Thanks to the Internet, many 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 a variety of music-streaming services to pick from. This can be very beneficial as people always have access to their music, as long as they have access to the Internet.

But which music-streaming services are the best? Here are some recommendations:

Pandora: Pandora is hardly a surprise choice, but there’s a reason this music-streaming service remains popular: It’s easy to use and it can quickly expose users to new music that they might not experience otherwise. The idea 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 might also like.

Grooveshark: Grooveshark is a lot like Pandora. But you can also make your own playlists manually, all without creating an account. However, people who want to save their play lists will have to sign up for a free account. Like Pandora, Grooveshark also offers recommendations for songs that you might like based on your past musical choices. Grooveshark also has an intriguing feature: You can help build the service’s database of music by adding your own favorite songs and artists if you can’t find them in Grooveshark’s existing collection.

Rhapsody: Rhapsody has rapidly made a name for itself due to its huge database of more than 14 million songs. Users must pay for the service – $10 a month – but by doing so, they’ll be able to stream any song from the service’s considerable collection.

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

It’s been a little while since Windows was regarded as cool but the Kinect may change all that. The Kinect is a voice and motion-sensing device that was originally created as a feature for the Xbox gaming console.

Microsoft in February introduced Kinect for Windows. This version of the device works with, of course, Windows-operated personal computers. Now a number of users are putting the device to work in unforeseen ways.

Innovative Uses for the Kinect

Earlier this year the Chief Marketing Manager for Nissan North America created a virtual tour of the Pathfinder’s interior at the Chicago Auto Show. The only thing that was actually displayed was the outer shell of the Pathfinder, but participants could see the upgraded interior on a large screen using the Kinect.

Microsoft is also encouraging companies to make use of the Kinect imaginatively by working with them to develop custom Kinect applications. Nearly 350 companies today are working with Microsoft in this way. As an example, Boeing uses the device to create virtual tours of its 737 jets. Medical providers at a hospital in Canada are also using the device’s gesture-recognition to swipe through CT scans, eliminating the risk of touching germs on a keyboard or mouse.

Kinect: A Solid Hit

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

It may seem hard to believe, but Windows and its creator may have actually found something that’s not only useful, but cool, which can do nothing but good for their reputation.

These days, when you post an open position on the Internet, a huge selection of people reply. Many of these people are eligible candidates for the job, so you call them in for an interview. But how do you sift through them and find the truly innovative and enthusiastic people? Since the interview is fundamentally all you can go on, your interview questions are very important.

Make sure that your interview questions solicit the data that will help you select the individual with the characteristics you want. If you use a cookie cutter approach to the interview, you are likely to get uninspired, cookie cutter answers.

Ask the Right Questions

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

One of the most common questions to ask a candidate concerns their strengths and weaknesses. Try to avoid asking them to list these; most of us have predetermined answers. Instead ask them what they bring to the culture of a company, or ask them what they do to make their job more satisfying. The responses you get to these types of questions will help you to gauge the actual inventiveness of the person you are evaluating.

Another method you could use to measure creativity is to give them a task to perform. Something simple, for example have them write their ideas about what their ideal workplace would be like. Or they could brainstorm services and products for a company of your choosing. You could keep it light and fun; the goal is to get a snapshot of their brainstorming abilities, and creativity.

In today’s job market, employers have the benefit of choosing amongst many talented people. So to be able to find the very best, they need to change the types of questions they ask in job interviews.

There aren’t many people who look forward to going on business trips. They are an inconvenience and expensive for the organization. Business travelers often feel hurried, which results in lack of sleep and poor eating habits, which exacerbates stress. Not to mention dealing with Airports and long-term parking. Because of this, many businesses choose to use videoconferencing if possible. But do you think that business travel is on its way out? Will Videoconferencing replace it altogether?

The End of Business Travel?

Do we want to strive for the extinction of business travel? Perhaps not, think about the differences between in-person meeting and videoconferencing.

When people around the world sign on to a videoconference, they typically introduce themselves quickly, if necessary, and then dive into the goal at hand. Brainstorming does not often play a large role in videoconferencing; this is partially due to the worry that the connection may fail. Also, there are many distractions within the individual’s office that can make fluid conversation difficult.

The Benefits of Face-to-Face Time

Conversation evolves considerably more easily with in-person interactions. This is healthy, and as far as business is concerned, can be extremely valuable. Having an impromptu brainstorming session can bring about ideas that can lead the company down a path that wasn’t previously anticipated. This is not to say that every face-to-face meeting becomes a game-changing brainstorming session. But if a meeting degenerates into story telling, this is an chance for co-workers to strengthen their interpersonal relationships and improve moral.

Business Travel is Here to Stay

While many businesses turn toward videoconferencing due to the cost and ease of it, it is doubtful that business travel will disappear permanently. When we develop business relationships, just like any relationships, we want to meet face-to-face because we are a social species. The benefits of face-to-face meetings are enough that savvy business owners will not get rid of business travel altogether.

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Remember watching sci-fi movies as a kid and thinking we would have jetpacks in the future? Or teleporters? We don’t have these technologies yet but we do have many amazing technologies that seem straight out of a science fiction movie. Our cars can direct us around a city, via GPS. We can carry tablet computers around with us that hold all of our data. And we can contact associates all over the world at the push of a button.

So, why don’t we have teleporters and hovercrafts? What is preventing us from taking these leaps in technology?

Building a Better Battery

First, there is battery power. The bottomline is, the batteries powering our smartphones and tablets must be recharged too often. A more powerful battery will permit us to run our gadgets for weeks at a time and then charge them again in mere minutes. This battery does not exist yet. However, it may be coming: researchers at Chicago’s Northwestern University are creating a far more powerful lithium-ion battery. If their prototype becomes commercially viable, it will probably be a game-changer.

Improving Internet Access

The second limiting factor has to do with access. Simply put, not enough of the world’s population has access to high-speed Internet access. It may seem as if every public library, bookstore, and cafe’ provides its patrons with access to high-speed wireless Internet, but this is largely a mirage. The majority of humans do not have easy access to the web. Until this happens, we’ll be unnecessarily limiting the development of technology. The more minds that are connected on the Web, the higher the possibilities are of reaching the next tech breakthrough.

The Business of New Tech

Finally, there is the business end of things. Technological progress is stunted by arcane things such as patent law. Businesses take their time introducing new gadgets and services because they must first traverse a minefield of laws and government regulations. These laws are important. However, they must be clear and easy to understand so new technology isn’t bottled up needlessly.

The great news is that none of these limitations can truly stop technology from improving. Just think ahead to the holiday season of 2020. You never know what innovations will be waiting for us.

Adobe Photoshop is an amazing tool. It lets businesses edit the images they need to build professional-looking brochures, pamphlets, and marketing materials. However, Photoshop is far from inexpensive. A quick online scan will show that newer versions of this image-editing program can run higher then $600. For small business owners with limited funds, this program just is not practical. This doesn’t mean, though, that these small business owners do not have photo-editing options. In fact, businesses can choose from quite a few alternatives that are not only cheaper but are actually free.

Of course, these programs are not as powerful as Photoshop. But they have adequate photo-editing features for small business owners to effortlessly create professional looking material. Below is a list of the best free photo-manipulation programs now available.

GIMP

GIMP is very easy to use and possesses most of the features from Photoshop that a business owner might need to create marketing material. The beauty of GIMP is that it’s completely 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 far more powerful then its forerunner. One fantastic aspect for designers is an unlimited undo button. Paint.NET is a free program; the only negative about 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 exciting special effects as well, making it a well liked photo-editing program.

In the end, if you are looking for a program that lets you create professional marketing material, it is not necessary to spend a lot. These programs will let you accomplish this task at no cost.

Your smartphone is incredible. It can guide you to that trendy new fusion restaurant if you’re lost. It can play your favorite sitcom as you go to work on the train. It will play your favorite song at the touch of a button. But it can’t do any of this if its battery is dead.

A Better Battery on the Way?

A team of engineers at Chicago’s Northwestern University may have found a way to make a battery that lasts longer and charges itself in minutes, rather then overnight. This story reports on these research efforts. This is great news for smartphone users around the world.

According to the article, Northwestern’s researchers have found a way to extend the charge-life of a new lithium-ion battery by a factor of 10. Even after 150 charges—which researchers say represents a year or more of operation—this new battery would still be five times more efficient than the 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 an entire week. And the charging time could be less then 15 minutes. Which will definitely make life easier but this technology might have a much more important impact then that. It could be applied to the batteries utilized in electric cars, making them a lot 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 developments in technology, we tend to ignore the batteries that power our latest gadgets. Battery limitations 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 looking at online search engines, Google remains king. Microsoft isn’t pleased with this. That is 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 want to search the web. Most searchers still use Google for this task. Nevertheless, that does not mean that Bing offers nothing for computer users. The fact is, Microsoft did a lot right with Bing, and the search engine delivers plenty of exciting features that users shouldn’t disregard.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When searching on Bing you can get more information about your search results then you do from Google. There is a navigation panel on the left that features related searches; this can help you refine your search if you didn’t get the information you were in need of. There’s also a “search history” navigation panel to help you easily navigate to past pages if needed. This feature can be toggled on and off.

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 function, Bing makes the navigation a little more user friendly. Another helpful 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 apart from Google in terms of 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. In addition, 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 a few reasons why computer users should not overlook Bing. While Google is a household name, it’s not the only search engine available.

Cloud computing is becoming more and more common. A very basic definition of the cloud is: a group of remote servers where people can store and access their data. One advantage of using the cloud is that powerful programs and files may be stored at a distant location so they don’t consume memory on personal computers and slow down operating systems.

Not All Clouds are the Same

However; there are various kinds of clouds. You have the public cloud, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud. The majority of us use the public cloud, companies that wish to use cloud services to store very private data can opt to use a private cloud, and the hybrid cloud is a combination of both.

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

The Hybrid Cloud Approach Makes Sense

This frees up space on the in-house servers while guaranteeing certain data is highly safeguarded. The hybrid cloud is a good strategy to provide businesses with high security cloud services while reducing costs and saving space.

Because of this it’s not surprising that the hybrid cloud is so popular. Businesses today have too much data to store on their own servers but they don’t want the security risk that can come with the public cloud. Utilizing the hybrid cloud they can keep space in their systems free while safeguarding their data.

Thanks to improved technology, an increasing number of employees be capable of complete most or all of their work from home. Smartphones, tablet computers, teleconferencing, and WiFi-equipped bookstores and coffee shops have made this feasible. This presents a big advantage for employers: the more employees that work from home, the less money companies have to spend. Many companies, for instance, do not have assigned computers and desks for all of their workers because a lot of their workforce is working remotely. Additionally, 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

Remote workers and contractors do present at least one considerable challenge to employers: It can be difficult for employers to effectively monitor the hours that their workers are putting in. How do employers know, after all, if their remote personnel are pounding away at their keyboards or playing Angry Birds on their smartphones all day?

By setting realistic deadlines employers can keep track of their remote workers successfully. This is a change in managerial strategy; it puts the focus on the goal rather then the amount of time that the employee works. Ultimately, employees are the only ones who know when they work most effectively, even if it is from midnight to 4am.

Setting Remote Worker Deadlines

Setting deadlines is the easiest way 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 supervisor and employee at ease.

Off-Site Not a Permanent Condition

Working remotely requires personal discipline and good time-management skills. Individuals who are chronic procrastinators may not work best remotely. If employees aren’t hitting deadlines, or are turning in 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 maintain this trust the employee needs to hit their deadlines and the employer needs to be focused on the results.