Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Spring is near..Time to be productive!

Hey guys!
It’s almost halfway through March already, can you believe it? I hardly can. As spring approaches it reminds us all to come out of the winter hibernation and get productive! This month we are all about applications and accessories that allow us to be more productive in our daily life. Productivity means different things for everyone, right? So with that said, this month we want to address how to be more productive in a small business, as a college student and young professional, and with accessories that help everyone increase the functionality of their wireless devices.
The first step to being productive with your smartphone is what?... Having it be charged! We can’t use our phones in the ways we want to if we don’t have a fully charged battery. Recently, you might have heard of some horror stories about people getting injured or houses catching on fire due to electrical fires stemming from the use of a cell phone charger. The charges responsible for these accidents are not Apple approved and therefore are not 100% compatible with your phone. Why? Because Apple runs tests on chargers to promote optimal charge in a short amount of time. For example, an apple charger should charge you phone which is at 0% battery to 100% battery in approximately 45 minutes. Non-Apple-approved chargers will have less strength causing you to need to leave your phone plugged in for long periods. This length of time could lead to overheating of the wires and in effect, melt your phone. We did a little experiment with a cheap charger bought of Amazon to see how it would hold up to charging an iPhone. Check out the picture below and you’ll notice it did in fact melt the wires and could have potentially caused a fire. Pretty bad, huh?

So the solution to this is not necessarily that you have to use an Apple charge but, that you go to a reputable source, like Car-tel Communications, and purchase a charger that has been tested for use on an iPhone. If you have another smartphone it is just as important to get a charger that is universal and approved for your type of phone. This might sound dramatic but if for no other reason to have a proper charger, your phone will charge more efficiently if you have the right accessories.
Next up are our application picks to promote productivity! As I mentioned we have selected a few that would help people who are in different places in their career and these apps will boost their networking and business efforts.
When you’re starting your job search you should absolutely create a LinkedIn account. Admittedly, I first did not understand the point of LinkedIn, the scope of its features and so on. However, I now use this application and social media on a daily basis. You will have your resume in a public sphere so, automatically, more visibility. You will be able to find people who you already know and use their list of contacts to find someone who you might a build a mutually beneficial business relationship with. The application is intuitive with a clean design and is great to check periodically instead of your Facebook page.
Parking Meter Pro is a fantastic application for someone going on business lunches, interviews, giving p presentation and more. It actually helps you plan ahead for where to find parking, remember where you parked and alert you before you meter runs out so you know to get back to your car before a traffic cop spots you.
Lastly, I really like the app ScanBizCards Business Card Reader. It’s one of the only OCR applications that accurately store the information from the business cards you scan into your phone. A unique feature of this app is that it allows you to send your business card to someone else so you’re never without your cards when you make an unexpected business connection!
I hope you will find these things as useful as I have! Now, go on and get moving people, Spring is around the corner!