The Smartphone Market The heavy hitters of the smartphone market have been the same for almost a decade. Samsung and Apple are, more or less, the biggest players in the smartphone market. There are others that have emerged, like HTC, Blackberry Limited, and LG, but it?s hard to argue that they have the same presence in the smartphone industry as Samsung and Apple. Similarly, there is now a competition for Chinese companies thanks to an increase in Asian smartphone demand. Manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi have grown considerably as a result. Besides the increase in popularity of smartphones in places with high populations, the smartphone market has typically relied on repeat customers who replace their phones when new models are released. Today?s smartphones are built with specifications that are designed to help manufacturer?s make back their money with high sales. The less people upgrade their devices, the more money these manufacturers have to pay in order to get ads in front of potential consumers. Therefore, if the biggest draw of the latest smartphone is taken out of the picture–the potential for upgrading–the entire basis of the market screeches to a halt. Even though Samsung and Apple have large numbers of repeat customers, the same can?t be said for their closest competitors. Even though the technology market?s stagnation is occurring at around the same time as the mobile device market?s, the ultimate cause seems to be demand for the devices. Locations where smartphones are increasing in popularity–namely India, Africa, and southeast Asia–don?t have the Internet accessibility needed to use devices to their full capacity. Even though the numbers are down, the smartphone market will still continue to innovate and push toward groundbreaking new technologies. Some of the hot topics are currently 5G wireless and augmented reality. It?s likely that these new innovations will keep the smartphone relevant in the coming years. 2018 Smartphone Technology Smartphone companies rely on the success of their most popular devices, and therefore, they need to take measures toward improving these devices. They have to improve pretty much everything about them in order to attract both new and returning consumers. This ranges all the way from the cameras and screens to the innards–the operating system, RAM, and other software included with it. The sad reality is that these new versions of flagship devices are simply not that much different from previous versions. This is true even in light of insane spending on innovation, research and development. Most flagship smartphones today provide the following features: 4G LTE availability Responsive operating system Large application ecosystem Usable screen size around six inches PPI over 400 OLED, AMOLED, or Super AMOLED display Carry weight of less than 7 oz At least a 12 Megapixel rear-facing camera Front-facing camera 4K video capture Optical Image Stabilization At least a 3.25 GHz processor At least quad-core At least 3 GB of RAM At least 64 GB of onboard storage At least 10 hours of constant usability on battery Rapid charging with USB Type-C (or proprietary charger) Water resistance Bluetooth Security features (including face lock or fingerprint scanner) Unfortunately, poor sales means higher prices to make up for these poor sales. This makes trouble for small businesses with limited budgets, as they could potentially be using devices several years old. While there?s nothing wrong with […]
Need Collaboration? Most projects that a business completes will require more than one person to work on them, assuming that this project needs to be done with any efficiency. This means that multiple people will need to be able to access not just the materials, but the organizational documents as well, to ensure that the project?s status is correctly maintained. If you also use Microsoft OneDrive, storing your project note there and sharing it out to those who need to access it will enable collaborative abilities for each of them. This can also be done through a sharable link, and sharing permissions can be removed with just a few clicks, if necessary. Tags for Organization In OneNote 2016, tags allow much quicker access to key pieces of information in notes, whether that information is a single set of numbers or an entire paragraph of text. These tags include items like Important, Question, and Remember for Later, and you can even remind yourself to Discuss with manager or to Send in email. Of course, if you need a tag that says something different, you can always add a new tag or modify one that you don?t need – for instance, Movie to see probably isn?t going to come up in a project very often, so it can probably be repurposed safely. These tags are also searchable, making it easy to find them later, and once you?re done with a particular piece of information, the tag can be removed so as to not add to any confusion later. Customizable Templates OneNote also comes with an assortment of templates that you can apply to a page before adding any information to it. While some may be well-suited to your project as-is, you can also create your own from scratch or by modifying one that?s already there. Whatever you choose, your process can then be standardized, saving time and energy later in future projects. How else have you utilized OneNote? Let us know in the comments, and make sure you subscribe to the White Mountain IT Services blog!
Certain threats out there are dangerous enough to cause major entities to warn against them. In particular, a recent malware by the name of VPNFilter has been deemed dangerous and prevalent enough that the FBI has addressed it. Since the malware targets routers (probably not your first guess in terms of possible vulnerabilities), it has considerable potential to become a nuisance for your organization. Understanding VPNFilter VPNFilter is a malware that hides in your router and remains even if you restart the device. VPNFilter is known for prioritizing devices in Ukraine, but you should never count on the trend to protect you from known threats. It?s thought that the VPNFilter malware has its roots in a group called Sofacy, and the malware operates in three basic steps. The first step for this malware is that it installs itself on the device and remains there even in the event that the router is rebooted or turned off. Second, the malware will install certain permissions on the router that allows it to change settings, manage files, and execute commands. The router can then proceed to brick itself, making it much more difficult for your organization to keep operations moving along. In its final stages, this malware lets a hacker see the data packets that are being sent to and from your organization?s device, meaning that they can then also issue commands and communicate with the device via a Tor web browser. This threat was specifically mentioned by the FBI because of its persistence. While resetting the device will disable the second and third steps, the first will remain, creating an endless cycle if you don?t do anything about it. Is Your Router Affected? Even though not all routers are affected, the number is still quite considerable. Here is a list of affected brands: Asus D-Link Huawei Linksys MikroTik Netgear TP-Link Ubiquiti Upvel ZTE If you would like a more comprehensive list of all affected devices, Symantec has a list on their website: https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/vpnfilter-iot-malware How You Fix It There is an easy fix to VPNFilter, and it?s to perform a factory reset on your router. This eliminates anything that?s currently installed from the first stage of VPNFilter?s attack. Of course, it?s also worth mentioning that the manufacturer of the router may have also administered a patch or security update resolving the vulnerability, so be sure to check for that as well so that it will never be an issue again. For more great updates and tech tips, be sure to subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.
Before we take the plunge, we want to inform you that in order to best understand the two terms, you?ll need to have data collection platforms in place that allow you to analyze data. If your organization doesn?t store data properly, it becomes difficult to analyze it. Therefore, if you have plans to analyze your data, you should make plans to have it stored in a single place where it can be read from, making it much more feasible to take advantage of. BI vs BA The biggest difference between business intelligence and business analysis goes back to the roots of language. Business intelligence is a noun, whereas business analysis is a verb. Business intelligence is a system put into place to collect and analyze data, while business analysis is the actual act of doing the analyzing. Both of these purposes require significant amounts of data to work as intended, even if they both work in different ways. Business Intelligence A business intelligence strategy is built for the purpose of analyzing the business in its current form. In this case, the more you know about your business, the more effectively you can make decisions about the future of your organization. When you hire a business intelligence professional, their job is to analyze the data to find answers to your most pressing business needs. Your organization uses the information found during these processes to improve your operations, whether it?s through changing up the way things are done or by implementing new solutions. Basically, BI?s value is in providing enough information about your business? operations to create data-driven decisions. Business Analysis Business analysis consists of enabling the changes that need to be done by finding and resolving gaps in the way your organization manages itself, be it in production or solution implementation. Business analysis means that your organization takes the information that a BI system has provided to create solutions for your business? woes. Sometimes they can be used to predict changes in the market or determine the best audience for a particular good or service. Data-Driven Decisions This increase in organizational use of BI and BA make it clear that more businesses than ever before are taking advantage of their data in exciting new ways. Through the power of BI, businesses can create strategies to hone in their operations and create opportunity for improvement, while BA can help you either implement new solutions or stay on track toward your goals. White Mountain IT Services can help your business get started. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Businesses of all sizes use varying degrees of technology to improve organizational productivity, efficiency, and security. The more a business depends on its data, the more crucial it is for them to manage and maintain the systems in which this data is dependent. For organizations that have a lack of financial resources to support these systems, it is often left to unqualified employees, putting your business at risk. What do you do when you need expertise that you lack and can?t afford to hire in-house staff? You call White Mountain IT Services. We offer our brand of managed IT services that go far beyond typical IT support. We ensure that your network and infrastructure is outfitted with the security solutions required to keep today?s most critical threats out. Additionally, we continuously monitor your network for threats, ensuring that anything that could become a problem is eliminated. Using monitoring solutions with state-of-the-art automation, our technicians can remediate any threat, reducing downtime and all the negative situations that happen due to it. At White Mountain IT Services, we look for any way we can to provide value. Since the success of our business is contingent on our clients? continued success, it positions us in a place where we want our clients to get the most value out of every dollar they spend on technology; and, the maintenance of that technology. We understand that making the correct technology decisions is sometimes difficult. We have relationships with some of the largest and most respected vendors in the industry that can help any organization get the hardware and software they need in order to more proficiently meet the demands placed on them by their customers. Not only can we find the technology you need at a competitive price, our technicians are experts in designing and implementing technology to fit into your workplace. Since we work with technology every day, our staff has the knowledge to know what you need, why it?s right for you, and how to get it. This includes solutions for the security of your business, it?s back-office operations, and everything in between. In our commitment to battle downtime-causing problems, we regularly patch software with the latest threat definitions to ensure that all of the applications you depend on aren?t overrun by malware and other malicious entities. The peace of mind that you have an IT infrastructure and network that is free from threats frees you to focus on your business instead of the litany of threats that are stamped out by our dedicated technicians. For more information about our comprehensive managed IT services, or to talk to one of our consultants about having an assessment done on your company?s technology, call us today at (603) 889-0800.
