The Nexus 4

Hot off the press, the Nexus 4 is Google’s newest toy. Having a number of admirable features, spec-wise, it proves to be a worthy opponent for Apple’s iPhone 5, and Samsung’s Galaxy S3. However, where the Nexus 4 blows the competition out the water is with its mercifully low prices of $300 and $350 USD, for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively. And yes, the Nexus 4 is sold, at this price, already unlocked.Its cost stands at about half that of the top phones on the market right now and we have Google to thank for subsidizing it.

Fun fact: The Nexus 4 was such an anticipated hit that it sold out almost immediately after its release in the US and within an estimated 30 minutes in the UK.

What’s Inside?

Quick-Specs for the Techies (Device Specifications)

• 4.7 inch LCD display
• 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm dimensions for a comfortable palm-sized fit
• 1280 x 768 pixel resolution (320 ppi)
• 8 / 16 GB storage capacity
• 2GB RAM
• Snapdragon 4 – One of Qualcomm’s newest processors for mobile devices

Features for the Gadgetheads

• Wireless charger
• 8 MP camera on the back (lo-res cam on the front)
• GPS
• Accelerometer
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n

For more features and detailed specifications, visit: http://www.google.com/nexus/4/specs/

The Nexus 4 also comes pre-loaded with the latest version of the Android operating system, Jelly Bean, and has the Android Beam built in for the sharing of digital information between Android devices with a simple tap of their surfaces.

The Nexus 4 and Jamaica

By this point you may be wondering: “Is this any good for the Jamaican phone user?” With the Blackberry still dominating the Jamaican market, I want to argue that the Nexus 4 is a remarkably better option that should be considered seriously as your next big mobile phone purchase.

With Digicel now offering mobile broadband internet access with speeds up to 4G for a reasonable price, the capabilities of the Nexus 4 can be brought into full effect. Its heavy customization for Google Apps and other Android applications provide users with a more convenient and friendly interface for making use of the time-saving features of Smartphones.

With a couple taps on the touchscreen a user can easily accessextremely useful features such as Google Maps, for turn by turn directions, voice activated searches through Google Now, Gmail, Google Drive and more, making it more useful than the currently available Blackberry devices, which make these tasks encumbering.

Additionally, very few of the latest downloadable applications are available for the Blackberry; it is slowly being forgotten by the app world. Lastly, if you think you will be missing Blackberry Messenger too much, it’s about time to get with the times and expand your instant messaging with a switch to WhatsApp; which allows the same quality of communication as BBM, between ALL smartphones, not just the Blackberry.

With the Nexus 4, already unlocked for use through Jamaica’s typically used GSM – 850MHZ band, all you need to do is put in your LIME or Digicel SIM card, and you are good to go.

Google’s newest phone bridges the ever-increasing gap between cutting-edge technology and affordability, giving an opportunity for those of us who are strapped for cash to experience the improvements in quality of life that a Smartphone can provide. For such a less expensive price, do your wallet and productivity a favor for the New Year and ring in with a Nexus 4. I know I will.

How It Works

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates the hydrogen.
• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.
• The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
• This purified hydrogen gas is then pushed into the generator for electricity

The Critics

Though many have quite accurately argued that the process is impractical for everyday use as it requires a small amount of electricity at the front-end for electrolysis of the urine and one would need liquid borax for the process, the great thing is that these young ladies have generated power from a source that is not a fossil fuel. They did it from waste and that is commendable. We should also realize that the existence of electricity holds a very different value in Africa and this could be a first step towards better solutions.

The take away from this should not be the practicality of the device but the fact that innovation, hope and a willingness to effect change exists among young Africans, who are normally negatively stereotyped.

ShipMe is a service created by Exec Direct Aviation, an air freight and cargo service provider that seems to have a good handle on the air freight business. They’ve made a good move at diversifying their service offering with their ShipMe product, which will basically leverage their already established air freight arm of business.

Simplicity of the User Interface

Upon discovering their attractive website, within 5 minutes I was able to create a free account and begin using my automatically assigned Florida mailing address. I purchased a small item on Amazon to test if they were legit since the standard in the industry is usually to go to the shipping provider’s office to pay a membership fee and fill out a physical form. The package I ordered was sent to my new mailing address and to my surprise I received automatic email alerts stating when they received the package in Miami, an alert when it left their warehouse and a final alert for pick-up in Kingston 4 days later.

Hats off to new a company that gets the job done right. If they continue on their current path they will become the best in the island while setting a new standard in service delivery and ease of use.

My Recommendations to ShipMe:

• Integrate SSL Encryption on the website for customer sign-up pages and account pages. You need to guarantee data security for customers.
• Offer islandwide delivery of items when shipped
• Invoices should be payable online through the account pages

Some of their existing features:

• Free US address
• Package tracking
• Shop-4-Me features for users without a credit or international debit card
• Shipping cost calculator
• Mail forwarding
• Email and text notifications

Competitors

Now I know you may say that other companies such as MailPac have these features and more. Well that is true, but I see ShipMe as a company with potential and the main objective in this business is to get me my package on time, intact while keeping  me informed. MailPac as an established company oftentimes does not get that basic function right based on what I see others go through with them and other providers.

I’ve always had items being shipped from the US but as established as a company like Mail Pac is, I just could not get myself to signup for their service and not to mention the poor service I have received from other companies, who on some occasions have to be hunted to extract credible updates from them. MailPac’s website first of all redirects me to a 3rd party website in spanish when I tried to register, which I just don’t like or trust, the online form itself is just a bit too cumbersome for me and the information just did not flow. Something as seemingly simple as that turn off people like me.

Conclusion

Give ShipMe a try if want a basic hassle-free service where your package gets delivered on-time. Let us know the result.

So we’ve given you all the information you need to thrive in the paperless office world and now you need to know where to begin. You didn’t think we were just going to abandon you, did you? Here we’ve outlined 5 easy steps.

Step 1 – Inform staff and assign duties

We recommend you do this first since you will need their input regarding their daily processes to make sure that you establish a system that really works. Plus, it’s good to have them buy in from the beginning so they can feel like they are part of the process, rather than having it thrust upon them. A great way to introduce them to the paperless system is by showing them this series of articles.

Step 2 – Determine what to do with your paper

You have two main sources of paper – the ‘historical paper’ is what you currently have  in your file cabinets in the office  while ‘future paper’ refers to the documents and letters you will inevitably get from clients and suppliers after you transition. Some paper you may decide to keep as paper such as contracts. You have to identify what you have and what to do with them.

Step 3 – Establish your paperless system and transition plan

A flowchart may help you to visualize what your fully functioning paperless system will look like. It should include the fully-detailed process of where documents are coming from, to where they will be stored and how they will be retrieved. This system will look different for everyone so it’s important you consider what your business processes are. Next, you can create a timetable of your transition plan – how to take your business from where it is now to the paperless realm you want to enter. This will be the most time-consuming part. Make sure to do trial runs to ensure that your process will actually work.

Step 4 – Purchase software and/or hire external help

As we mentioned in Part 3 of this series, there are some great programs, software and devices made just for the paperless office. That list wasn’t exhaustive so you most likely will have to do some research on your own to find out what program suits your needs and your budget. For the conversion of your historical files, it may be beneficial to hire data entry assistants online through a site like oDesk or Freelancers.com. That will free up your staff to do what you actually hired them to do.

Step 5 – Inform external partners and see if they can make your transition easier

Some businesses today do offer the option to send you an electronic invoice or bill or whatever other document they release on a regular basis. This helps them cut down on the costs and time to print and mail them to you. (See, other benefits already!) Let them know about your transition mission and see if they have any options that you can benefit from.

And that’s it! We hope you enjoyed our first series post. Tell us what you think and if you want more!

As promised, we have provided a list of apps and devices for you to make that transition into paperless. We have only listed the most highly recommended app that works cross-platforms because listing everything available would take centuries. If you have any that you use or you represent an app not listed here, feel free to leave us a comment below with the description and link for our readers.

Read books – Kindle

You don’t need to own a Kindle device to enjoy Kindle books. Download one of the free Kindle apps to read Kindle books on all your devices. The Kindle app is available for every major smartphone, tablet, and computer. That means with these apps, you can buy a Kindle book once, and read it on any device with the Kindle app installed. Source

Take notes – Evernote 

Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A “note” can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook. Evernote supports a number of operating system platforms (including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Chrome OS, Android, iOS and WebOS), and also offers online synchronization and backup services. Source 

Secure information – TrueCrypt 

TrueCrypt allows you to create a highly encrypted file that appears as a virtual disk drive on your system. You can copy any files on to that “drive” and they are automatically encrypted. The file containing the virtual drive can be copied to any machine, but you must specify the password in order to mount the drive and view its contents. Source

Bonus: 10 Things You Can Do To Protect Your Data

Secure devices – Prey  

Prey lets you keep track of your laptop, phone and tablet whenever stolen or missing — easily and all in one place. It’s lightweight, open source software that gives you full and remote control, 24/7. Source 

Share files – Basecamp  

You’ll like this online application because it allows you to view everything about your project on one page. At a glance you will see the latest discussions and comments, to-do lists, uploaded files and text documents for those that need updating or adjusting. It allows you track projects so you can know what happened when without any confusion. Source

Store files – Dropbox 

Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software. In brief, Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on each of their computers, which Dropbox then synchronises so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of the computer it is viewed on. Files placed in this folder are also accessible through a web site and mobile phone applications. Source

Track expenses – Lemon

Meet the wallet that’s never lost, stolen or forgotten. Lemon turns your phone into a digital wallet that organizes and stores your cards, receipts, coupons and more, so you can access what you need more conveniently. But the Smarter Wallet from Lemon does much more than store cards, receipts and coupons.  It helps you access and use it in smart new ways.  Think of it as your very own pocket-sized entourage that helps you track your spending, save money, and stay more secure. Source

Sign documents – Digital Pen

A digital pen is an input device which captures the handwriting or brush strokes of a user, converts handwritten analog information created using “pen and paper” into digital data, enabling the data to be utilized in various applications. For example, the writing data can be digitized and uploaded to a computer and displayed on its monitor. The data can then be interpreted by handwriting software (OCR) and used in different applications or just as graphics. Source

Bonus: 2012 Best Digital Pen Comparison and Reviews

Scan documents – OfficeDrop  

OfficeDrop‘s app scans documents directly to the cloud for storage and sharing. The ScanDrop desktop app is available for both PC and Mac, but the iPhone and Android Scanner apps allow you to scan and upload documents using your smartphone. Once uploaded, the document’s text is searchable, thanks to OCR, and sharable with colleagues. Source

PS. It was so hard researching this app because I’m such an app junkie! I now have all of these apps on my computer/phone…

As we saw in Part 1, there can be tremendous benefits to going paperless, but no good things comes without it’s flaws and this is no different. The good news is that not only can we tell you the likely negative outcomes you will encounter going paperless, but we can also give you the solution to prevent these issues before they even come around.

Signing documents will be a hassle.

Any business that has paperwork for staff and customers to sign off on a regular basis will have a problem transitioning to a paperless system. If you require internal signatures mostly, you can consider investing in software that lets employees add an e-signature or their own signature in image format. A digital pen can also work great for businesses that have customers needing to sign on a regular basis.

Other businesses won’t have the same software you do.

That’s the one benefit of paper you can’t replace – it’s universal. Spend your paperless dollars investing in applications and programmes that either work universally on all common operating system platforms or those that generate documents in standard file formats such as PDF.

Confidentiality becomes an issue when your documents are stored on a computer/network.

In general, you would have to worry about employees breaching confidentiality whether or not you use paper, although electronic versions allow them to disseminate these in the blink of an eye. Apart from that, you now have to think about hackers who may try to break into your company’s network and steal confidential information. We can’t stress how important it is to have updated anti-virus software. Additionally you should get all confidential files encrypted with individual employee passwords so if it ever does get leaked, you can track it. Stolen devices can also present problems. Most devices today come with their own tracking software but you can kick that up a notch by adding remote wiping software that removes sensitive information.

Data may be lost or corrupted.

This one is a simple and common problem. Solution: multiple backups. External hard drives are pretty affordable nowadays. Do frequent backups (daily, if possible) to these and put data more than a month old in the cloud.

Some employees may not be comfortable with using technology.

And that is not your problem. As a matter of fact, since we all know that’s the direction the world is headed, you would only be helping them to ease into it. If your staff isn’t tech savvy enough to get going without help, offer a few training sessions to get them acquainted. They will thank you…eventually.

The power goes or your network fails during business hours.

It sucks to be on either side of this; staff will panic and get frustrated while customers will be angry and annoyed. It’s a nightmare for businesses that rely on ‘here and now’ processes and the power goes. Fortunately, we are now populated with devices that run on battery power. Therefore, the best way to overcome this is to keep a local copy of all ‘daily files’ on a laptop or tablet device.

If you think of any further issues we may encounter in a paperless system, state them in the comments and we’ll do our best to help you overcome them. Next time, we’ll be talking about the specific applications, programmes and devices you can use in your paperless system.

Professional Services Ltd. builds surge supressors here in Jamaica since 1982. The interesting bit is that although many of the components are imported, the designs of the circuits inside are all done by proprietor Paul Tomlinson. Each unit is also assembled locally on an assembly line. More info below:

What type of products do you make?

Voltage monitors and surge suppressors for home, commercial, and industrial use. (what many people don’t know, though, is that if we don’t already make it, we can most likely design and build it- I haven’t seen a challenge beat Mr. Tomlinson yet!)

Are the power issues with our local provider or with wiring of buildings?
This one is a bit tricky: one can’t blame our local provider entirely. According to Mr. Tomlinson, after having done research on the matter, he’s found that most of the island is prone to salt water corrosion in the power lines. As it turns out, sea spray travels up to 20 miles inland- and Jamaica is less tan 50 miles wide.

If a building is powered by solar or wind energy does it still need surge protection?
Only if it’s hooked up to the local power grid. Anything independent of that we would consider relatively safe.

Does everyone need surge protection?
The only people on the island we don’t feel need surge Oiprotection of some sort are the ones who have managed to set up their own, independent source of power…. And, we suppose, those who don’t use electricity.

Are there different levels of protection?
There ”are ”different levels of surge protection that may be offered, but that comes down to how much money someone is willing to spend on that protection. What we strive to do here is provide a reasonable level of protection for a reasonable price.

How have your products modernized over the years?
One of the biggest modernizations would be the movement from a resistive power supply to a capacitive one. Resistive power supplies use a power wasteful resistor to drop the 110 volts (jps line voltage). A capacitor is a reactive element, and doesn’t dissipate any heat

Everything is made in Jamaica? What would make local production easier or more cost effective?
We only import raw materials where we need to. All the components (cords, cases, circuit boards etc.), and finally the products themselves, are proudly made in Jamaica. We believe in buying local where we can, but the major limiting factor here is that Jamaica has no electronic components industry. Consider, for example, our circuit boards. They were printed (and manually drilled) within the business, but with the move to a production line, greater quantities and accuracy became necessary: the only way to make the quantum leap in production was to incorporate dip soldering, a track, and ‘pick & place’ insertion. The accuracy required for large scale production at this point required CNC drilling- an option not easily available at the time. Even now, for the quantities we order in, doing so locally is sadly still not the most cost-effective option.

There you have it. A local, family owned tech manufacturing company. Hopefully this company and more will benefit from the push for ICT development in Jamaica. I also hope they will achieve their aim to start exporting soon.

If you know of a local would love to hear more about companies like these, if you know of any please let me know!

There’s no place like home

That’s why we’d like to introduce you to some other blogs we love that offer this as well. They all have similar mandates but post different content. So without further ado, three of our favourite ‘geeky blogs’ for the Average Joe/Jane.

Lifehacker

Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done. As simple as that. From home improvement, to security to computers, they have it. Always the provider of neat little tricks that come in handy but you never really thought of before, their posts are truly the way to hack your way to a better life.

Latest/Most Popular Posts:

• How to Focus and Stay Productive When You’re Expected to Always Be Available
• Why You Didn’t Get the Interview
• The Science Behind Why Power Naps Help You Stay Productive and Creative

MakeUseOf

Another productivity site like Lifehacker but it focuses a lot more on computers and tech gadgets. The articles on MakeUseOf are usually categorized by How-To tips, Cool Websites and Apps, Downloads, among others. Stick with them and you’ll learn about many great websites and apps that they test and compile for you without you doing any of the grunt work. Even better, you may catch a cool giveaway every once in a while.

Latest/Most Popular Posts:

• Combine Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Google Reader To Make Sense Of Real Time News
• The Fading Games Of Yesterday, And How We Preserve Them [Feature]
• Cool Websites and Tools [August 7th 2012]

Stepcase Lifehack

Communication, lifestyle, money, time management and technology and some of the topics they write about on Stepcase Lifehack. It’s mission is to provide you with advice, resources, tips and tricks that will help you get things done more efficiently and effectively.

• 5 Quick and Refreshing Summer Cocktails
• 4 Essential Tips for Managing the Family Calendar
• 9 Ways To Prevent Burnout

Carlette DeLeon, Smile Jamaica host and tech writer, does a good job of this on her simple, clean, well laid-out website. As I said before, virtually non-existent. (PS. If you know of others, let me know).

Social media

You knew I was getting to this. There is a reason so many businesses are singing praises to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare- they work! But only when executed effectively. Setting up a presence online is not enough and pushing advertisements through these channels is suicide. You need to constantly interact and engage fans, talking about things that matter to them. In short, businesses who become ‘friends’ with their social media fans and much morelikely to get the attention they want. And after developing a community of persons who love your brand, it’s almost like they are doing all of your work – nothing works to your favour like brand advocates. Businesses doing great at social media in Jamaica – Jamaica Pegasus, Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records, Rough Rider Jamaica, Palace Amusement Co – to name a few.

Share information with/from others

The world doesn’t revolve around you. Make sure you acknowledge the people that came before and the people that are doing it well. If you find information elsewhere that is relevant to your business, share it with your audience. Not only will you show that you respect other people’s work, your page or blog will become a hub for great content, even if it’s not yours. Another great way to share is to guest post on other blogs and have other people relevant to your industry guest post on yours. Mamachel does guest posts on a regular basis on her blog.

Establish your home

Make sure you have one set hub of information online that you can refer persons to if they want to know more about your business. This information should be as detailed, complete and current as possible. While I recommend having your own website for this, if you are not prepared to maintain a website, the second best place for this is a Facebook Fan Page. They give you enough slots to put in any info that may be relevant to your business.

Make your avatar your billboard

Avatars are those little (generally square) images that you see on most social media sites and website hosting services such a Blogger or WordPress. Many underestimate the power of these little images. By using your business/brand logo in these images, you are increasing brand awareness and recognition each time you tweet, post a Facebook message, check in on Foursquare or make a comment on someone’s blog. It is important to note that if you are using this approach, make sure the logo fits well in the avatar and that it can be seen/read clearly. Also, be careful of brand association. If you or your partner/employee speak about drastically unrelated topics (read: dirty), you may not want your brand to be associated with your personal account.