Zinc Blog

Last week we explored the flagship smartphones that are on the market right now. Today, we wanted to look at some different devices. These devices carry the price tag of a flagship (or cost more), but don’t necessarily have the specs that you would expect from devices priced in that area. They explore new form factors, or in some cases, older form factors. Let’s briefly discuss four innovative new devices.

Millions of people have moved off the traditional computer and now use their smartphone for most of their browsing and other tasks, with new devices coming out regularly to help them do so. Let’s take a few minutes to examine the latest devices available today.

Technology is getting smarter, from the consumer level on up. As such, artificial intelligence is appearing in more and more applications that all businesses can embrace. Let’s take a few minutes and go over the various ways that artificial intelligence can be used to support your business’ operations.

When a component of your business is as foundationally important as your technology infrastructure is, ensuring it operates effectively is imperative to your organizational success. However, this isn’t always as simple as it sounds. Let’s go over what this means for your business and how this challenge can be addressed.

Shadow IT is a big problem in today’s business, but not a lot of people know about it. As powerful as technology can be if it is left unmonitored, it can run into problems. Shadow IT is unmonitored technology because it is brought onto a network without an IT administrator’s knowledge. Today, we talk a little bit about fighting shadow IT and how to get your staff on board.

In the not-all-that-distant past, connectivity required an actual, physical connection between two endpoints. As a result, a wired connection was the only option for businesses to access online materials and resources. This leaves businesses with a choice to make: is a wired connection better for my operations, or should I implement wireless connectivity?

Drones—they sure seem to be everywhere these days, don’t they? There’s a good reason for that. More than a hobbyist’s plaything or a military asset, drones have practical applications in a wide variety of industries. Let’s go over how different industries have adopted these handy devices to suit their needs.

The pandemic has been difficult for many business owners, but in this time of peril there has been a silver lining. Many business owners have taken some of the time away from business to sharpen their technical skills. Some of the skills these entrepreneurs are looking to improve include their understanding of the software, telecommunications, and marketing that they use in the course of doing business. To do this, they are using some of the same resources that you use when you want help sharpening your skills: YouTube

Gmail is a popular option for businesses seeking to use email, one of the business world’s most popular solutions, seeing as it has a 33.7 percent market share. Many of these businesses may have found that they spend more time using Gmail than they would prefer. Fortunately, if this time is spent repeatedly writing the same message, there is a solution: Gmail templates.

In the 1980s, there was a cartoon by the name of G.I. Joe, based on action figures manufactured by toy giant Hasbro. Due to the popularity of this cartoon, they set out time each week to do a brief PSA aimed to educate kids about the dangers of certain actions. The tagline, “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” became entrenched in the lexicon. Now, over thirty years later, kids that grew up on G.I. Joe are business owners and have come to understand just how poignant that message is. Let’s take a look at a couple of ways businesses can expand their knowledge base and use it to improve their operations using IT.

Spreadsheet-generation software is one of those tools that effectively offers all businesses some level of utility. Having said that, different business circumstances may lead to one title being a better option for your operations. Let’s compare Microsoft Excel to Google Sheets to see which one may work better for you, based on selected features and processes.

Google is actively working to improve the working experience for their G Suite customers by continuing to innovate on their many products and services. This includes revamping Gmail to create a more integrated communication platform for businesses to take advantage of. Let’s take a few moments and examine what the upgraded Gmail will offer.

Did you know that over 80 percent, eight-zero, of cyberattacks are the result of stolen access credentials? It’s no wonder that the username/password combination that we’re all used to is being actively phased out by many tech companies—including Microsoft—in favor of more secure, passwordless authentication measures.

You may have heard the term “business analytics” thrown around before. This growing field can offer businesses of all sizes some substantial operational benefits in the form of optimized performance and improved decision making. Let’s review what business analytics are, and how you can embrace them to your advantage with technology.

Microsoft has been a major player in the productivity space for decades. Their Microsoft Office platform was one of their first (and one of their most successful) products. Recently, the software giant rebranded their cloud-based Office 365 platform to Microsoft 365. Today, we’ll tell you what that means for consumers. 

It is an unfortunate truth that not much can be said about the current pandemic that’s “positive.” Frankly, it’s hard to be positive, let alone laugh, despite how important it is that we are and do. We wanted to help fix that, so we’re sharing a few benefits of the situation we’re currently experiencing to take some well-earned comfort in.

So, as the boss, you’re concerned about your employees wasting time, especially on the Internet. However, you can’t exactly keep them off the Internet, as that’s where their work is done. With distractions like social media, streaming, and literally everything else out there to draw their attention away, how can you hope to compete?

Email is one of the most common communication tools used by businesses, but not all options are as good as others. For this week’s tip, we’re recommending that you embrace hosted email in your own operations. Here’s why.

Your business depends quite a bit on its wireless connectivity, which means that your choice of router is an important consideration. Let’s review some of the key points that you need to remember as you select the router that best fits your needs.

What would you think if I told you that you could break your smartphone by setting the wrong picture as its background? Well, you had better start thinking it, as a photograph has been discovered that has precisely that effect when it is set as the wallpaper. Let’s unwrap this admittedly crazy story to get a better handle on the situation.