weekly or biweekly meeting via cellphone or video chat to catch up on the growth of projects. This can put the manager and employee at ease.

Off-Site Not a Permanent Condition

Working remotely demands personal discipline and good time-management skills. People who are chronic procrastinators may not work best remotely. If employees aren’t hitting deadlines, or are delivering sub-par work then off-site working doesn’t have to be a permanent privilege. For remote working to be successful there has to be trust between the employee and the employer. To preserve this trust the employee must hit their deadlines and the employer needs to be focused on the results.