The Internet has changed the way we get our news, watch movies, and pay our bills. It’s no wonder, then, that it has also changed the way we listen to music. Today, the web is home to several top music-streaming services – online services that permit users to listen to their favorite music on their laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.

If you are curious about the differences in these services, we have highlighted several below.

Pandora: Pandora is hardly a surprise choice, but there is a reason this music-streaming service remains well-liked: It is not difficult 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 will also play songs from similar artists. This gives you a taste of other tunes that you could also like.

Grooveshark: Grooveshark is a lot like Pandora in that it generates a “radio” station based upon your musical tastes. However, you may also listen to entire albums on Grooveshark and make playlists. One unique feature of Grooveshark is the power to upload your own music to the Grooveshark database if you cannot find what you are searching for. This is a smart and simple opportunity for Grooveshark to grow its library.

Rhapsody: Rhapsody has quickly made a name for itself thanks 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 was launched in 2008, and since then it has exploded into one of the most widely known and used music-streaming services. Spotify is very easy to use and, like Grooveshark, users can listen to entire albums or decide to use the radio function.  One of the things that people love about Spotify is its integration with Facebook. If you use the Spotify app, it keeps a running list of the songs you have heard on Facebook. Furthermore, users can see what their Facebook friends are presently listening to on a real-time feed. This is great for people who are in search of new music if one of their friends has similar tastes.

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 which was initially created as a feature for the Xbox gaming console.

A version of the device also works with Windows-operated PCs, and shortly after its release in February, people started identifying innovative ways to use it.

Innovative Uses for the Kinect

At the Chicago Auto Show the Chief Marketing Manager for Nissan North America used the Kinect in an intriguing way, by creating a virtual tour of the upgraded interior of the Pathfinder. This worked out well as they only had the outer shell of the Pathfinder to actually display. Using the Kinect, participants could actually “see” what the interior looked liked.

Microsoft is cooperating with companies to produce applications for the Kinect. This not only supports creativity but it puts the Kinect at the center of some of the most recent innovations. One example of a company that is working closely with Microsoft in this way is Boeing. Boeing used the Kinect to create virtual tours of its jets. Another example is a medical facility in Canada. They are using the Kinect’s gesture-recognition capability to swipe through CT scans. This removes the risk of getting germs on their hands from a keyboard or mouse.

Kinect: A Solid Hit

Microsoft hit a home run when they developed the Kinect. The Xbox 360 was last year’s best-selling gaming console, and they have the Kinect to thank for that. Since November of 2010 Microsoft has sold over 18 million Kinect devices.

The excitement around the Kinect and its many uses can only help to improve Microsoft’s reputation. They may be on their way to stepping into the “cool” tech company category.

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When you sift through the possible candidates for the position you’re hiring for, you want to find the super stars. You would like to find the most imaginative, passionate, and motivated people you can. But you can only find out who fits the bill through an interview. And if you don’t ask the correct questions you may misjudge your prospects.

If you hold the standard job interview, asking the same boring questions, the odds are you won’t be able to tell the top candidates from the so-so ones. That’s why it’s important to craft a unique job interview strategy.

Ask the Right Questions

A common approach to the job interview is to inquire about past positions the individual held. What their obligations were, etc. These are not the most beneficial questions as you only end up getting information that may be easily read from their resume. This doesn’t help you much if you’re looking for specific qualities. Think about asking them how they enhanced their positions, were there any processes that they changed, or ways in which they saved their company money.

Another typical interview question is to ask about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Most of us have a canned response to this, as they know it will probably be asked in an interview. Instead have them tell you the things they add to the culture of a company, what do they do in stressful situations, or what are some ways they keep themselves satisfied at their jobs. These answers will clue you in to the temperament of the person you are interviewing, and if they will fit in with your company and the position.

Another method you could use to determine creativity is to give them a task to complete. Something simple, for instance have them write their ideas about what their ideal work environment would be like. Or they could brainstorm products and services 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 imagination.

In today’s marketplace, employers have the advantage of choosing amongst many qualified people. So in order to choose the very best, they need to alter the types of questions they ask in job interviews.

No one likes traveling for business. Airports are a headache, with all that business of removing your shoes, paying extra to stow bags, as well as the constant delays and cancellations. We often overeat on bad fast food or at hotel buffets, as well, when we’re traveling for business. Then there’s the lack of sleep. It’s little wonder that so many business people are longing for improvements in videoconferencing technology. After all, if this technology improves sufficiently – the reasoning goes – maybe off-site business meetings, and the business travel that goes with this, will be a thing of the past.

The End of Business Travel?

But is this something that we should strive for in business? Is it the best thing if videoconferencing replaces face-to-face meetings altogether? Possibly not, think about the differences between meetings that are face-to-face versus videoconferencing.

During a videoconference, participants from across the globe sign on, say their hellos, and get to the business at hand. The amount of brainstorming is usually limited because people worry about the stability of their connections or give in to the disruptions of the offices in which they sit.

The Benefits of Face-to-Face Time

Face-to-face interactions are more intimate and allow conversation to evolve easily. Meetings may go longer should this happen, but the benefits of it can be excellent. New ideas come from the creative evolution of conversation. While it’s true that every meeting may not become a positive brainstorming session, it can be a great opportunity to develop interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

Business Travel is Here to Stay

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

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Doesn’t it feel like we should already have jetpacks? Teleporters? Or meals in capsule form? We already have some incredible technology, like tablets, which are small computers that people can carry around. We can use the GPS in our cars to get around around town. We can post an update to our social media sites and reach countless people at once.

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

Building a Better Battery

As we move into a more mobile world, batteries grow in importance. They are a foundation of our technological world these days. As a result, if we are limited by their power, and capability to hold a charge, the technology that utilizes them is also limited. For instance, you wouldn’t want your jet pack to loose its charge in flight. Recently, researchers at Chicago’s Northwestern University found a way to make a much more powerful lithium-ion battery than the ones we have today. We explained this more thoroughly in a blog post last week. When these batteries finally enter the market, we will likely notice a boom in technological advancements.

Improving Internet Access

Another hurdle to conquer is that not enough individuals have access to the Internet. In reality, most of the globe doesn’t have access to it. This is naturally restricting breakthroughs in technology. It goes back to the basic concept of the more minds we have working on a problem, the faster we will solve it.

The Business of New Tech

Last but not least there is the bureaucracy. Business matters, like patent laws, can slow down technological progress. Individuals and businesses that develop innovative things have to first navigate these waters. But if government regulations are clear and simple to comprehend, it could prevent some of this.

While these are some of the things that hinder technology from advancing, it still is developing at a rapid pace. So who knows what is in store for us in the next year or two.

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Adobe Photoshop is an excellent photo manipulation tool. With it, businesses can produce professional looking marketing materials fairly easily. The largest problem with Photoshop is the cost. A person looking to purchase it can spend more then $600 for newer versions. This is not practical for many small business owners, and they probably don’t require all of the features that a $600 photo-editing program comes with. Luckily, there are many alternatives to Photoshop that are affordable or free.

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

GIMP

GIMP is very simple to use and possesses most of the features from Photoshop that a business owner would need to create marketing material. The best thing about GIMP is that it’s completely free!

Paint.NET

Do you remember MSPaint? It came standard with the Windows operating system. Paint.NET is its successor and is a really powerful and free photo editor. It comes with its own special effects and an unlimited undo; this is great for people who want to experiment with the effects. The one negative of this program is it only works with Windows.

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 unique special effects as well, making it a very popular photo-editing program.

There is no need to purchase the costly Photoshop program to make professional looking pamphlets. For the small business owner on a budget, any of these programs will do the trick while keeping standards high.

Your smartphone is amazing. It can steer 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 can 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?

Engineers at Chicago’s Northwestern University have been working on advancements in battery technology and may have discovered a way to make batteries charge in minutes and last considerably longer.

Northwestern’s researchers have found a way to increase the charge of lithium-ion batteries by more then 10 times the current lithium-ion battery life. They’re even boasting that after 150 charges, which they believe represents about a year of operation, the new lithium-ion battery will be 5 times more effective than batteries at this time.

A Charged Battery for a Week

This might be hard to believe, particularly with all the apps we run on our devices, but this new battery could stay charged for an entire week. And the charging time could be less then 15 minutes. That will obviously make life easier but this technology may have a even more significant impact then that. It can be applied to the batteries used in electric cars, making them much more efficient, and radically decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Batteries Powering Technological Change

While this new battery technology will have a huge impact on many aspects of our life, it will not be available to the general public for three to five years, says Northwestern researchers. Batteries tend to be over looked when we think of advanced technologies, but the more we rely on mobile devices the more imperative they become.  Improvements in battery technology may in reality hold the key to an even greater technological revolution.

When looking at online search engines, Google is still king. Microsoft isn’t happy with this. That’s why the company introduced 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 turn to 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 should not dismiss.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When you search on Bing, you will get more information about your search results than you’ll get from Google. Bing’s results include a left-hand navigation panel filled with Quick Tabs that allow users to concentrate their searches. There’s also a center row of search results that are grouped into logical categories. This makes it simpler for users to find multimedia files or quick answers.

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 valuable 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 have to hover their cursor over the video to play a part of it without clicking on it.

These are a few of the reasons why computer users shouldn’t be so quick to discount Bing. Yes, Google continues to be the go-to player with regards to search engines. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the only choice today.

Cloud computing has become 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 benefit of utilizing the cloud is that powerful programs and files can be stored at a remote location so they don’t consume memory on personal computers and bog down operating systems.

Not All Clouds are the Same

However, that isn’t all that you should understand about the cloud. There is the public cloud, which is the one most of us use, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud. The hybrid cloud, as the name implies, is a combination of using both the public and private cloud.

For a business to provide a hybrid cloud, they store a client’s most confidential data on their in-house private cloud, and data that requires less defense on a public cloud. For instance, archived files and big software programs.

The Hybrid Cloud Approach Makes Sense

The hybrid cloud is a great way for companies to both save money and save space. It takes advantage of the less costly public cloud while guaranteeing that highly sensitive data is protected.

Because of this it’s no surprise that the hybrid cloud is so widely used. 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. Using the hybrid cloud they are able to keep space in their systems free while protecting their data.

A growing number of employees nowadays work remotely. This is possible as a result of advancements in technology. The rewards are many for both employee and employer. Employers can spend less money as they have less people that need space in the workplace. Employees that work remotely are often more productive; they spend less time commuting, and they have the flexibility to adjust their work around their life rather than working 9 hours straight, which can lead to burnout.

Remote Worker Challenges

One worry that lots of employers have when deciding to hire remote workers is, how can they monitor the volume of work they do? How do they know they are really working and not simply playing games on their computer all day long?

One easy way to monitor the amount of work being completed by remote workers is to set realistic goals that they must hit. This puts the focus on the results and keeps the manager from worrying about it, provided that the goals are being met. This also gives the employee flexibility to work within the hours they are most productive.

Setting Remote Worker Deadlines

Setting deadlines is the simplest way to monitor the work being carried out by remote workers. Supervisors can set short-term and long-term goals or make something due every Friday. Additionally, a manger could have a weekly or biweekly meeting via cellphone or video chat to catch up on the progress of projects. This can put the manager and employee at ease.

Off-Site Not a Permanent Condition

While many people may have the personal discipline and time management skills to effectively work remotely, some don’t. So, if an employee doesn’t work effectively remotely, and that has become clear, remote working doesn’t have to stay permanent, it can easily be revoked. Ultimately, trust within the employee/employer relationship is one of the key components of a effective remote working relationship. The worker needs to maintain that trust by hitting deadlines and delivering excellent work.