What you need to successfully work remotely:
Equipment, physical environment & tech support
Equipment – a tablet, laptop or personal computer can give people the means of working at home, however, everyone will have different standards of equipment. If you are worried that this will affect an employee’s productivity or the security of the data being used, there are a number of measures that can help:
Technical Support – companies should educate their employees on good password hygiene, use of password managers for managing multiple passwords, secure login options, like using Authenticator Apps for Multi-Factor Authentication, where you need more than one identifying piece of information to verify who you are when logging into company’s services.
Every device connecting to or containing company information should have up-to-date antivirus software, firewalls activated and operating system and applications have all necessary security patches applied.
Companies should highlight to their employees the importance of sensible internet and email practices, such as never clicking on links contained in emails from unverifiable sources, as this puts them at risk of installing malware, opening access on their device to malicious users and leaving their device and company data vulnerable to GDPR breaches. Everyone should be aware of who to contact in the company if they are concerned about suspicious emails, links or activity on their device.
Access to the Internet
Access to the internet is critical for working remotely. There are a number of different options available to people:
Companies can set up VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks) for key personnel to connect securely to a company’s network.
Communication Software, Collaboration Software and Productivity Measurement for teams working remotely.
There are applications available that enable users connect two computers, for example, a home computer to their computer in work or a connection between two colleagues to share files or troubleshoot an issue on a computer. Software applications like Splashtop remote desktop, MS Remote Desktop, TeamViewer and Logmein are all applications with a variety of features that allow access to remote desktops for viewing, transferring files or even updating a remote computer securely. Applications varies from built-in to free to subscription based. The ones with greater functionality are subscription based.
Communication Apps that allow people conduct audio, video calls and message others again range from ones that have free trial periods, to monthly or annual subscription plans. Companies may have options to purchase additional licenses enabling users to download apps to their computer and connect securely from home on software they are already familiar with e.g. MS 365 for business.
Slack – integrates with standard services like calendars, dropbox, google drive, zoom and has free plans as well as subscriptions.
Google Hangouts – allows users to participate in text, voice and video chats. The number of participants limited to 25. Hangouts is built into Google and gmail and apps are available for IOS and Android devices. Google announced free video conferencing until July for users of its GSuite.
Zoom – Zoom is easy to use and popular for social use. For business use however it does not have end-to-end encryption and has experienced some issues with meetings being interrupted by third parties. It’s free app caps meeting times at 40 minutes.
Collaboration Applications, as well as enabling communication also enables teams to share ideas, documents and project information in a virtual environment.
Join.me – is a web-based whiteboard that enables users keep track of ideas on a share document.
Google GSuite – Google Hangouts provides meeting and chat options and is providing free video-conferencing until July. It also enables Google docs, sheets, slides and calendars to be shared easily. Free and monthly subscription pay per user plans available.
Microsoft Teams – is a cloud-based team collaboration software that works as a Hub to allow remote people chat, meet, call and collaborate in one virtual space. The power of MS Teams is leveraged by a company having SharePoint and MS Azure configured to safely store and share documents and provide secure access on a permission basis for all users. MS Teams can handle large numbers of users attending online meetings and events. It is fully integrated with Office 365. Access, editing and sharing of documents and presentations is easily done in real-time. Meetings can be recorded and the recordings easily shared. Data is encrypted in transit.
Project Management
It can be difficult to project manage in a virtual environment. The best practice is to use a good project management software that helps keep track of deadlines and progress on assigned tasks as well as have the ability to facilitate team communication and sharing of relevant documentation.
Trello – has strong organisational and task management features which helps with project management. Projects are represented by Bulletin Boards. Users can create lists of project components and cards (tasks) with deadlines highlighted, which can then be assigned to specific team members. Available free and on paid plans.
Asana – a group project management software application that mainly integrates online services such as, Adobe Creative Cloud, MS 365 and Google GSuite.
Basecamp – a web-based project management platform available on annual subscription basis that enables users manage tasks, messages, scheduling and collaboration. It has good reporting and search functions.
Having the right equipment and support, the ability to clearly communicate goals to people and inform them of the expected standard of work, while providing a platform for sharing ideas, work and feedback ensures projects can be successfully completed by people working remotely.
If you need advice, please call 1890 219 219, our friendly staff will be delighted to help you
| Summary of the changes From July 2020 a monthly fee of €5.99 will be charged to all eircom.net email account holders. Eir email users have to sign up to this new service specifically otherwise Eir will restrict and eventually delete the email account being used. After July 2020 – users who have not signed up will have no access to their eircom email. 60 days later the account containing all emails and the email address being used will be completely deleted. Users who do not want to pay the monthly fee will have to choose an alternative webmail provider and migrate all their eircom emails and contacts to this new account. Then inform all their contacts of this change of email address. There are alternate free webmail providers. Each provider offers different benefits and has different caveats. Some have more storage than others, some have less privacy than others (e.g. share your profile with marketing companies). Free email services generally have little in the way of help/support and are usually part of the marketing and advertising strategy of the webmail providers so ads will appear on your main email screen, regardless of which provider you use. Google’s Gmailsuite and Microsoft’s Outlook or Hotmail are 2 examples of free webmail providers. |
If you choose to move to an alternate email provider we can help you with email migration and configuration of your new email account.
The proposed changes that customers need to be aware of:
Eir (formally Eircom) provided free email accounts to thousands of individual users, schools and small businesses since early 2000’s. However, it seems that this free service is costing Eir money as it uses up their customer service resource! The Eir support web page explains “In order to provide a better service we will charge €5.99 from 30th July 2020.”
Eir email users will be charged €5.99 a month, from the end of July, if they want to continue using their eircom email service. Customers must contact Eir and sign up to this service if they want to continue using their eircom.net account. Any customer who doesn’t sign up to this service will have their account restricted. After 60 days their emails and eircom.net email address will be completely deleted. Customers will not be able to retrieve email or access their email address ever again after the 60 days. The support page for Eir emphasises this “…once your account is deleted your emails will be deleted. So please ensure you move all data you wish to continue to access before it is deleted.”
The €5.99 fee will be charged at the start of each calendar month. The fee must be paid by all customers of Eir, the users of their free service and the customers who are already subscribing to Eir broadband, phone, mobile or bundled products.
Customers should have received an email, from Eir, to their webmail account, containing a link that will take them to the payment option for their webmail. Customers can pay by credit card to begin with and eventually Eir hope to have a direct debit service running also.
If customers don’t wish to pay the charge they will have to open a new email account with a new email address with one of the other free webmail providers (Google gmail,, Microsoft Outlook or Hotmail, AOL.com mail) and migrate all their email and contacts that they want to keep to this new account. Then they must inform all of their contacts of the change to this new email address. On their webmail support FAQ page Eir have added the following clarification with regard to redirecting email – “Can I get my emails from Eir redirected to my new email address if I go to another provider? No, your email address will be deleted.”
We recommend that Eircom.net email users should have an alternate email account set up and all their email moved from Eir well before the July deadline in order to give time to troubleshoot any migration issues.
If you choose to move to an alternate email provider we can help you with email migration and configuration of your new email account.
If you need advice, please call 1890 219 219, our friendly staff will be delighted to help you.
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Windows 10, the full version will be available from July 29th 2015. Windows is one of the most popular OSs on the market today and we believe it will be as popular if not more so than the most widely used version of windows which is Windows 7. It offers a lot of improvements on previous versions and this is largely because Microsoft allowed people including technical folk like ourselves to try different test versions out as they were building it. Because of this it is much improved on the innovative step that was Windows 8 and much more advanced, capable than Windows 7. Examine the key features of Windows 10 here.
Some of the features that Windows 10 now has include Cortana, Microsoft Edge, Office on Windows, Xbox Live and integrated Xbox App, Windows Continuum, Windows Hello and Windows Store. There are also new apps for photos, videos, music, maps, people, mail and calendar. Some of these features are somewhat familiar but some are completely new.
Windows 10
Cortana is an intelligent digital personal assistant. It is voice controlled and can be tied to both your phone and your tablet or PC. Her (yes, her) intelligence comes from being linked with Microsoft’s cloud and hence you won’t be able to fully utilise Cortana without an internet connection. Microsoft Edge is Microsoft’s new internet browser. Internet Explorer is gone. Edge has a new front end look and a powerful new graphics and JavaScript engine in the back to boot. Office is now much more customised depending on what device you are using it on. It offers more integration with Edge allowing on the fly annotating of web pages. Circle, mark, doodle and take notes on web pages and save them in onenote or word for example. Watch Joe Belfiore explain Windows 10 here
For Xbox fans, stream games from your Xbox to your Windows 10 PC. Communicate with your friends on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One – while playing any PC game. Capture, share and edit gaming moments more easily. Games developed for DirectX 12 will see improvements in speed, efficiency and graphics capability. Windows Continuum enables the best of laptops and 2 in 1 devices to smoothly transform from tablet to laptop and back. Windows Hello allows you to sign in to your PC by allowing it to recognise your face via the webcam. Biometric authentication is easy with your face, finger, or iris providing instant recognition. Windows Store is also much improved with better security measures and a broad range of global payment methods. There are also exciting developments in the area of augmented reality with Microsoft partnering with Intel to create the HoloLens, an augmented reality headset.
On July 29, you can get Windows 10 for PCs and tablets by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer, or on a new Windows 10 PC from your favourite retailer. If you purchase a new Windows 8.1 device between now and then, the Windows 10 upgrade will be available to you and many retail stores will upgrade your new device for you. Look for the windows 10 icon in the bottom right of your screen, in the system tray in order to reserve your free copy of Windows 10.
As you can see there are many benefits to Windows 10, much that will sway over business users that were not so enamoured with Windows 8. We have tried it out and we like it. The start menu is back. Opening apps in windows is an option. As always, if you have any problems with your Windows PC or you want to move your PC or PC system to Windows 8, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
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If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our previous article on Windows 10 here.
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If you are suffering from this or any other problem please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
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For those who don’t know, Bank of Ireland are currently introducing a new style website for their Business Online customers. It looks a lot different but it is a big improvement on the old site. It is easier to use, better looking and should fit easily in to your business’ banking routine. In today’s article we will discuss the new site and some general security issues surrounding banking online.
Money
There are some steps that will ideally need to be completed before the closing down of the old site on the 16th of June 2015. The program Java should be updated to its latest version. You can do this here. Your browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, etc) for accessing websites on the internet should also be updated fully. As CUA (Administrator) on your banking online account, you will need to accept any changes made to users, groups or payment authorisation levels in the current BOL site in order for the changes to transfer to the new system. If you want to review the security of how you handle your business banking online then here is a good place to start. You may also find it useful to visit BOIs new training portal here.
The site is optimised for the latest versions of Safari, FireFox and Internet Explorer browsers. Some networking firewalls may prevent the BOL site from working. You may also face difficulties if you try to log on through Metro mode in Windows 8. The site is supported by Windows version XP SP2, Vista, 7, 8 and the Apple Mac OS.
A few things to remember on the security side of things. Don’t use obvious password. Review the audit log regularly to monitor activity on BOL. Don’t leave your device unattended if you are logged in to BOL. Do exit BOL before visiting other sites on the internet. There are a number of behaviours you can adopt in order to stay safe when banking online. The best one to have is a healthy dose of suspicion regarding emails and phone calls that you receive that you are not expecting. The bank will never email or phone asking you for your PIN details. Be wary of what links you click on to get to your banking website including BOL. Beware of any unexpected changes to the look of the website. If in doubt, you can always ring us at Eonvia.
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If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our article on Changes to the ROS website recently here
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If you need help in this or need any other help please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
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Business Hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 to 17:30
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The services available at the ROS website are widely used by all businesses and some people in Ireland. By allowing a program, Java, to run on your computer and by storing a certificate unique to you at the root of your PC you can easily access your vital Revenue business information.
Site Undergoing Change
Most businesses will use this site on a regular basis so it is important that it functions smoothly and that they can get things done on it quickly. Key to this has been the program Java on your computer that up to now, has been used to communicate with the site and authenticate you and your certificate amongst other things.
Changes are coming to this as of December 2015. As of this date it will no longer be possible to access the ROS service using Java. The only login method available for ROS will be JavaScript. This is in response to feedback that the revenue have gotten on the use of Java. This coupled with the performance and functionality enhancements in recent years and more seamless support in modern browsers will allow for a much easier, simpler experience for people using the site.
Some slight adjustments will need to be made in order to be able to log in to the site using JavaScript. The most up to date version of your browser is needed including IE10 and Safari 6.1 or higher. Until the 15th of June 2015 EVR Claims and the PAYE Tab linking to the PAYE anytime service will not be available on the website. It is important to note that NPAPI (a plug-in that allows Java to run on your browser) has been disabled in version 42 of Chrome browser. To fix this issue you can find all the necessary instruction here .
We recommend that you make the move to using Javascript to log in to the site well before December 2015. You may want to hold off until June 2015 though if you need to use PAYE Anytime on the site or you need to make European VAT Return (EVR) Claims online. This change will undoubtedly appear to people when they go to use the revenue site in some way at some stage so if you do have any problems then please let us help you out.
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If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our article on Payroll Software in Ireland here
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If you need help in this or need any other help please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
021-4642096
Business Hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 to 17:30
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Payroll software, like accounts software is a market cornered almost entirely by two big players, Sage and Thesaurus, at least in Ireland anyway. Sage are a big player here and they also make their own, very popular accounting software as well. In fact, we have written a previous article about it here . Because of this, you may well choose to go with Sage for both your accounting and payroll software solutions. Thesaurus Software Ltd also make a very popular, very good alternative and this option may well suit your business perfectly too.
Many of the Sage payroll options can be found here and a rough comparison can be made on that page as to which software package may suit your business. Sage also offer their TAS branch of payroll software specifically for small and medium sized businesses and that can be viewed here . With Sage Micropay (€171+VAT or €602+VAT for Pro version), you need to buy a constant supply of custom paper/stationery to go with the software. SageOne is for the small business, with up to 5 employees, although you can put the software on 10-15 machines, whichever suits best. Sage also provide this package for a business with up to 10 employees, double the amount of employees, naturally for double the price (€7.20 per month + VAT). You can also add this to 5-15 machines, whichever suits best. Sage Quickpay is no longer being sold.
Thesaurus, which we know is in place in as many of the businesses we deal with as Sage is, can be compared with here . The standard version of Thesaurus software costs €149+VAT, with unlimited employee numbers. Their “Additional Company” version allows for yes, an additional company to be added to the payroll system. That costs €74.50+VAT. The “Bureau” version costs €339+VAT and supports the managing of unlimited companies and employers with unlimited employees. You can buy custom stationery/paper with Thesaurus but the difference is that you don’t need it.
You can base your comparison on a variety of factors including whether or not you think you’ll need Tech Support, how many employees you have, need to submit revenue returns online, SEPA compliance, payroll year end processing, and price of course. That is just a short list of factors to compare.
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If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our article on how to create movies on your home computer here .
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If you need help in this or need any other help please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
021-4642096
Business Hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 to 17:30
If you are operating a small business out of your home then you may have to do your own accounts. Read on…
As always, and with the beginning of an upturn in the Irish economy, people are again focusing on spending money efficiently to invest in their business. There is of course no better way to do this than invest in IT. This is doubly true when it comes to the IT supporting your financial/accounting and other common business tasks. Being able to automatically generate a P&L account or a balance sheet for a time period or keep track of your debtors and creditors is invaluable. The selection of software offers available can be baffling but we hope to make some sense of that here.
Microsoft used to offer Microsoft Office Accounting as a part of Office but they opted out of that market when it became clear that they could not be the biggest player in it. There are however two major players that offer small businesses a whole host of different options. These are Sage and Big Red Books. Here is some of what they can offer:
Depending on your business then one or the other might suit you to use better. Make your decision on how many employees you have, how much support you want from Sage or BRB (Big Red Book), who has access, what backups are done, what reports are available, what maintenance/upgrades are required, etc. If you are considering implementing an accounts package in your business or you want to transfer to a new accounts package then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation.
Accounting
Sage One Accounts is for a single user with up to 5 employees. 24/7 Tech Support is included. That costs €7.20 per month. TAS Firstbooks is for a single user with unlimited employees. Workday Tech Support is included as are free product upgrades. There is also an addition with TAS that allows you to manage stock. The next step up from Sage One Accounts is “Sage One Accounts Extra”. This allows for multiple users and 5-20 employees.
Big Red Books has 3 main packages and also Big Red Cloud. Each of the 3 has the capability for 3 companies. They can perform all the expected accounting software tasks. There is a 1 year license and technical support included in the prices. You can access your software online in your online account. All details on Big Red Cloud and price comparisons can be found here .
Link the accounts software with your bank account. Print invoices on headed paper. Email statements to customers/clients. Prepare accounts for inspection by your accountant. Allow certain employees access to the accounts on a role by role basis. Keep track of expenses, stock levels and stock purchases. Make sure not to forget to charge your customers for something you should have! The possibilities are many. The advantages are clear. The choice is up to you, based on your business.
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If you liked this article then you may also be interested in reading our article on the advantages being brought by the new version of Windows this year. Read it here
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If you are suffering from this problem or need any other help please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
021-4642096
Business Hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 to 17:30
Oscars
The Oscars may be over but you can still begin work on your masterpiece for next year. You may be wondering how you can go about getting in to the business of your own short movie for instance. Well we will begin here by explaining some of the beginner steps you can take and what you might need then if you wish to take this hobby forward and aim for bigger goals.
To begin with, the free to download tool Windows Live Essentials is very useful if you want to begin recording short movies on anything from your Smartphone camera to a world class movie camera or even a GoPro device. It can be downloaded for free at https://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows-live/essentials and critically it includes a program called Windows Movie Maker which is a very basic program which can handle the technical side of most beginner aspirations in movie making. After it is downloaded, during the install of Live Essentials, you can choose whether or not to install the other programs that come alongside Movie Maker.
Most smart phones can record movies nowadays also and most new computers will be able to handle the various devices/equipment that need to be connected in order to upload, edit, produce and view movies. If you plan on doing a lot of movie production then you may want to consider getting an SSD (Solid State Disk) for inside your computer, to store your movies on. If you want high definition footage of something you may want to have a high spec monitor. These can cost anything from €100 up to €2000 depending on screensize, brightness, contrast ratio, resolution, connections, etc. You may also want in this case a fancier than average graphics adapter in your computer so that your computer can handle the processing of the video and photos. It’s safe to say that movie making can be expensive, not to mention time consuming. Windows Movie Maker will suffice to begin with though. You can learn everything about it here https://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows-live/movie-maker . If you need help in building a custom computer system then please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.
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If you enjoyed this article or found it useful, you might also enjoy our article on creating an Excel Scoreboard for a table quiz type scenario https://www.homehelptech.ie/blog/how-to-use-excel-to-autogenerate-a-quiz-scoreboard/
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If you are suffering from this problem or need any other help please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
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Can you hear a clicking noise from under the keyboard of your laptop or the tower of your desktop computer? Have your files seemingly disappeared from your computer? Perhaps you know someone who has at some stage accidentally restored their computer to the state at which it came from the factory where it was made. In any case, these are just some of the scenarios that hard disk recovery can come in handy for.
Being proactive and quick in finding a solution will give you the best possible chance of recovering from a failure of the hard disk in your computer. Hence if you have a problem with your PC that you cannot diagnose yourself or it is making a noise that it shouldn’t for instance then we recommend you to bring it to an expert immediately. NOTE: If the machine is turned off once you have already noticed the problem, it can be beneficial to leave it off until an expert can have a closer look. The course of action to take in fixing a Hard Disk (HD) can vary depending but one factor is the make and model of the computer and what HD it uses inside of it. The PC manufacturers (Lenovo, HP, Compaq, Asus, Acer, etc.) will have discs that came with it when you bought it. These discs can also be made at any stage on the computer prior to a potential HD failure. They can then come in handy if the HD fails. The manufacturers of the HD itself more than likely will also have software that can be downloaded and used to analyse the health of the HD.
You would be surprised the state of some disks that can be recovered. Parts of them can be burned in a fire and the essential parts can still be recoverable. In some cases it may not be possible to get everything off and in this scenario we would endeavour to get off as much as we can while keeping you informed of what you can expect to get back.
As always, prevention is better than a cure. It can happen that the factory that made a computer or hard disk sends out a faulty part so check any warranty that you might have. Also bear in mind good practices. Turn on and off your PC properly, usually from the start menu unless you’re using Windows 8 or 8.1. Storing files in unusual places on your computer can complicate matters, especially when it comes to data recovery off the hard disk. So keep a good folder structure and install applications in the recommended locations.
This is just a small article on Hard Disk Health and Recovery. No matter if you have one laptop or a whole organisation of computers, we have the expertise to maintain your IT and fix any potential HD failures, amongst other issues. Thanks for reading!
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If you are suffering from this or any other problem please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
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Windows 10 is just around the corner and with it brings a solution to a lot of the headaches caused by Windows 8 and 8.1. The much loved desktop environment makes a welcome return, unhampered by the lack of a start button or default settings to the “Metro” tablet environment. You will know this as the screen with all your apps in Win 8.1. It is also where you access the search function by pressing Win+Q. There is hardly enough space in one article to explain but there are a lot of changes coming in Windows 10.
One of the biggest changes will be the Internet Explorer browser. With two new engines driving it (they being the Javascript and rendering engines) there is a lot to hopefully look forward to. Will there be a popular swing back in favor of IE for die hard Chrome, FireFox or Safari users? That remains to be seen but hopefully it will play nicer with more websites. The previews and snapshots at least make it look better than previous versions and that will go a long way to improving user experience. They might just be taking heed from the likes of Google and Apple in the look and style of it. The code name for this project in Microsoft is “Spartan”.
Spartan
The next big thing is of course HoloLens, Microsoft’s answer to Google glass. It is being powered by an Intel processor chip and will work with a range of Microsoft products. Only a few people have had the chance to use the product themselves but it will be used in an augmented reality scenario with products such as Mine craft and Office. That is augmented reality as opposed to virtual reality (Oculus Rift) Neither does it seem farfetched that “Minority Report” style scenarios of typing on any surfaces and being recognised by computers by your iris is very far beyond the possibility for the ordinary person any more. If that seems implausible then we are certainly closer than ever before.
The third and final mention in this article will go to Cortana, and the integration of Cortana in to Internet Explorer and Windows 10. Cortana is the voice activation service created by Microsoft. It can be compared to Siri on Apple products. Google has also incorporated something similar in their Android devices. Along with eye recognition for authentication purposes (to prove who you are) we also may be looking at voice recognition. Cortana can be used to ask questions and make appointments and reminders. It can also be integrated with your calendar, location, schedule, etc. to act as a physical, human personal assistant in all but actuality.
There will be a desktop and tablet/mobile version available it seems and the line here will be drawn around the 8” tablet size and smaller. The details of this are still emerging. There will also be some free upgrades for users already on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 until a year after its release. This is exciting news and if you want to know more please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
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If you are suffering from this or any other problem please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers. We will be delighted to help.
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Business Hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 to 17:30
