14
Aug, 2015
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3 Mobile Apps Every Modern Office Worker Needs

b2ap3_thumbnail_applications_for_work_400.jpgMobile devices are changing the face of businesses in obvious ways, like employees accessing their work outside of the office. Additionally, there are many not-so-obvious ways that mobile devices and apps have changed work environments. Let’s focus a moment on the little things around the office that have changed since mobile devices took over.

Calendars
Calendar making used to be a profitable industry. Calendars adorned office walls and inspired workers daily to be better people, one disposable page at a time. Also, let’s not forget about how calendars make for that perfect, gender-neutral gift to contribute to any office’s end-of-the year holiday gift exchange. Now, everyone just gives each other gift cards and hilariously-themed calendars collect dust at mall kiosks.

What happened? It turns out that every mobile device comes with its own calendar app. As workers adopted it, software developers integrated calendar apps to the cloud so that workers could sync their calendars for easy scheduling. This mobile trend effectively “did in” the usefulness of the 12-month calendar, but you may still find one or two on the office walls for novelty’s sake.

If you’re not taking advantage of your mobile device’s calendar, check out these links on how to use your calendar’s sync feature.

Notebooks
Another paper casualty of mobile devices is the office worker’s trusty notebook. You used to see notebooks brought into every meeting, and the super serious note-takers would distinguish themselves with leatherbound notebooks, emblazoned with their company’s logo. While office supply stores are bemoaning the demise of notebooks and pens, workers are taking better notes and collaborating in new and exciting ways via cloud-based apps.

There are a variety of mobile note-taking apps on the market, and they each allow you to do much more than scribble ideas and cartoon characters on paper. Mobile apps like Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, and Google Keep allow users to capture screenshots, upload files, record audio, and of course, jot down meeting notes. These notes can be tagged to make them searchable, and stored in the cloud so that every member of your team can access them.

Fax Machines
The adoption of mobile devices should’ve been the final nail in the coffin for the office fax machine. Actually, email should’ve been the technology that killed off the fax machine. Yet, despite advancements in email, cloud computing, mobile devices, and even the leadership baton being passed from one generation to the next… and then to the next, fax machines still have a strong presence in most modern offices.

It’s our hope that the advancements of mobile technology have caused the mighty fax machine to lose some sway over its users. Remember, if you’re altogether tired of dealing with your fax machine, then NuTech Services can provide you with technologies to phase it out, like our fax server solution and a host of digital communication apps for your mobile device.

Why You Need to Adopt Mobile Solutions
Maybe you’re old fashioned and you just like the feel of working with paper, the thrill of turning over a calendar page at the first of the month, and the ear-piercing sound of receiving a fax. That’s all fine and good, but as a modern business owner, it’s in your best interest to adopt mobile solutions for your company. If you don’t, then your mobile-device-loving employees will bring their gadgets into the workplace and do so on their own. The danger of them doing this is that you’ll lose control of how company information is shared and stored, which could lead to a major data breach.

Instead, you need to be proactive about implementing an official mobile solution for your office that everybody can access and use from their approved mobile devices. Due to all the different devices out there, and the different expectations of your employees, getting everybody to use the same mobile solution can prove to be quite challenging. At NuTech Services, we’re here to help equip your business with mobile and cloud-based solutions that meet your company’s needs perfectly. For more information, give us a call at 810.230.9455.

12
Aug, 2015
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Tip of the Week: Taking a Screenshot is Ridiculously Easy

b2ap3_thumbnail_screenshot_pc_400.jpgSometimes explaining issues with your technology to someone over the phone is difficult at best. To help your tech support better understand the issue you’re dealing with, provide screenshots to help with your explanations. All you have to do to take a screenshot is hit a few keys. Here’s how it’s done.

Screenshots in Windows
For a Windows PC, look at the top-most row of keys. How often do you use these? Probably not that often. Well, maybe the Escape key. Either way, look toward the right-hand side of this row and you’ll find the PrtScn key. PrtScn will create a .png file of your entire desktop screen at the time you press it. Unfortunately, you’re not going to see the file immediately; it’s only being stored on your clipboard until you paste it into another program.

To do so, you can use pretty much any common application that allows you to paste images into it. Some of the more basic programs you can use are Microsoft Word, OneNote, Outlook, and even MS Paint. Open your preferred program, hold down Ctrl, and press V to paste the image into the application you are working in. This is also the keyboard shortcut for Paste, which you can keep in mind for later use.

For example, let’s use Microsoft Paint. Now that you have the screenshot pasted into Paint, you can draw on it using Paint’s various features to emphasize what the problem is. You can crop it to the area of interest, paint on arrows, and so on. This helps you better explain to tech support what the problem is.

Afterward, all you have to do is save the file using either a .png or .jpg file extension. To do so, click File > Save As. Give your file a name and you should be all set to send it off for analysis from tech support. If you’d rather not toy with the image, you can paste the image directly into Microsoft Outlook instead.

Forget PrtScn: Try LightShot to Simplify Things
While taking a screenshot using PrtScn isn’t terribly difficult, it can be somewhat time-consuming to tailor your image to specifically show your problem. Instead, we prefer to use a tool called LightShot. It’s an application designed specifically to take screenshots, and best of all, it’s entirely free to use. You can download the app here: https://app.prntscr.com/en/download.html

With LightShot, hitting the PrtScn key does much more than take a screenshot of your entire desktop. Instead, your screen will be greyed out and you can select a specific part of your screen for a screenshot. You can then save your image locally on your PC, or upload it to the cloud for sharing via URL. Once you get used to taking screenshots, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. Not only can it be an easy way to share concentrated content, but it can also be a great way to communicate what your specific problems are to IT support.

If IT support issues have you troubled, you’ll be glad to hear that NuTech Services’s remote maintenance and management solution is designed to prevent issues from becoming bigger problems. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

29
Jul, 2015
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Tip of the Week: Take Advantage of Notepad’s Text-to-Audio Feature

computer_that_talks_400.jpgSome people talk to their computers, but not like they would speak to another human being. We coax it into doing it what we want, or we curse it out when it doesn’t. A day may come when artificial intelligence has progressed so far that we won’t be able to distinguish a computerized conversation from a normal one; but it is not this day. Until that glorious day comes, we’ll have to settle for these two methods to interact verbally with your PC.

My Notepad Sure Has a Big Mouth
We bet you didn’t know that the Windows Operating System has a tool installed on its Notepad that allows it to convert text to audio. However, this feature isn’t available without a little tinkering on your part. It requires a bit of programming, but infusing life into your Notepad is as easy as copying some text and slapping it on the page.

It’s Alive!
First, you want to open Notepad. Copy and paste this text into Notepad:

Dim msg, sapi
msg=InputBox(“Enter your text for Conversation | Tool by Irshad (http://pctricksonline.blogspot.com)”,”PC Hacks Text-To-Audio Converter”)
Set sapi=CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)
sapi.Speak msg

Go to File > Save As, and make sure that the file type reads text_audio.vbs. Afterward, close the note and open the text_audio.vbs file. A magic little box will appear on your screen. Type your text into the box and pat yourself on the back; you’ve just breathed life into an inanimate object (sort of). Fun things to type into this include, but are not limited to, “Help! I’ve been turned into a computer,” “Look at me. I’m a computer programmer,” and “Kneel before me, humans!”

That’s Not What I Said
If you don’t want to try your hand at programming Notepad to breathe life into your PC, you could always try using Google Voice Search. This is a standard Google Chrome feature, and is very easy to use. You simply go to Google’s homepage and click on the microphone icon to the right of the Google search bar. Then, you speak into your microphone and Google will search for it. The more the app is used, the more accurate it becomes. You might want to consider turning Safe Search on if you are afraid of what you might accidentally search for. You never know what you might find on the Internet.

“Smart” Phones
For those who want a simpler experience, there are always the apps offered for smartphones. Apple offers Siri for iOS, and Android has Google Now. It’s better than the magic 8-ball, we suppose, and you shouldn’t get too bored talking to them. Just remember, nothing is better than actual human interaction.

These technologies are just a taste of what’s to come over the next few years. Technology advancement is growing at an alarming rate, so keep your eyes peeled for other great interactive programs. What are your favorite interactive apps, and why? Share it with us in the comments!

13
Apr, 2015
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Bottlenecks: Good for Drinks, Not for Networks

b2ap3_thumbnail_bottlenecking_400.jpgLet’s say that you get new equipment and software for your company’s network, expecting to see a boost in performance. When everything is tested, you see no change in performance, which understandably bums you out. In a situation like this, your network is likely bottlenecking.

Bottlenecking gets its name from the design of a bottle (think wine bottle) where the neck narrows to allow for a smaller amount of fluid to pour from the bottle’s opening than would come out if the opening was just as large as the base, like with a pickle jar. Techquickie defines bottlenecking (also known as a choke point) as, “Holding back the performance that could otherwise be achieved.”

Application in blogWhen you’re experiencing a performance-hampering bottlenecking situation with your company’s network, the challenge is to locate the source of the problem and resolve the issue so that the rest of your network can reach its full potential. This is typically done by upgrading whatever is causing the choke point so that it meets the same performance standards as other components that make up the network.

A classic example of this is when a PC user upgrades one component of their machine, like a video card, hoping to see an overall improvement in performance, but they end up experiencing minimal-to-no-boost because other factors that affect performance (like CPU and RAM) are old and already maxed out. This is a common occurrence with workstations and home computers, and as the technology becomes more complex with more computers and components in the mix, there’s a higher chance of there being bottleneck issues.

Therefore, when you’re dealing with something as complex as a computer network, with multiple workstations, servers, and NAS devices, you’ve substantially increased the risk of experiencing a bottleneck. For example, even if you’re working with top-of-the-line computers and powerful server units, your network routers can be old and outdated, which will prevent your powerful equipment from reaching its full potential; and, vis–à–vis, hold your company back from fully realizing its competitive goals.

Locating the exact cause of a network bottleneck requires a thorough knowledge of every component, which is why calling professionals to troubleshoot your network’s performance issues is often the smartest move. Otherwise, it would be quite easy to place the blame for performance issues on the wrong piece of equipment, replace said piece of equipment, and then, after investing all of that time and effort into the wrong fix, have to go back and try it again.

NuTech Services has the tools it takes to run diagnostics on your company’s network to quickly determine what the exact cause of your bottleneck is. Depending on what the issue is, we may even be able to determine the cause of your bottleneck with our remote tools. This remote approach will save a technician a trip to your office, and save you money on your IT bill.

To schedule NuTech Services to take a look at your network so we can unclog the log jam that’s holding your business back, give us a call at 810.230.9455.