Sanet Working

Posts Tagged ‘Technologies’

Technological advancements made in the last 50 years have dramatically changed our lives. One of the things that technology has enabled us to do is to work from home. This trend seems to be picking up popularity all over the world and there are thousands of individuals that are pursuing full fledge careers from their homes making use of future technology.

Forrester revealed a new study showing that 9% of the total workforce is employed in home based jobs for different companies. Yet another 22.8 million people are operating their businesses from their homes. This unique demographic is having a big impact on neighborhoods. Residential neighborhoods are now turning into business districts with every other home turning into an office for the home owners.

This new trend has resulted in a dire need to equip homes with business class broadband services. In the absence of such a service economic development may be greatly hampered by poor internet services. Hence a large number of multinationals and communities are now getting themselves involved in developing a more reliable broadband infrastructure. In the days gone by employment opportunities used to attract people to a particular neighborhood.

Today however if people are unable to work from home in a particular neighborhood then they will move to another one. In other words, communities that do not possess proper work from home facilities will lose out on 10% to 20% of the total jobs. This is the impact of modern technology on our lives and it is likely to get even larger in the coming years.

Apple’s iPhone has the largest collection of applications written for it. That’s a fact and it will take a long time before any other platform gets close to their numbers, especially with new apps added everyday. And the recent crackdown on cookie-cutter apps that just copy others and don’t provide anything valuable to the users will help ensure that the quality of the marketplace stays high.

The iPad and the much-rumored iPhone 4G will play an important role in growing the apps market even more, as the applications will be cross-compatible on all these devices, including the first-generation iPhone and and iPhone 3G.

If you plan on buying an iPhone, you can be assured that it will definitely not get old in the next few years. One thing I’d recommend though is to wait until the next generation iPhone comes out. There are 2 good reasons for that: one, the new device will likely have  a lot more features and power and you might like it more; two, the current performance champion, iPhone 3GS, will definitely get cheaper, possibly by a high margin, and you, as a buyer, will only benefit from saving a few tens or hundreds of dollars.

Having said that let me show you a few of the coolest and most amazing apps you can get and install on an iPhone.

Photoshop Mobile. Yes, the most popular and functional photo editing software for desktop computers, used by many professionals around the world has a mobile edition, both for the iPhone and Android devices (although it’s a bit more limited on the latter). It certainly isn’t as advanced as the full version, but it’s more than enough to quickly edit any of the pictures you take, for sending them via email or posting them on a site, forum or social network. You can crop, resize, modify and apply various effects (like black and white, sepia, old, mosaic, etc.) to any of the images you have on your phone.

Skype. This is a great app for making cheap calls and sending cheap SMS messages all over the world, using VoIP (which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol) via your operator’s 3G network or any available Wi-Fi hotspot (which makes it even cheaper). You can also have a special Skype number which will be cheaper to call from the country you register it in, no matter where in the world you are. I can be redirected to any other mobile or fixed telephone number, which makes it even better. You should definitely check it out. A better choice would be Google Voice, which offers all of the above plus more (like automatic voice messages transcription and receiving calls to multiple numbers at once) for free, but unfortunately Apple decided not to allow their app in the marketplace. There is a mobile edition though, but it’d cost more to use than Skype.

Layar Reality Browser. This is an amazing Augmented Reality app for the iPhone and Android, and it allows you to find places of interest near you. For example, you could search for the best café and it’ll give you a map of all the café’s near you with user reviews, so you can choose one. Then you could travel to it using your GPS and compass. You could also hold the phone in front of you and Layar will display a mark right above the building where you need to go to (using your phone’s camera as a real-time view). The app also integrates with Facebook and Twitter, so you can see the tweets and messages of any people around you that have an account (which is practically everybody these days . The app is perfect if you’re in a new town and don’t know what to do or where to go.

ModGuitars.com Tuner. This simple web application will help you tune your guitar. It isn’t an automated system that would tell you when the tune is right using the phone’s microphone (although that would be awesome). Instead, it provides you with the sounds of perfectly tuned guitar strings, and you can use them to tune yours (you gotta have an ear for music though). The interface is simple, just visit the link and prepare to tune your guitar.

Need for Speed Shift. This is one of the best games on the desktop and on any mobile platform, including the iPhone. The effects, controls and graphics are simply outstanding, and you can play it over and over again and never get tired of it. Definitely a must have game if you use your phone for entertainment and like car racing simulators.

If you already own an iPhone or plan to buy one, definitely try the above apps, to see how your phone can do for you something you never thought was possible on such a small device.