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  • Manage Photos on Mac Easily

    Manage Photos on Mac Easily

    Apple makes it easy to manage your photos on any device, be it your Mac laptop, desktop, or a mobile device thanks to the versatile iCloud Photo Library. It saves every photo you take and showcases it on every device unless you delete it permanently. So if you modify your photo, the changes are broadcast to all other devices you own.

    The new images are uploaded to the cloud each time your device gets online via Wi-Fi or is connected to a charger, but of course the speed of updates greatly depends on your local broadband connection.

    Your photos are stored in categories such as Moments, Collections, People and Years. This helps you quickly find a person across your whole image database or choose a specific period of time.

    By default, your photo library is categorized by Memories, People, Places and Imports. You can also add your Projects to showcase in the left-hand menu.

    To enable iCloud Photo Library you must use the same Apple ID on all the mobile devices you use to take and access photos.

    To enable this functionality on your Mac with the newly updated OS X, head on to System Preferences > iCloud. Click Options near Photos and choose iCloud Photo Library.

    It will store your files in their original format, including time-lapse and slo-mo.

    You cannot take photos with your Mac so you must ensure your mobile devices have iCloud photo management enabled. You can do it by going to Settings, clicking on your photo and name, then moving on to iCloud > Photos and turning on the cloud library option (should be at the top of the Options list).

    By turning on the iCloud Photo Library toggle you will be automatically sending your whole photo library to iCloud and allow all users of devices to access your photos and videos. This ensures that your precious memories are preserved in case your device is lost or damaged. In this menu you also have choices to download originals or optimize the storage on your mobile device — this option is especially useful if your device runs low on space. You can also enable automatic upload of new photos to all of your iCloud devices.

    From now on, when you enhance the photo, the changes are propagated across all devices. If you delete an image, it will be gone on all devices, too.

    But if you change your mind and decide to restore the photo, nothing to worry about: there’s a handy folder with Recently Deleted photos that will still be available for 30 days until being erased forever.

    Make sure to watch for remaining space in your iCloud drive. When you run out of free 5 GB, the upgrade to 50 GB is very affordable, compared to other cloud storage providers.

    When you have your photos on Mac either by importing from your camera or iCloud, your next step would be arranging them into albums and folders.

    This helps to easily retrieve the necessary file from thousands of photos all of us keep on our devices. You can easily create an album with your selected photos by heading on to Photos > Photos (side menu) and right-clicking on chosen images. Then select the option “Add to” and either select an existing album or choose “create new” for a brand-new album.

    Another way is to create a new album in Albums and then moving your photos at the next stage.

    Folder is the next level of photo organization. You can move several albums to one folder, for example, for each of your family members.

    There are also Smart Albums that conveniently arrange photos in your Mac based on several parameters, including Faces and even a camera model, however, Smart Albums cannot be synced with the cloud.

    For even quicker browsing of your photos, you can place your most important albums into the sidebar at the right-hand side of Photos. Make sure to enable the function Show Sidebar in the menu.

    If you have more questions about effective photo management on Mac, click here for more answers.

    A few final thoughts

    Managing photos on Mac is a quite simple process. But in order to ensure that all media files are easy-to-manage and available on all your devices, you should follow all the tips above.

    Make sure you have backups of your photo library because losing a physical device might turn in losing all the precious memories located on its hard disc.

  • How to Safely Use Office 365 and Other Subscription Services

    How to Safely Use Office 365 and Other Subscription Services

    Data security is vital to the success of your business. It is your responsibility to ensure that your data is secured in a manner compliant with data security laws.

    Consumers also expect their data to be protected as they use your service or product, so you should take some time to familiarize yourself with your subscription service’s data security policies and features.

    Fortunately, Office 365 and other subscription services offer security features that you should use to protect your company’s sensitive data. Here are a few security tips to help you use Office 365 and other subscription services safely.

    Use multi-factor authentication

    Many subscription services provide multi-factor authentication as part of their services to secure your account and company data. Multi-factor authentication combines a strong password with a secondary method of identity authentication.

    As such, should your password be compromised, your account would still be secure. The second layer of identity authentication that some subscription services offer could be a phone call, text message, or app notification. Some services use advanced security questions that you set up when you initially set up your account or emails.

    Set up security alerts

    Security alerts can be used to identify suspicious account activity and to inform the system administrator of possible security breaches. Some Office 365 subscriptions allow you to set up alerts that would flag events such as multiple failed sign-in attempts, sign-ins from unusual IP addresses, and large data downloads.

    However, some subscription services require that you purchase an add-on to your software that would provide these security alert features.

    Create Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies

    To protect and manage your data, it is essential that you set up DLP policies that are implemented across your entire company. Most employees won’t maliciously share or expose sensitive company information, but sometimes, in an attempt to do their job more efficiently, they will experiment with software and applications that may not be as secure as they believe.

    Effective DLP policies provide employees with approved apps that they can use to be more efficient and restrict or ban access to apps or sites that are not approved.

    Enable safety tips for email

    Office 365 offers email safety tips as a feature that alerts users of potentially hazardous emails. Unfortunately, scam and hazardous emails have become more and more sophisticated, which can make it difficult to discern which emails are legitimate and which are not.

    Viruses attached to emails that look innocent can compromise your company’s data security. Email safety tips flag suspicious emails and spam messages for your convenience and security.

    To make certain that your sensitive company information is safe, you should look into the security features that your service provider offers. Many service providers offer multi-factor authentication, security alerts, and email safety tips, but others do not.

    Similarly, not all subscription service providers that manage data in the cloud keep up-to-date security protocols. Be sure your provider can keep your data safe from data to loss or malicious use.

  • CRM Software For Businesses: Why Is It Useful?

    CRM Software For Businesses: Why Is It Useful?

    The popularity of customer relationship software (CRM) and SaaS applications has significantly increased in the current business landscape. This is because the competitive intensity is remarkably high.

    Commoditization is also happening at a breathtaking speed.

    CRM software is a viable tool used to track and analyze multiple interactions of your prospects as well as customers. It simplifies tracks, analyzes, centralizes and scales the client’s engagement.

    It also allows you to have a better Built Instability Fosters Innovation New Product Development.

    The popular CRM solutions are Pipedrive, and Hubspot used by both small and large companies.

    So, why do you need CRM in your business?

    1. CRM increases business efficiency

    You can replace the normal manual activities and processes using the CRM software. Most of the Apps have intuitive and straightforward interface features that can be used by everyone including the less experienced users.

    CRM works by integrating several business systems like the automation marketing apps hence providing only efficient results. This allows your company to coordinate well with your clients and thus become more profitable even with few resources.

    2. Enhances team collaboration

    Managing a proper customer relationship requires the help of various employee units such as marketing, sales, customer support and even technology. With the help of the cloud-based CRM, your workers from the different units will collaborate more efficiently.

    Another benefit is that you can connect workers in different geographical locations. It improves the communication by providing a seamless data sharing platform, and this makes the business more profitable both in the short and long run.

    3. Provides data insights

    CRM is incredibly beneficial to the large organizations with massive data storehouse for their customers. You can use it learn about your clients predicts interests, purchase history, or buying patterns by merely analyzing the data analysis apps.

    For instance, top CRM solutions like Hubspot and Pipedrive are extremely useful in analyzing the customer behavior. They provide data actionable insights and visualizations that can be used to determine the customer needs.

    4. Enhances accountability

    If you lack the necessary tools used to manage the lifecycle of your customers efficiently, you are probably missing many useful opportunities that can boost your sales and customer relationships. However, you can avoid this by using CRM.

    The software helps you to understand the business tasks in a better way, thus allow you to serve both new and return clients in an accountable manner. You can easily trace your mistakes and find the crucial remedial steps to take for better operations.

    5. Improves revenues

    With a valid CRM strategy, you can quickly increase your company sales which later relates to the profits. The cloud-based software allows you to craft effective sales campaigns and marketing tips which help you to reach your target market.

    CRM ensures both your promotions and advertisements only target the new customers set, and not the already existing ones. Additionally, you can contact your existing clients, inform them of new products and even encourage them to make purchases.

    6. Solves your real life problems

    A study done by CEB and Google shows that clients tend to purchase more products or services which gives them more emotional support. This explains why the CRM software includes features that improve the business- customer relationship.

    With the help of effective CRM strategies, you can enhance your business operations thus solve the challenging circumstances in an organized and systematic manner. For even better results, you can engage KnowledgeHutblogs for more tips of using CRM to increase profitability.

    Fully functional cloud-based CRM software can improve your business sales by up to 300%. It has facilitated business growth in many businesses around the globe. So, invest in the CRM software today and watch your company grow. In fact, your business might even be the next success story.

  • Do Data Breaches Harm Our Youth?

    Do Data Breaches Harm Our Youth?

    It’s easy to assume that adults are the only people affected by data breaches. After all, these breaches typically expose credit card information, social security numbers, and other details used for identity theft. Anyone under 18 does not seem like a valuable target.

    In reality, however, children are specifically targeted by hackers. A report published by Javelin Strategy & Research showed that over a million children had their identity stolen in 2017. That resulted in $2.6 billion in total losses, with families shouldering $540 million of that cost directly.

    So why would hackers go after youths? It’s because their social security is still valuable even if they are underage. Once hackers have the number they can use it to establish lines of credit. And it’s actually easier to use a minor’s social security number since they have little to no established credit history. Essentially, their identity is a blank slate, making it ripe for manipulation and deception.

    Sadly, no kid is too young to be a target. The same study showed that 66 percent of the kids with stolen identities are under 8 years old. Hackers have a complete disregard for a child’s age and no compunction about targeting the youngest kids.

    To a certain extent it’s their age that makes these kids vulnerable. Kids spend as much time online as adults but are less aware about cybersecurity. As a result, they often fall prey to attacks and schemes that adults would avoid. Kid’s data is easier to compromise simply because of their relative inexperience.

    The frequency of cyber security news articles reporting on kids is rising. Parents must take the lead to keep their kids and their kid’s identities safe online. Here are some tips:

    • Scrutinize Privacy Policies. Before allowing kids to install software or download a platform, review the privacy policies. Look specifically at what data is collected and how it’s used.
    • Teach Best Practices. These include using strong passwords, ignoring requests from strangers, and keeping personal information a secret.
    • Create Rules and Boundaries. Limiting how kids use the internet also limits their exposure to online threats. Be willing to dictate or restrict when and how kids engage with the internet.
    • Keep a Close Watch. If possible, monitor how kids use the internet directly. That could mean being in the same room or installing a monitoring program. That way, if kids are using the internet recklessly parents are aware of it.
    • Study the COPPA Rule. The Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA) mandates that sites get parental consent before collecting data on kids. It’s worth it for all parents to reviews the details and guidelines set out in COPPA.
    • Use Security Software. Any computer user can fall victim to an attack. With antivirus software in place there is less chance of a computer infection compromising a kid’s data.

    Parents are responsible for protecting kids in the real world, and the responsibility extends to the online world. There are lots of threats to watch out for, but data thieves should be at the top of the list.

  • The Business Leader’s Guide to Instagram

    The Business Leader’s Guide to Instagram

    When it comes to running a business in 2018, having a strong online presence is hugely important. Even if you’re running a brick-and-mortar store, it isn’t just about word of mouth or handing out flyers anymore.

    Many of your customers, especially millennials and Gen Zers, are going to find your business first online. That’s why you need to be as connected as possible.

    Running a business these days means having a beautiful website that loads quickly on desktops and mobile phones, blogging about issues in your industry, and having a strong social media presence. And one of the most important platforms when it comes to social media is Instagram.

    If you’re ready to up your game on Instagram and get as many leads as possible, all you need to is follow this guide. It’s all about using creating the right kind of account, using special hacks, and creating a good look. And here’s how.

    Establish yourself with an Instagram Business Profile

    The first and most important step of setting up your Instagram profile is establishing yourself by using an account specifically made for businesses: the Instagram Business Profile.

    Even before you think about what hashtags to include in posts and what filter to use for showing off your trending products, do this first. All you need is your business’s Facebook account, and you can connect your Business Profile to that.

    There are lots of perks to getting an Instagram Business Profile. According to the Tailwind Blog, these perks include the abilities to add additional contact options (phone number, email, address), promote posts immediately (which means more visibility), free analytics through Insights (such as gender, average age, impressions, and more).

    Additionally, Instagram approves 3rd party software for scheduling and publishing posts–but only if you have a Business Profile.

    Considering that 32 percent of teenagers consider Instagram to be the most important social media platform, this is a great way to get the attention of younger customers, which will make them loyal to your brand in the long run.

    Engage–in every way

    One of the strategies businesses overlook when it comes to Instagram is engagement. Maybe it’s because it’s a new social media platform that more traditional business leaders don’t understand, or maybe they think that a platform that only uses images isn’t going to be as important as their Facebook account or their blog.

    But considering that 71 percent of businesses had an Instagram account in 2017, this isn’t the case at all. It’s time to engage as much as you can.

    The first step is connecting with other Instagram accounts related to yours. For example, if you’re selling homemade jewelry as an ecommerce merchant, follow other businesses doing the same thing. When they follow you back, their followers will pay attention. You should also think about buying ad space from the biggest of these businesses.

    In the same vein, working with influencers will get you attention from potential customers, too.

    Then, of course, there’s the hashtag. Hashtags are powerful and extremely important on Instagram. According to Social Media Examiner, this is the best way to create the right hashtags for you: select 5-7 extremely popular hashtags (100,000-500,000 associated posts), 5-7 moderately popular hashtags (10,000-100,000 associated posts), 3-5 niche-specific hashtags, and 1-3 branded hashtags.

    This way, you’ll connect with a large number of people, but also focus on the followers who are meant for your brand.

    Determine your aesthetic

    Finally, you need to determine your brand’s aesthetic. After all, Instagram is a visual social media platform, and images are what matter most. According to Schedugram, you should:

    “Think of it in terms of walking into a store, for example. With the clean lines and crisp white surfaces, you probably get a very different feeling walking into an Apple store than you do walking into a boldly blue and yellow Best Buy.

    They have some similar products, but their overall vibes are incredibly different. This same rule applies to your brand’s Instagram account. The style of the photos you curate within your feed say a lot about the overall personality of your business.”

    Once you know a bit about your ideal customer, you’ll get a better idea of what colors and looks to use. Don’t forget that this look should exist not only on your Instagram account but also on your website and other social media profiles.

    Instagram now has over 800 million monthly active users, so the more established your aesthetic, the more success you’ll have.

    These are some of the best strategies for using Instagram for your business. What other strategies do you use to attract customers online?

  • Logo Design Meets Tech

    Logo Design Meets Tech

    We have reached such a point in the domain of technological advancements, that we see something new every other day that enthralls us. In fact, we have already made an unbelievable process and have historical facts to support it as well.

    In 1977, the founder of computer company Digital Equipment Corp, Kenneth Olson said that no one would ever want a computer in their home.

    However, by 2012, nearly 80% of the US households had personal computers. Fast forward to today, we are using computers and the Internet for all kinds of activities – from ordering groceries online to taking rides in driverless cars.

    Here is the thing- even the founding fathers of computers and software couldn’t have imagined we would accomplish so much so soon.

    Although the hardware capabilities i.e. the processing power we have managed to conquer today is certainly worthy of discussion, for the time being, let’s take a look at the software front in the graphic designing industry.

    Evolution of graphics and logo design

    We started with DOS and then came the GUI, and over time we kept on improving and releasing advanced software programs for these upgrading OS that could help design intricate patterns, logos, etc., build and animate 3D objects, add visual effects to videos, and more.

    Talking strictly above company logos, we have had powerful software like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and more that helped graphics designers to create highly-detailed and premium-looking company logos easily.

    However, today we have reached new heights with even more powerful technologies like Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

    The new age of logo design

    Although the graphics design software made logo design a lot easy, they were still complicated enough to be used by an average user.

    So, the small business owners still had to hire design professionals either locally or through freelancer platforms which meant they had to face problems like:

    • High costs.
    • Unsatisfactory results.
    • Multiple design revisions that consumed a lot of time and were really a hassle.

    The problem was that the entrepreneurs knew that having a professional company logos is one of the most effective ways to generate interest in a new business. After all, it’s an integral component of branding and marketing.

    So, they were actively looking for a solution that worked for them. Today, we finally have it on the Internet.

    For instance, there are these next-gen logo designing programs such as the Tailor Brands Logo Maker that give the control to the business-owner himself.

    There is no middleman, no pocket-hurting price tags, and no long waiting periods. These software platforms are based on advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and data analytics and can produce some of the most attractive logos in a matter of minutes!

    What’s more, since they base their designs on the details given by you regarding your business and design preferences, the results are highly satisfactory.

    Conclusion

    Technology has improved upon a great number of things for businesses and individuals alike. In the sphere of logo making, smart designer programs are now emerging as an affordable solution for the small businesses.

    However, this doesn’t mean that the jobs of human designers are in jeopardy. There are still many companies that want a “human touch” in their logo designs and are willing to pay the price for it.

  • 5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    More investors are reaping the perks of using social media as a marketing platform. You must do this right if you want to be part of the business individuals who use social media sites like Facebook to their advantage.

    Social sharing is one of the proven ways of driving more traffic to your business. This means that if you are relying on the medium to market your business, you must create top-notch quality that will impress readers to a point where they will want to share it with their friends, relatives, and other networks.

    When your visitors share content with others, more people will get to know about your entity. You will also benefit from more links leading to your website.

    This will typically result in you enjoying top Google position as you will gather more ongoing traffic from the post. If this is not happening already, here are five tried and tested methods that you can use to improve social sharing.

    1. Often post updates when your audience is online

    It is important to post fresh content when your audience is online, so that they do not miss anything you have to say. Posting after every hour may not give you desired results as your readers may deem this as excessive.

    Try and find the right time to post on a daily basis to give your readers something to distract or entertain themselves.

    Go through your data to identify the best time to post. Easily access this on the Facebook Page Insights on the post tab to know when your fans are mostly online.

    This data can help you make educated guesses on the best posting time. It is advisable to experiment with different times both non-peak and peak hours to find out what works best for your brand.

    2. Track progress

    Find out the number of shares Facebook from service providers who specialize in tracking Facebook shares.

    This is the best way to track progress, especially when you are not in a position to stay online at all times. The results will let you know how you performed in the sector.

    Keeping tabs on the shares is important because you will get to know the content that you should be posting and the ones to ignore.

    3. Come up with posts specifically for Facebook

    Content that might work well for Twitter or Instagram may not necessarily work for Facebook. For instance, GIFS are perfect for Twitter and hashtags incredible for Instagram, but both do not perform well when used on Facebook.

    Make sure you create appealing content that will bring in the results you want on Facebook, if you want other people to spend their time sharing it with others.

    4. Include eye-catching videos and images

    Adding videos and images to your content can help to get the attention it deserves on Facebook. This, however, does not mean that you should go out and pick any images or videos available.

    Try not to include typical pictures. Instead, go for the eye-catching ones that are bound to evoke emotions from viewers. Try and make your audience think, cry, or laugh.

    Use a great combination of filters and colours to make your images stand out to increase chances of them going viral. Maintain an excellent thumbnail when using videos to draw attention, so as to achieve the maximum engagement.

    5. Ensure social sharing works on mobile

    Many businesses tend to ignore this fact, something that can hurt their business in a huge way. Note that more traffic nowadays comes from mobile devices.

    For this reason, you must make sure that your social sharing icons work perfectly across various mobile devices.

    Numerous options are available when you want to make this possible. An example is installing plugins that will include share buttons on your pages.

    Test this first before installing to make sure it works in the right manner.

    Running a business website or blog today is no easy fete. You must find the right ways to market your products, if you want to stay in business for a long time.

    Facebook shares are one of the ways to keep you at the top. Make sure you are constantly producing shareable content on Facebook, so that you can work with effective social media campaigns.

  • Utilizing Robot Arms to Maximize Profits

    Utilizing Robot Arms to Maximize Profits

    Technology is growing rapidly across the globe. Most industries have embraced technology to improve their effectiveness and increase productivity this improves their competitiveness in the industry. Robots, which are as a result of technology, are being utilized heavily in the manufacturing industry.

    Robot arms are among other robots being utilized in the industry. A robotic arm is a programmed mechanical arm with features and functions similar to those of a human arm. This arm can automate most of tasks being carried out in the industry. Some of those tasks include: Picking and placing; painting and polishing; assembling; lab analysis; packaging and palletizing; and screwdriving.

    Characteristics of robot arms

    Easy and fast set-up. Most robotic arms are programmed in a way that operators with little or no programming experience are able to set them up and operate them easily.

    Are flexible. Robot arms can perform different tasks. This is made possible by its easy programming and design of the robot. In most cases the operator just need to easily move the arm to the desired way points and use the correct arrow keys that will ensure the robot performs the function at hand.

    Easy programming. Robot arms are programmed in a way that the user can easily operate it. Basic procedures provided to the operators are easy to apply.

    They are agile. For the robot arms to meet the changing trends/demands and remain competitive, they are produced in a way that they can be easily moved. These robots do not occupy a lot of space since they are small in size. Therefore they can be easily moved from one place to another and allow for deployment.

    Easy to update. With more innovations and changes in the manufacturing industry, robot arms are programmed in a way that they can be easily updated to meet the demands in the market.

    Advantages of robot arms

    They are accurate and provide high quality output. Due to the computerized control and proper programming of a robotic arm, they are able to perform tasks well by accurately following the programmed instructions. This provides little room for mistakes hence the end product is of high quality.

    They are fast and efficient. With the computerized control, a robot arm is able to follow the programmed instructions easily and faster. Therefore, the amount of time that a human would have taken when thinking of the next procedure is covered up. This increases the rate of production in the industry.

    Ability to work in hazardous environments. The mechanical nature of robots enables them to perform dirty, dull and dangerous tasks that humans cannot perform. This makes the company utilizing this robot more competitive as its production process is not limited to such issues.

    Less interference. Humans get bored and tired easily especially when performing similar tasks repetitively and when working for long hours. Robot arms are not affected by the length or repetitiveness of a task; hence their level of productivity is high all times. The quality of the output is thereby maintained.

    Cut the cost of hiring many employees. With the flexibility of a robot arm to perform different tasks, the personnel required to perform these tasks are reduced. Additionally, due to their easy programming, the manufacturing industry does not require frequently outsourcing professional programmers to perform certain tasks.

    Reduction of waste and better saving. Due to the accuracy of the robot arms, the amount of waste of the raw materials being used is highly reduced. This consequently reduces the cost of production and increases the profit to the industry due to the high utilization of the raw materials.

    Allows for better space utilization. As discussed earlier, robot arms do not occupy a lot of space. This creates space that can be utilized to perform other tasks thereby maximizing on the profits of the organization.

    From the above discussion, it is evident that well developed robot arms are relevant to the manufacturing industry. Embracing this technology is a major step to maximizing or increasing the profits of the industry.