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3 Technology and Home Tips

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To find out how you can use the latest advancements in technology to make your home life a little easier, continue reading to discover a list of handy technology and home tips.

3 Technology and Home Tips:

Consider having electronic blinds installed in your home:

If you struggle to get up in the mornings and have a habit of hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock, you may want to have electronic binds installed in your bedroom. As that way you’ll be able to program your blinds to automatically open at a set time each day. Which should motivate you to get out of bed. As the light will pour into your bedroom each morning when it’s time to wake up. This is a particularly great idea if you want to install black out curtains as you’ll instantly go from pitch black to broad daylight, when it’s time to get up in the morning.

If you opt to have electronic blinds installed in the rest of your home such as in your lounge, you’ll also be able to use an app on your phone to open and close your blinds each day when you’re on holiday or to close your blinds if you’re out after dark and haven’t had a chance to go home.

Replace all the outdated light bulbs in your home with smart light bulbs:

Smart light bulbs can be controlled using your voice if you have a voice powered home assistant such as an Amazon Echo device. If you don’t have a smart assistant you’ll still be able to turn your smart light bulbs on or off by using an easy to use app on your phone. So if you recall that you forgot to turn your bedroom light off or the kitchen light off when you’re watching a movie in your lounge, you’ll be able to turn off the lights in your kitchen or bedroom without having to take a single step. Which is incredibly convenient.

Purchase a wireless autonomous vacuum cleaner:

If you often find it difficult to find enough time to vacuum your home, it’s well worth investing in a wireless autonomous vacuum cleaner who you’ll be able to set up to vacuum your home, when you’re at work. Once your autonomous vacuum cleaner has finished vacuuming the route which you’ve programmed it will return to it’s charging system. Which will ensure that your vacuum cleaner will never run out of battery.

If you implement all of the tips listed above you should find that it’s a lot easier managing your day to day life and your home.

4 Finance and Technology Tips

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To discover how you can use technology to take care of your finances, continue reading to discover a list of helpful finance and technology tips. That are well worth sharing with your friends and family members.

4 Finance and Technology Tips:

Purchase DIY accounting software:

Whether you own and operate a small business and would like to decrease your accountant’s bill or you’d like to make your tax returns a whole lot easier it’s well worth investing in purchasing DIY accounting software. From a highly rated company which you can trust. As you’ll be able to keep track of your personal accounts as well as your business accounts with ease.

Check your online bank accounts on a daily basis:

It’s well worth getting into the habit of checking the balances of your online bank accounts on a daily basis. To ensure that there are no false charges such as double payments on your account. As the sooner that you find any false payments the more likely you will be to get any false charges which you’ve discovered reversed.

By checking your online bank accounts on a daily basis you’ll also become aware of just how much money you spend on different areas of your life. As an example if you check the balance of your primary bank account everyday you may discover that you waste a lot of money on eating out or purchasing takeaway coffees. Finally by checking the balance of your online accounts everyday you’ll also be able to make any necessary changes to your monthly budget.

As an example if find that you’ve over spent on items that you don’t need, you may be able to decrease your spending for the rest of the month, so that you don’t blow your budget.

Make sure that you don’t your password for your online bank account for any other sites:

Make sure that you only use the password for your online bank account for your bank account. As if you were to use the same password for other websites such as your email account and online shopping accounts, if your details are hacked, the hackers may be able to access your online bank accounts.

Don’t save your online passwords:

When you visit a website you’ll normally be asked if you’d like your PC to save your password. While it may save time to allow websites to save your passwords, if another individual ever uses your computer they may be able to access your online bank accounts.

So there you have it, four finance related technology tips which should help you take better care of your finances. Especially if you use online banking from your smart home or laptop.

Technology and Business tips

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As technology is one of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal as a business owner, it’s well worth continuing reading to discover a few tech related business tips.

Technology and Business tips:

Store some of your data in a cloud based system in order to keep your business’ sensitive data secure:

In order to ensure that your data is safe, it’s a great idea to start storing much of your business’ data in a cloud based system. As a bonus, you’ll also free up room on your computer’s hard drive or your external hard drive. Which is great if your business amasses a large amount of documents. Just be sure to compare the different cloud based systems and packages which are available before you decide with cloud based system you should use.

Make an effort to keep up to date with the latest SEO trends:

Even if you know the basics of how SEO marketing works, it’s important to stay up to date with the latest SEO trends, which will help increase your business’ search engine ranking. Which will in turn drive traffic to your business’ website which will increase your business’ sales, profits and revenue.

Market your business on social media instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on expensive ads:

Most major international companies such as Coca Cola, Nike, Louis Vuitton and BMW pump a lot of money into their social media profiles. Why are companies who can afford to splash out on expensive print and TV campaigns deciding to advertise their businesses using social media? The answer is that social media marketing is now the most effective form of marketing. Especially as the vast majority of individuals will visit several social media channels, multiple times per day and therefore expose themselves voluntarily to internet marketing from small and large businesses alike.

Also think about starting a company blog in order to increase your business’ profile:

Another way to successfully increase your business’ profile is to start a blog, in order to drive traffic to your business’ website. You can even sponsor well loved bloggers who your business’ target audience look up to, so that they’ll write guest posts for your blog. Which may significantly increase your website’s hit count.

Make sure that your business boasts glowing online reviews:

If you notice that your business is starting to attract negative reviews, it’s important to rectify any issues that are raised in your reviews, so that you can save your business’ online reputation.

Hopefully you find all of the tech related business tips which are listed above extremely useful. Especially if you’d like to help your business grow from strength to strength.

Everything that you need to know about Mattel Aquarius

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If you never owned a Mattel Aquarius machine you may be surprised to learn that the toy manufacturer Mattel once released a home computer, which was named the Aquarius. To find out everything that you need to know about the Aquarius, simply continue reading.

Everything that you need to know about the Mattel Aquarius:

Mattel first announced that they had plans to develop a home computer in 1982:

In 1982 Mattel first spoke to the press about their intentions to produce and sell an affordable home computer. While Mattel did intend to build their own home computer, they ended up buying the rights to a design which was already in production in Hong Kong. The computer who Mattel decided to buy their home computers for also produced their home gaming system the Intellivision.

It celebrated it’s public debut in Las Vegas:

It had its public debut at the Las Vegas Winter Consumer Electronic Show which took place in January, 1983. A few months before it was officially released to the public in June.

It was first released in 1981:

One of the most popular Mattel computers the Mattel Aquarius was released in 1983. It was designed by Radofin and produced by Mattel.

It had a short life span and was officially discontinued within 5 months of its release date:

While the Aquarius was released in June of 1983 it was officially discontinued by Mattel by October, 1983. As the Aquarius was not selling enough units. Instead of trying to rework their first computer Mattel decided to cut their losses and to quickly exit the home computer market.

Mattel originally decided to produce a computer after their success producing Intellivision gaming systems:

As Mattel’s gaming systems are incredibly popular, Mattel wondered if they could diversify their interests by producing home computers. Another reason why Mattel considered getting into the production of home computers is that they were worried that Atari would steal much of their market share. As Atari consistently gained market share of the game system market, with each passing month. Even though Mattel’s Intellivision systems were selling like hot cakes.

The Mattel Aquarius was designed as a multi purpose device:

Mattel’s plan was to create a home computer that could be used to play games as well as to run software programs.

It could be used with 16K and 4K RAM cartridges:

The Mattel Aquarius was compatible with both 4K RAM cartridges and 16K RAM cartridges.

If you’re interested in the history of video game companies, computer companies and toy companies, you may want to look at online auctions in order to purchase your own retro Aquarius home computer.

Everything that you need to know about the Aquarius Home Computer

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If you’re searching for valuable information on the Aquarius Home Computer System, which was first sold by Mattel in 1983, simply continue reading to discover everything that you need to know about Mattel’s first and last home computer. As Mattel decided to cease the production of their home computers a few months after they debuted the Aquarius Home Computer.

Everything that you need to know about the Aquarius Home Computer System:

Aquarius Home Computer System value:

When the Aquarius Home Computer System was first put on the market it retailed at $160 US dollars. In today’s market $160 US dollars would roughly equate to around $402.49. However, if you’re interested in purchasing a vintage Aquarius Home Computer System, expect to pay around $250 US dollars. Although prices vary on each listing depending on its condition.

If you’re lucky you may even be able to pick up a model which comes with included accessories. So be to sure to shop around for the best possible deal before you choose to purchase an Aquarius Home Computer System online.

It was only produced for a short period of time:

Mattel, which is known for producing toys such as Barbie, intended for the Aquarius Home Computer System to be their first of many home computers. However after sales of the Aquarius Home Computer System were poor, within 5 months of the release of their first home computer Mattel decided to exit the home computer market for good. A move which disappointed many of the early fans and adopters of the Aquarius.

It could be used to play arcade style video games:

While the Aquarius wasn’t marketed as a home gaming system, it could be used to play a variety of arcade style video games. Which pleased gamers who wanted to purchase a home computer which boasted the functionality and features of a home computer and which could also be used to play fun video games from the comfort of their own homes.

It was not designed by Mattel:

Many individuals mistakingly assume that Mattel developed and designed the Aquarius Home Computer. However, Mattel simply brought the rights to manufacture the Aquarius from another company, Radofin. At the time Mattel thought that it would be far more cost effective to purchase the designs and rights to a home computer, than to design and build a computer from scratch.

Hopefully you’ve learnt a few interesting facts about Mattel’s first and last home computer system the Aquarius Home Computer System. Which was only produced for five short months.

Everything that you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive

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To discover the key reasons why tape drives such as the Commodore Tape Drive used to be so popular, simply continue reading to discover everything that you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive.

Everything you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive:

It was used to write information onto magnetic tape:

The primary use of the Commodore Tape Drive was to write important data onto archival quality magnetic tape. Although it could also read data which had been written onto magnetic tape.

It offered a cheap way to store important data:

One of the reasons why so many individuals chose to use tape drives such as the Commodore Tape Drive in order to store important data, such as business logs is that the magnetic tape which they’d use to record their data was relatively inexpensive to purchase. Which made using Commodore Tape Drive an attractive, inexpensive option for individuals, businesses and organizations on a budget.

Many organizations, businesses and individuals used the Commodore Tape Drive to back up their data:

A large percentage of the organizations, businesses and individuals who brought a Commodore Tape Drive, chose to do so in order to be able to back up their data. As there is nothing worse than losing important data or highly sensitive data. Just as individuals commonly back up their data to a cloud based system or to an external hard drive, which boasts plenty of memory, when the Commodore Tape Drive was first released, individuals would use tape drives to back up their important information.

They were designed to help you read information in sequence:

While in today’s world it’s possible to read information in a document stored in a cloud based system from any given point in your document, if you used a Commodore Tape Drive to store information, you would have to read all of the information which you’d saved onto your magnetic tape in sequence. Which is one of the reasons why tape drives eventually became old technology and society moved on from using tape drives to electronically store information.

The speed which tape drives would work would differ from machine to machine:

Not all tape drives were created equal and the speed at which each tape machine would record and would read data would differ greatly. One of the reasons why the Commodore Tape Drive was so popular is that it had the ability to burn and read data quickly.

While you may not have a use for a retro device such as a tape drive, it’s still interesting learning about different types of defunct technology. Especially if you collect old school electronic gadgets.