The Internet has changed the way we get our news, watch movies, and pay our bills. It’s not surprising, then, that it has also changed the way we listen to music. Today, the web is home to several top music-streaming services – online services that allow users to listen to their favorite music on their laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.

But which music-streaming services are the best? Listed below are some recommendations:

Pandora: Pandora is very popular because of its simple user interface. After navigating to the website, you are able to input a song or artist you want to hear and Pandora will create a “radio” station based upon that information. This is a wonderful way to learn about new artists with similar sounds. The stations that Pandora creates are easily personalized as well. If Pandora chooses an artist that you don’t like, you can click the thumbs down symbol on the song. Pandora allows for further customization by allowing you to “seed” your station with different artists. While you can tune in to Pandora without creating an account, it is necessary if you want to save your customized stations.

Grooveshark: This streaming service is very similar to Pandora, in that it creates a customized “radio” station determined by your musical tastes. There is no need to create an account to listen to Grooveshark, or to make your own playlists. However, in order to save your information, you need to create one. One benefit to Grooveshark is basically that you are able to enjoy whole albums rather than a station you built. One of the most interesting features of Grooveshark is that users can add their own music if the Grooveshark database doesn’t have what they are hunting for.

Rhapsody: Rhapsody has stayed fairly popular because of its huge database of music. It has more then 14 million songs. Unfortunately, while many of the services we have talked about offer a free version, Rhapsody does not. It is $10 a month for unlimited music.

Spotify: Spotify was introduced in 2008, and since then it has expanded into one of the most widely known and used music-streaming services. Spotify is very easy to use and, like Grooveshark, users can listen to entire albums or choose to use the radio function.  One thing that people love about Spotify is its integration with Facebook. If you use the Spotify app, it keeps a running list of the songs you have heard on Facebook. Additionally, users can see what their Facebook friends are presently listening to on a real-time feed. This is great for those who are in search of new music if one of their friends has similar tastes.

It’s been a little while since Windows was regarded as cool but the Kinect may change all that. The Kinect is a voice and motion-sensing device that was originally created as a feature for the Xbox gaming console.

Microsoft in February introduced Kinect for Windows. This version of the device works with, of course, Windows-operated personal computers. Now a number of users are putting the device to work in unforeseen ways.

Innovative Uses for the Kinect

Earlier this year the Chief Marketing Manager for Nissan North America created a virtual tour of the Pathfinder’s interior at the Chicago Auto Show. The only thing that was actually displayed was the outer shell of the Pathfinder, but participants could see the upgraded interior on a large screen using the Kinect.

Microsoft is also encouraging companies to make use of the Kinect imaginatively by working with them to develop custom Kinect applications. Nearly 350 companies today are working with Microsoft in this way. As an example, Boeing uses the device to create virtual tours of its 737 jets. Medical providers at a hospital in Canada are also using the device’s gesture-recognition to swipe through CT scans, eliminating the risk of touching germs on a keyboard or mouse.

Kinect: A Solid Hit

The Kinect is a hit for Microsoft. Last year the device helped turn the Xbox 360 into the year’s best-selling gaming console. In fact, Microsoft has sold more than 18 million Kinect devices since November of 2010. It makes sense then, that a version created especially for Windows would be a hit, too.

It may seem hard to believe, but Windows and its creator may have actually found something that’s not only useful, but cool, which can do nothing but good for their reputation.

There are lots of people seeking jobs today. However, as an employer, you are not trying to find just anyone. You would like to hire the best, most innovative employees to work at your business. You recognize that your company is only as strong as your workers. How do you hire the best people? It all starts with the interview.

Make sure that your interview questions solicit the data that will help you select the individual with the attributes you want. If you use a cookie cutter approach to the interview, it’s likely you’ll get uninspired, cookie cutter answers.

Ask the Right Questions

Start by asking the right questions. Don’t ask candidates what their job titles were at past positions. Don’t ask them what their duties were. Instead, ask them to list any innovative ideas that they came up with for their previous employers. Ask them if these ideas helped their employers earn more money, run more efficiently, or reduce expenses.

One of the most common questions to ask a candidate concerns their strengths and weaknesses. Try to avoid asking them to list these; most people have predetermined answers. Instead ask them what they bring to the culture of a company, or ask them what they do to make their job more satisfying. The answers you get to these kinds of questions will help you gauge the actual resourcefulness of the person you are interviewing.

Another simple way to gauge a prospective employee’s creativity is to ask them to perform a task. For example, you could ask them to brainstorm ideas for an ad campaign, or write a short essay about their ideal work environment. Whatever it is, it is something your interviewee will not expect and it will give you a snapshot of their creativity.

Employers have an edge in today’s job market. They can select from among some of the top job seekers available, but to get the best people, employers have to first alter the way they carry out their job interviews.

There aren’t many people who look forward to going on business trips. They’re an inconvenience and expensive for the organization. Business travelers often feel hurried, which leads to insufficient sleep and poor eating habits, which exacerbates stress. Not to mention dealing with Airports and long-term parking. For this reason, many businesses decide to use videoconferencing if possible. But do you think that business travel is on its way out? Will Videoconferencing replace it altogether?

The End of Business Travel?

Do we want to strive for the termination of business travel? Perhaps not, think about the differences between in-person meeting and videoconferencing.

When people around the world sign on to a videoconference, they generally introduce themselves quickly, if required, and then dive into the goal at hand. Brainstorming does not often play a large role in videoconferencing; this is partially due to the worry that their connection may fail. Also, there are lots of distractions within the individual’s office that can make fluid conversation tricky.

The Benefits of Face-to-Face Time

At in-person meetings, however, agendas have a way of falling by the wayside, and that’s a good thing. Meetings may start only after a few minutes of personal chatter and they may end with attendees swapping office stories. Again, this can be good. Often, the most effective business ideas arise from these moments of off-topic discussion.

Business Travel is Here to Stay

Yes, business travel is an inconvenience and videoconferencing is a convenience. However, there are times when meeting face-to-face is the best option for generating the most innovative business solutions. Because of this, don’t expect savvy business executives to ever totally replace business travel with videoconferencing.

Doesn’t it seem like we should currently have jetpacks? Teleporters? Or meals in tablet form? We already have some impressive technology, like tablets, which are small computers that we can carry around. We can use the GPS in our cars to find the way around town. We can post an update to our social media sites and reach thousands of people at once.

So, why don’t we have teleporters and hovercrafts? What exactly is preventing us from taking these leaps in technology?

Building a Better Battery

As we move into a more mobile world, batteries grow in importance. They are a building block of our technological world these days. Thus, if we are limited by their power, and capacity to hold a charge, the technology that utilizes them is also limited. For instance, you wouldn’t want your jet pack to loose its charge in flight. Recently, researchers at Chicago’s Northwestern University found a way to make a much more powerful lithium-ion battery than the ones we have today. We explored this more thoroughly in a blog post last week. When these batteries finally enter the market, we will likely notice a increase in technological advancements.

Improving Internet Access

The second limiting factor is related to access. Basically, not enough of the world’s population has access to high-speed Internet access. It may well seem like every public library, bookstore, and cafe’ provides its clientele with access to high-speed wireless Internet, but this is largely a mirage. The majority of humans do not have easy access to the web. Until this happens, we’ll be needlessly limiting the growth of technology. The more minds that are connected on the Web, the better the odds are of reaching the next tech breakthrough.

The Business of New Tech

Finally, there’s the business end of things. Technological progress is slowed by arcane matters such as patent law. Businesses take their time introducing new gadgets and services as they must first navigate a minefield of laws and government regulations. These laws are important. However, they should be clear and easy to comprehend so new technology isn’t bottled up unnecessarily.

Even though there are a few things that are holding technology back, it is still improving at a rapid pace. Maybe we’ll finally get hover boards when battery technology catches up to our imaginations.

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Adobe Photoshop is an amazing tool. It lets businesses edit the images they need to build professional-looking brochures, pamphlets, and marketing materials. However, Photoshop is far from inexpensive. A quick online scan will show that newer versions of this image-editing program can run higher then $600. For small business owners with limited funds, this program just is not practical. This doesn’t mean, though, that these small business owners do not have photo-editing options. In fact, businesses can choose from quite a few alternatives that are not only cheaper but are actually free.

Of course, these programs are not as powerful as Photoshop. But they have adequate photo-editing features for small business owners to effortlessly create professional looking material. Below is a list of the best free photo-manipulation programs now available.

GIMP

GIMP is very easy to use and possesses most of the features from Photoshop that a business owner might need to create marketing material. The beauty of GIMP is that it’s completely free!

Paint.NET

Did you ever use MSPiant? It came with your Windows operating system and was very basic. Paint.NET is its successor and is far more powerful then its forerunner. One fantastic aspect for designers is an unlimited undo button. Paint.NET is a free program; the only negative about it is that it only works on Windows machines.

Picnik

Picnik is fast, free, and easy to use. It works on the Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems and you don’t have to download files to use it. It has some exciting special effects as well, making it a well liked photo-editing program.

In the end, if you are looking for a program that lets you create professional marketing material, it is not necessary to spend a lot. These programs will let you accomplish this task at no cost.

Google is the household name with regards to searching the Web. However, it may not be the greatest search engine out there. Microsoft introduced Bing, a competitor, in 2009 and it should not be dismissed. While most Internet users still use Google as their primary search engine, Bing has many features that make for a robust searching experience.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When you search on Bing, you will get more information relating to your search results than you will get from Google. Bing’s results feature a left-hand navigation panel filled with Quick Tabs that enable users to focus their searches. There’s also a center row of search results that are grouped into logical categories. This makes it simpler for users to find multimedia files or quick answers.

Bing Goes Beyond Search Results

Bing also brings more than just search results. Say users search for websites about pop star Lady Gaga. Bing will also bring up Lady Gaga’s most recent videos. For users searching for a flight out of town, Bing beats Google easily. The search engine employs something it calls Farecast Technology in its Bing Travel site. This allows users quickly locate the least expensive airfare to particular destinations.

Bing Video Search Shines

Bing stands out from Google in terms of searching for videos as well. Bing allows users to specify how long they would like videos to be, what resolution they want, and what screen size they would prefer. In addition, to get a preview of the video, users only have to hover their cursor over the video to play a portion of it without clicking on it.

These are a few reasons why Bing shouldn’t be overlooked. Google may be the current king of search engines, but Bing has a lot to deliver surfers of the Web.

The more we depend on mobile devices the more we rely on one little technology. Batteries. Have you ever reached for your smartphone to look something up or to get directions and discovered that it has died? Well, in a few years, that may be something you don’t have to worry about.

A Better Battery on the Way?

A team of engineers at Chicago’s Northwestern University may have found a way to make a battery that lasts longer and charges itself in a few minutes, rather then overnight. This story reports on these research efforts. This is great news for smartphone users everywhere.

According to the article, Northwestern’s researchers have found a means to extend the charge-life of a new lithium-ion battery by a factor of 10. Even after 150 charges—which researchers say represents a year or more of operation—this new battery would still be five times more efficient than the today’s lithium-ion batteries.

A Charged Battery for a Week

Here’s the bottom line: The new cell phone battery could stay charged for over a week and then recharge itself in just 15 minutes. This is good news for you: It could mean that your iPod won’t run out of juice while you’re working the treadmill at the gym. But the new, better battery may have a far greater impact: According to the Northwestern story, this new battery technology could result in smaller and more powerful batteries for electric cars. This may help the United States—and other countries—cut its reliance on fossil fuels.

Batteries Powering Technological Change

While this new battery technology may have a massive impact on many aspects of our life, it will not be available to the general public for three to five years, says Northwestern researchers. Batteries tend to be over looked when we think of advanced technologies, but the more we depend upon mobile devices the more imperative they become.  Breakthroughs in battery technology may in reality hold the key to an even greater technological movement.

Cloud computing has undoubtedly caught on. People can access data that’s stored in the cloud—databases located far away from their own computer drives. They are able to store their favorite songs, access powerful word-processing programs, and send their business proposals to the cloud. This conserves loads of computer memory, as everything that’s stored in the cloud isn’t stored on a personal computer. The result is a faster computing experience, as fewer programs gum up the operating speed of home computers.

Not All Clouds are the Same

However; there are various kinds of clouds. There is the public cloud, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud. Most people use the public cloud, companies that want to use cloud services to store very confidential data can opt to use a private cloud, and the hybrid cloud is a combination of the two.

The hybrid cloud usually works like this: A business provides some resources in-house. For instance, it might store current consumer data on its private in-house cloud. It might also store employee records, new marketing campaigns, and current proposals to new clients on its in-house storage. That same business, though, might store older, archived data on a public cloud service. This frees up space on the business’ servers, and permits its in-house computers to function more efficiently.

The Hybrid Cloud Approach Makes Sense

Taking a hybrid cloud approach to data storage enables businesses to take advantage of the space-saving benefits of the public cloud without also exposing their sensitive current data to third-party providers. To paraphrase, the hybrid cloud provides businesses with protection, cost-savings, and efficiency.

It’s not surprising that many businesses use the hybrid cloud. There is too much data storage needed today for a company to store it all and not slow down their systems. Additionally, in this competitive climate, organizations must ensure their sensitive information is safeguarded. The hybrid cloud is often the best way businesses can accomplish these two things.

A growing number of employees today work remotely. This is possible on account of advancements in technology. The benefits are many for both employee and employer. Employers can spend less money as they have less people that need space in the office. Employees that work remotely are often more productive; they spend less time commuting, and they have the flexibility to adjust their work around their life rather than working 9 hours straight, which can lead to burnout.

Remote Worker Challenges

One worry that many employers have when deciding to hire remote workers is, how can they monitor the amount of work they do? How do they know they are really working and not simply playing games on their computer all day long?

By setting realistic deadlines employers can monitor their remote workers successfully. This is a change in managerial strategy; it puts the focus on the goal instead of the amount of time that the employee works. In the end, employees are the only ones who know when they perform most optimally, even if it is from midnight to 4am.

Setting Remote Worker Deadlines

Employers might tell their remote workers that they have to turn in a certain amount of work every Wednesday and Friday. This makes sure that remote employees are carrying out their work. Employers might also schedule regular updates by phone, video chat, or through instant messaging, during which workers can explain how far along they are with certain tasks. Some employers may prefer to require that their remote workers spend a minimum of one day a week, or two days a month, on site. This gives these workers face time with their managers, something which helps everyone stay focused on upcoming deadlines and goals.

Off-Site Not a Permanent Condition

While many people may have the personal discipline and time management skills to effectively work remotely, some don’t. So, if an employee doesn’t work effectively remotely, and that has become obvious, remote working doesn’t have to stay permanent, it can easily be revoked. Ultimately, trust within the employee/employer relationship is one of the key elements of a successful remote working relationship. The employee needs to maintain that trust by hitting deadlines and delivering high quality work.