Best Small Business Apps You Need To Know About

Below is an Infographic on "The Best Small Business Apps" you need to know about. Best Business apps for Brainstormin,g Customer Service, Cash Flow Helper, Package Tracker, File Sharing, Email Campaign Manager, Business Trip Organiser, Social Media Manager and Best Rolodex Alternative are Discussed in the following Infographic!

Infographic By Irishapps

Gaming Websites Are at Risk

Online games are increasing in popularity with various groups of the population. Many people who start playing these very catchy games have no idea how exposed they can be to hacking. Hackers are looking for gaming websites that don’t have adequate security in place. They look for ways to take control of these websites using DDoS attacks. Once a website is hijacked it takes just a matter of minutes for the attackers to take over. If a website goes down, the damage could be irreversible. And, with over 145 million gamers online each day in over five different continents, having a gaming website that isn't reliable means you could lose your gamers, reputation and any associated gaming revenues in just a single day. 
Gaming websites are big targets for DDoS attackers, but a website doesn't have to make it easy. With the right protection they can keep their gamers, reputation and keep revenue up.

Created by the marketing team at Prolexic Technologies.

Car Theft Worldwide [INFOGRAPHIC]

Below is an infographic with statistics on Car Theft Worldwide!

Infographic by Smf.ie

Women's Influence In Gaming

How much do you really know about women and the gaming industry? Most people don’t realize how much influence women have had on gaming development. Some people don’t even realize that there are many female gamers. While men are known for their achievements because they represent 97 percent of the development staff, there are still many women who have changed this industry for the better.

Major Audience

Even though females compose a large portion of the gaming market, most people don’t recognize just how many female gamers there really are. Men are known as the majority of gamers, and this is true. What many people don’t know is that the market isn’t as male dominated as you might think.

Only 55 percent of the market belongs to men. The other 45 percent of gamers are women. Not only that, but the majority of them are over 18.

Major Developments

Some of the biggest advancements in the gaming industry involved women. For example, Centipede used early artificial intelligence programming that later helped programmers develop modern intelligence coding. Only two people developed Centipede, and one of them was female.

Portal is recognized for its advanced physics and interesting mechanics. A woman helped develop this game. She and a group of friends first started work on Narbacular Drop, which was used as the basis for the Portal franchise.

Women have also influenced writing in the gaming industry. While some games are known for being childish or having thin plots, the Legacy of Kain series was set apart due to its mature story telling and intelligent writing. A woman did the vast majority of the writing.

Mobile Gaming

Another area that is experiencing a major female influence is mobile gaming. The entire Temple Run series was developed by a woman who was determined to make small games that would appeal to the majority of gamers. Some of the most popular mobile gamers were partially or exclusively made by women.

Even though only a small number of women create games, they have left a mark that few can ignore. It’s time for more women to join the gaming industry to create even more advanced games and ideas :)

Choosing The Best URL Shortener

URL shorteners are part of the unexciting world of Twitter and email efficiency. Yes, all the thrills and spills of making your Twitter messages a look a little cleaner of your emails look a little more compact. But, before you fall asleep with giddy delight at the prospect, you should know that not all URL shorteners are alike. They have been known to “introduce an extra point of failure” (life hacker).

An extra point of failure

This is some nerd’s way of saying that a URL shortener can cause you a bit of trouble. The website that published this idea claim that the company WatchMouse monitored a bunch of popular URL shortening tools/services over a month and noticed that they appear to have a few inherent problems.

The quality of the services varies a little with things such as a varying latency and varying uptimes. Their results are only subject to their own tests and bias, but here are a few of the results.

The slowest performance

This has to be the Facebook “FB.ME” which has a performance time that is four times that of its leading competitor. It takes a massive amount of time to connect when compared to the other URL shorteners.

The URL shorteners that are always online

Uptime is difficult to pull off at 100% in any online situation, but somehow the Google and Twitter shorteners had an uptime of 100%. Their tools are called “Goo.gl” and “Twt.tl”. The one with the worst uptime is Snurl. Do not forget the these figures were pull up by the Dutch WatchMouse team and were only based on recorded research that was conducted over a month time period.

Which is the most efficient URL shortener

That has to be the Google tool “Goo.gl” which narrowly beats the YouTube shortener called “you.be”.

The most secure tools

Nobody seems to have published reliable results on this one. However, many of the URL shorteners are from larger companies such as Google, Twitter, etc, which means they have a lot to lose if they are secret back doors for hackers.

Goo.gl

This is the official URL shortener that Google have released. It is highly trusted and reliable too. It contains public stats and can show real-time analytics for any of your short Google links. It is also the fastest for producing shortened links.

Su.pr

This is the URL Shortener that Stumble Upon have released and many people feel that it is one of the best URL shorteners on the market. It has sharing functions and the shortened URLs help to increase traffic from their own website. It has a history viewer and can tell you things such as the number of reviews and re-tweets that the URL has had. It also has real-time analytics like the Google URL shortener. There is also a very sexy function that tells you to best times to post based on the information it has collected in the past.

Tinyurl

It has a cute name and is not bad at its job. It has a browser toolbar and you can use the preview features too. The tool will also allow you to hide your affiliate URLs. It is not the world’s most feature filled tool, but it certainly gets the job done for you.

Bitly

This is a tool that some people use because they claim it helps them build a lot of traffic. It has a sharing functionality, which is rather nice. It also has analytic data with is good for real-time traffic and data analysis. The good thing about this tool is that you can get it in a number of ways. You can get it on mobile Internet and with browser extensions. You can get it via a website and there are lots of third party tools that use it too.

Budurl

This is a URL shortening tool but it does have a lot of premium features that some people have found useful. You are able to schedule your tweets to go out at a certain time and you can send emails to your clients and prospects. They have a mobile Micro-sites that help you to drive traffic for all of your mobile campaigns, and it is good for affiliate links. You can pull up very detailed statistics for comment sites and blog posts and you can add in advertising links. There is also QR Code integration for your print campaigns. You can add links to your PDFs and you can link to other files from your website or your emails.

Image Credit: Photostock

Author Bio:

Kate Funk is a freelance writer at http://www.aussiessay.com. She is mainly focusing on technology, gadgets and all the latest trends which are interesting for networking enthusiasts.

How To Clean Video Game Consoles Hardware And Accessories

Aside from lag, having to clean your gaming equipment is one of the worst things that can happen to a gamer. Seriously, who cleans their things, anyway? Gaming is for fun, not doing chores. But in those rare occasions when you decide that your console can't really take much more, then you have no choice but to clean it, especially as far as dust is concerned. Dust is the biggest enemy your gaming set-up can possibly have. It can not only make your hardware run worse than it usually does, but it can also damage it beyond repair. And in the light of the holidays and the oncoming Christmas celebrations, when I assume many people get the new generation of consoles as presents, I decided to do a guide on how to properly clean and maintain and clean your console hardware and accessories. This will not only increase the longevity of your console,but it will also ensure that it runs great for as long as possible. It's not going to be pleasant, let me tell you that much, but it's worth doing if you are a true enthusiast and plan utilizing your new (or old console) in the best way possible.

Unplug everything

This is possibly the most important step in the process. You need to unplug everything, otherwise you risk damaging the platform. Not only that, but you can also get hurt so it's a good idea to apply extra caution. After all, you are working with sensitive equipment. Carefully unplug everything that can be plugged and make sure you don't forget anything.

If some of the accessories aren't plugged (like your controllers or headset) and are powered by batteries, instead, remove the batteries. You want to discontinue all power supply to both the console and its components.

Cleaning the exterior

There are several things that you will need here in order to accomplish this fairly simple task. First of all, buying a microfiber towel would yield better results in the cleaning process, even though this part is optional. You can use any lint-free old rag you can get your hands on. You will need two of them – one for the processing and one for the drying out. Also purchase an electronics spray (the kind of spray you can use to clean all sorts of electronics, like laptops, consoles, monitors and more). Spray some of the solution on the cloth and wipe off all the surfaces of your hardware. Dry out with the other cloth immediately so you make sure that everything works well afterwards. Never spray directly on the surface of the console or any of the periphery. This may very well damage the devices so be careful.

Cleaning the interior

Cleaning the interior is a bit trickier. You should open the console because odds are you don't know what you're doing (otherwise why would you be reading this?) so you might damage it. Spraying compressed air into the air vents of your device would be enough to remove a large portion of the dust outside the console. This way you don't need to open it but you will still be able to clean most of it. Something to keep in mind is that compressed air comes out rather cold so you shouldn't be keeping the device too close to the source. Otherwise the air will condensate inside and damage the console.

Cleaning peripheral devices

Use a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol to clean the peripheral devices such as controllers, microphones, headsets, etc. Just make sure to dry it out immediately. If you're not confident in your abilities to clean the console properly, seek the help of a specialist.

Author Bio:

As a professional cleaner at http://www.fasthomecleaning.co.uk , Rose knows how to clean all kind of things.

Take Care of Yourself On/Off the Road

It’s important to take care of yourself while you’re on the road. Whether you’re making a long haul or a short haul, there are things you can do to keep your health and your sanity. Take a few breaks on the road and get out of the truck. Go for a brisk walk to get blood moving and get some fresh air. You’ll feel rejuvenated. It’s important to keep your body fit, even if your work doesn’t require it. Try to exercise a few times per week (even lightly). By staying fit you can actually combat exhaustion and tiredness—two things you never want to suffer from while on the road. Instead of eating fast food or greasy foods, stick to healthy, energizing foods. A good diet is important for overall health but also helps keep your energy level up while on the road in your truck seat. Try to pack a few fruits and vegetables, or stop at a local grocery store on one of your stops to pick up some fresh food items for snacks and skip the potato chips.

Created by Suburban Seating.

Software Bugs Really Bite

This infographic takes a look at the Top 6 software bugs and what they have caused. Below is an exerpt of the infographic.

The advances of time and technology bring new and difficult challenges for software programmers. With the creation of new programming languages and software coding comes new issues or glitches within the application. These glitches are known as bugs.

While software bugs cause unwanted operations with in the program, they are mostly harmless. However, a small oversight during programming or testing can mean a huge issue for the developer, particularly when it comes to the sensitive nature of client information.

Here’s a look at some of the top software bugs from the past few years.

When the ATM becomes a lottery: In 2011, an operation issue with ATMs in Sydney, Aus. gave out more money to customers than they should have.

This bug caused the ATM to run in stand-by mode, meaning that it didn’t recognize the customers’ account balance, allowing them to withdraw more money than they had in their account.

The bug lasted for more than 5 hours and affected more than 40 ATMs across the city.
It was reported that one ATM had a line of over 50 people once the word got out.

Did You Know? It's more cost-effective to code and test carefully than to just fix glitches that come up..

Software Bugs Really Bite

Author Bio:

Kris Dietz loves creating something amazing then spreading the word about it! My mission is to develop and mold SEO into an amazing outlet of sharing valuable resources. I enjoy networking and meeting like-minded individuals.