Directive Blogs

In 19th century America, the hottest innovation for political campaigns was the exposed stump from a fallen tree, thus the stump speech. This technology revolutionized politics by allowing the candidate to elevate himself above the crowd for greater visibility and to better project one’s voice. Today, the political stump speech is obsolete, having its usefulness far surpassed by the technologies of the modern age.

The hype is still strong for Windows 10, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a great operating system that has the potential to change the way your business performs its daily duties. However, the monthly desktop operating system usage statistics released by NetMarketShare hint that Windows 10 adoption is starting to slow down and that many users are simply opting to keep using Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. What gives?

Take a good, hard look at your desk telephone. How often do you use it for day-to-day operations? With the advent of technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and the smartphone, it seems silly to be reliant on the telephone that’s tethered to your desk. However, some people still aren’t ready to leave the office telephone behind in favor of these new technologies. But… why?

For all of you YouTubers out there, you probably already know that the video-playback website is offering a premium service that launched last month. Now you can watch cat videos and other nonsense in an entirely new way. But what do you get with a subscription to YouTube Red? Is it worth the money? Well, let’s find out.

Have you ever wondered how the Internet is capable of connecting countries on the other side of the world? You may already be aware of this, but the Internet’s cables run deep underneath the ocean’s surface, all around the world. In fact, you might wonder how we could even keep these cables safe when they’re submerged underneath such an immense amount of water.

Wearable technology isn’t a new concept, but lately it’s been exploding in popularity. People love the fact that they can use their watch to perform various features that a smartphone can accomplish, and they enjoy how their workouts can be monitored by various health sensory-type devices. However, is this obsession with wearable technology going to amount to anything, or will it be a notorious flop?

There are those in the technology world that argue that professional sports are of marginal importance. Grown men and women, getting paid vast sums of money by fat-cats that make the average successful business owner look like a pauper, to play games that millions of children play everyday. However, according to a poll taken by CNN/USA Today/Gallup, nearly two-thirds of American respondents admitted to being sports fans. In other nations around the world, the sports that fans follow may differ, but percentages are similar to, or exceed those in the U.S.

One of the most storied competitions in the technology industry comes from Apple vs Microsoft. For the past 35 years, they went back and forth by offering consumers their own twist on similar technologies. The latest chapter in this story comes from Microsoft’s new Surface Book, which aims to compete directly with Apple’s MacBook Pro.

There are several options on the market that you can deploy to securely store, organize, share, and access your information for your staff. SharePoint, Microsoft’s intranet solution, is worth considering for your data access and sharing needs.

We live in an exciting time of computing where more is happening wirelessly than ever before. Although, we’re still a long way off from having networking wires and cables become entirely obsolete, which means that it’s in your best interest to know how to deal with your cables as efficiently as possible.

Does your office still use a fax machine? You know that it’s an outdated piece of equipment, but this fact might not deter its continued use if you don’t care about the latest technology (we admit that not everyone does). Perhaps by taking a look at all the money wasted by using a fax machine, we can convince you otherwise.

If you’ve ever tried to work while out of the office on your smartphone or tablet, you’ll have realized that mobile devices aren’t the optimal productivity machine to get the most quality work done. However, if you take advantage of the proper gadgets, you can take back your productivity and continue to get work done, even under the worst circumstances.

With the Internet of Things continuing to gain popularity, we’re seeing more devices that connect to the Internet than ever before. However, what the users of these devices might be failing to take into consideration is the fact that the Internet is a dangerous place full of threats and other miscreants. What happens if these criminals decide to attack any of your connected devices? This is a relevant question to ask since October is Cyber Security Month, and The Internet of Things represents the next frontier of cyberspace.

Just months after releasing their newest operating system, Windows 10, Microsoft is now updating the world’s most popular productivity software. Office 2016 makes several improvements over the Office 2013 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the other applications that businesses from all over the world rely on to stay productive. The software, which focuses on making productivity and cooperation possible, has gotten a substantial upgrade in collaborative features.

Have you ever wondered what hackers do with all of the data they steal on a regular basis? Sure, they could go public with it like they did with the Ashley Madison and Sony hacks, or they could sell it and make some quick cash. Credentials like passwords, usernames, Social Security numbers, and more, can be sold for top dollar in illegal markets, but how much can your identity go for?

Remote workers are changing the way that both employees and their employers are viewing their workspace. It’s been proven that businesses can mitigate their overhead costs and increase their employee retention rate by allowing their team to work from home, but without the proper technology, they have no chance of being as productive as they can be if they were in the office.

How smart are smartphones really making us? If we’re honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that our mobile phones are more for entertainment and efficient communications, and less about actually being used to make ourselves smarter. Thanks to augmented reality technology becoming more accessible, perhaps smartphones will one day live up to their name.

There’s no denying that smartphones are the predominant consumer technology in the world at the moment. Over a billion smartphones were sold each of the past two years, with growth coming in at a fairly impressive 23 percent from 2013 to 2014. Growth is projected to decrease slightly in future years (around 12 percent in 2015), but it’s obvious by now, smartphone usage will be the principal manner people will access the Internet going forward.

It seems like just yesterday that the world adopted 4G as the accepted model of wireless technology communication, but it’s still important to look toward the future and push for greater heights. Wireless technology has permeated society to the point where it’s steeped with smartphones and other mobile devices. So, what’s next in the wireless game?

As expected, mobile technology is a consistent part of daily business operations for many companies around the world. Employees love taking advantage of the mobility these devices offer, making their home office just as useful as their in-house workstation. However, a mobile device management solution needs to be strictly adhered to in order to optimize security and guarantee that a stray smartphone doesn’t expose your data to unexpected eyes.