Digital Seattle Blog

With the smartphone market losing ground for the first time in its short history, many of the manufacturers you’ve come to know are either non-factors in the current market, or don’t even produce smartphones anymore. With new demand growing every year, new manufacturers such as OnePlus and Xiaomi are primed to fall in line behind Samsung and Apple.

Your business’ technology infrastructure is built from hardware, and this hardware needs to be properly managed if you want to succeed. The first step to this is to acquire the proper hardware, but for businesses that don’t have dedicated in-house IT departments, even this is challenging. Outsourced hardware procurement is a solution to this dilemma, and we’ll explain how it works.

If you’ve been in business for a while, there are devices on your network that see little to no use. Even for the most frugal business, due to the fact that technology eventually winds up being arbitrary thanks to the continued development (and deployment) of more powerful solutions, there will always be situations where you have devices that do nothing but take up space. You can reduce the chances of this happening by finding the right IT for the job the first time, while sparingly implementing only IT solutions that will provide a return on your investment.

Children are the future, as the saying goes, so do we really want the future to be taught using tools from the past? While some schools are still using technology that better belongs in the 20th century, others are embracing innovation and teaching in ways that better translate to the “real world.” Let’s take a look at how our evolving technology is transforming the classroom and explore some ways to get it to more students.

A computer is made up of many parts, one of which is today’s Tech Term: the motherboard. We’ll discuss what the motherboard does for your computer and why it’s such an important part for its continued operation.

The average employee and business owner relies on various hardware solutions to go about their day-to-day duties. These hardware devices--think keyboards, wireless mouses, external microphones, and any USB devices--utilize drivers which allow for inter-device compatibility. What happens when these drivers aren’t installed or kept up to date? Your technology suffers, and so does your productivity.

Often times, people can get distracted by flashy new features, and with technology, this happens more than anywhere else. Since IT grows at such an abnormally fast rate, end-users can be left in the dust if you’re not intentionally trying to keep them in the loop. In fact, it’s highly recommended that you implement IT solutions for your business that are not just effective, but also user-friendly.

You can tell when a workstation might need an upgrade if it’s slowing down, or if the machine is so absurdly slow that you can barely accomplish your daily tasks with it. One of the easiest ways you can improve the quality of your workstation is by increasing the amount of RAM.

A clean computer is a happy computer. Just like any other piece of gadgetry, a computer requires regular cleanup sessions that allow users to get the most from them. In fact, January is known as Clean Up Your Computer Month, so what better way is there to ring in the new year than making sure your computer is in tip-top shape?

When it comes to storing data locally on your organization’s workstations, you have a couple of options. There are solid state drives and hard disk drives, but the average user isn’t tech-savvy enough to understand the difference between the two. Regardless of what kinds of devices you use for your business, you should be aware of how they work and what you can expect from them.

One of the most storied competitions in the technology industry comes from Apple vs Microsoft. For the past 35 years, they went back and forth by offering consumers their own twist on similar technologies. The latest chapter in this story comes from Microsoft’s new Surface Book, which aims to compete directly with Apple’s MacBook Pro.

We all know the fleeting moment of fear as a computer slows to a grinding halt, taking forever to perform the most basic of tasks. At the same time, we also know the relief of when you find out there’s nothing wrong with your PC. Still, what if that relief never comes? What if you’re dealing with one of the most dangerous computer issues of all: a hard drive crash?

It’s been confirmed that Samsung is getting rid of both its removable battery and MicroSD slot for its newest line of Galaxy Note devices. This is a sad day for Galaxy fans that have always preferred the Android device over Apple’s iPhone for its customizable options such as these. For Samsung, it’s too early to tell if this will affect sales or not, but one thing’s for sure: a lot of phones will be destroyed before users “get it.”

Early in July, IBM announced that they have developed an ultra-dense computer chip that has roughly four times the computing capacity of today’s most powerful chips. These prototype chips, and ones they will develop to fuel computing into the next decade and beyond, are the result of the evolution of 21st century informatics.

When it comes to getting new technology, it’s typical to spend a significant amount of time agonizing over which product is the best. All the while, little regard is given to the disposal of one’s old tech, which often gets tossed in the trash. You may not have realized it, but haphazardly disposing of our old technology is wreaking havoc on the environment.

 New technology is meant to improve upon its previous design. This is technology 101. Despite this well-known fact, many business owners are hesitant to adopt new technology, choosing instead to continue using older equipment in an effort to save money. A better approach to technology for your business is to have a long-term replacement plan.

When it comes to hosting a party, it can be exhausting – it's a matter of space, cost, and responsibility, among other things. If you're too busy trying to organize everything, nobody will get to see the best side of you. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just hire someone to take care of the details? You would actually be able to enjoy your party!

Any user of the latest mobile technology may have noticed their device running a little hot. In normal circumstances, a device that's warm to the touch is nothing to be concerned about. Although, there are documented cases where a device in perfectly good working order overheats and goes kablooey!

If it's been a few years since you setup your wireless network, then you may be overdue for an upgrade. Thanks to more devices having mobile capabilities, and more employees bringing their devices to work, wireless network technology has advanced quickly. Your old router might not be up for the new demands of the mobile office.

From the outside, your computer looks like a standard piece of office equipment; but on the inside, there are fragile components that make up the hard drive, which means that you should take extra care when moving it.