Category: Products

4 Ways Fintech Is Making Life Easier for Businesses

Miley on May 14, 2020

Fintech means streamlined communication and more convenient financial and banking solutions for consumers. It’s also making life easier for businesses and their customers, too. Combining finance with digital technology, it offers more reliable, convenient, innovative, and secure platforms for facilitating transactions and other services at faster speeds than the brick-and-mortar and even earlier online alternatives.

Just how, specifically, is Fintech solving problems for businesses of all sizes? There are plenty of ways, from enabling them to accept payments on the go with ease to allow them to offer better customer service to current and prospective clients.

It allows businesses to accept payments — practically anywhere

Finding a way for customers to pay for products via digital technology doesn’t seem like it should be all that difficult, but there are many intricacies. That happens due to the many payment methods available, issues like tax discrepancies in different locations, processing fees, and other issues.

Fintech has the answer, though, in the form of platforms like Square. A small attachment adapter allows businesses to swipe credit cards and accept payment on the go — even when they’re not connected to WIFI — whether they’re in a conference hall, restaurant, greenmarket, or storefront. Today, many businesses use Square with a stand to replace a cash register, so it’s no longer just for transactions away from their home base.

Stripe is another helpful Fintech tool that allows businesses to accept payments. The major difference between the tools is that while Square is primarily used for payments made in-person, Stripe focuses on online payments usually made remotely.

Securing transactions

Security is a huge concern for both businesses and consumers. Fortunately, blockchain technology has made transactions a lot safer and easier for organizations and people who use it. Essentially, the technology keeps a record of information within a transaction in a “block” that’s linked to other blocks on a virtual chain — hence the name. The blockchain is encrypted and enormously difficult to corrupt because altering one block will affect the entire ledger.

Moreover, transactions don’t require third-party, intermediary processing, which means they occur much more quickly than they would if they did need an intermediary, as transactions typically do, as well as safely. This is helpful for many types of businesses, such as retail, which benefits from secure, swift transactions. Even fast-food chains like Starbucks and Burger King are accepting cryptocurrency in some locations, with transactions conducted via apps.

Digitizing currency

Some countries, such as Sweden, are already well on their way to becoming cashless societies. The Harvard Business Review reported that cash transactions under $20 had dropped to 37% in 2019 in the United States, down from 46% in 2015. Digital currency could be well on its way to replacing physical currency for good, increasing efficiency, speed, and convenience.

Credit card payments are nothing new, of course, but today, more and more businesses are accepting them for smaller transactions. Some are even taking cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which, through blockchain technology, allows customers to pay for purchases without an intermediary to process the transactions. Many small businesses are doing away with cash transactions entirely.

Facilitating payroll

Fintech also offers platforms that intersect with responsibilities generally handled by human resources or accounting. Software such as ADP, HReasily, and even Square will take care of your payroll processing, tax documents, benefits information, and more.

This can be especially useful for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that usually deal with these issues on their own, often spending too much time dealing with the various intricacies of bonuses and tax-filing. Not only does this free up time for SMEs, but it also takes concerns about areas they may not understand or have a dedicated staff to handle fully off of their plates.

Fintech is important for all businesses that depend on customer service, from retail to insurance. It facilitates greater reliability and security, which is essential for an organization’s reputation. In the future, we’ll likely see Fintech touch even more areas of the business world and provide solutions we can’t even imagine, driving increased consumer engagement and trust in brands.

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Stolen Vehicle Recovery with Thatcham Insurance Approved Trackers

Miley on May 13, 2020

The continuous efforts of car manufacturers, tech companies and police forces to combat vehicle theft across the UK led to a steady decline in the number of stolen vehicles between 2003 and 2014. Improvements to built-in vehicle safeguards and enhanced car security systems helped to stop criminals from breaking into and getting away with our precious vehicles. However, in 2014, a simple security oversight with the introduction of keyless entry systems – which were supposed to improve our quality of life – fuelled a drastic increase in vehicle theft throughout the UK. Criminals adapted quickly to the emerging technology, finding a simple and inexpensive way to steal vehicles with keyless entry systems in under a minute, without even needing to touch the key.

This so-called “relay theft”, in addition to the other known ways to break into vehicles, has exacerbated the situation to the worst it has been for years. Since 2014, the West Midlands has seen a shocking 214% increase in theft rates, while London remains the UK’s worst location for theft with a 61% rise in stolen vehicles. However, car owners aren’t totally helpless against these prolific thieves.

Here are some simple tips for preventing car theft:

Keep your vehicle locked at all times
Invest in effective anti-theft systems
Keep your keys safe, hidden away from out of sight
Keep your keys in a Faraday pouch overnight as a precaution against keyless theft
Choose safe parking locations for your vehicles, even for shortstops
Keep valuable items out of sight to not provoke a theft attempt

While these tips should be practiced by all drivers, a skilled auto thief can still get past these security measures and get away with your vehicle. Considering the time and money we invest in our vehicles, it’s worth investing a bit more to install a superior security system to guarantee their safety. High-end vehicle trackers accredited by Thatcham Research can protect your vehicle against even the most skilled criminals on the streets. With effective security measures against theft and a 96% stolen vehicle recovery rate, these sophisticated systems are one of the best – if not the best – vehicle security systems on the market.

Do you really need a Thatcham Vehicle Tracking Device in the UK?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. In 2017/18 alone, 112,174 vehicles were stolen in the UK, and according to the Met Police, 50% of stolen vehicles are never recovered. Unless you have a Thatcham vehicle tracker fitted in your vehicle, there’s a good chance you’ll never see your car again should you fall victim to vehicle theft. Thatcham Research Centre is the industry authority on vehicle security systems in the UK. Thatcham certifies vehicle security devices through careful analysis and a stringent testing procedure and categorizes the approved devices according to the level of security and features they offer.

Reliability and Accuracy

Thatcham tracking devices are equipped with advanced GNSS chips that utilize multiple orbital satellite networks, including GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS. The ability to pick up signals from different satellite systems improves the accuracy of Thatcham vehicle trackers, which helps immensely to locate a vehicle in an emergency situation or if targeted by theft. Even if an adept thief steals your vehicle and drives it to a remote location, your Thatcham-approved tracking device will keep broadcasting its precise location.

Driver Recognition

Vehicle owners are given two encrypted driver identification fobs as per Thatcham standards for Category S5 and S5+ tracking systems. The fobs are vital in detecting a theft attempt if a vehicle is stolen without using the keys. As soon as a vehicle’s engine is started without the tracker recognising the proper driver identification tags, an alert is issued to our monitoring centre. The teams at the monitoring centre will immediately contact you to confirm if a theft has actually occurred, and upon confirmation, our staff will contact the authorities on your behalf and facilitate the recovery of the stolen vehicle by providing real-time location updates. Driver identification has multiple uses for businesses as well; for example, the driver recognition tags can be utilized to prevent unauthorized vehicle use for companies that operate a vehicle fleet.

Remote Immobilisation

Remote immobilization is one of the most powerful security measures against vehicle theft, and especially useful when the police are in pursuit of a stolen vehicle. It allows vehicle owners and on-call teams at the monitoring center to stop a stolen vehicle’s engine remotely, rendering the car useless once it comes to a complete stop. The employees at the monitoring centre can then guide the authorities to the location of the immobilized vehicle with pinpoint accuracy for a safe and speedy recovery. Thatcham-approved tracking systems offer multiple additional layers of security – one of which is that the ignition can be turned off to prevent the vehicle from starting without authorization from the owner.

24-Hour Monitoring Centre

Thatcham-approved vehicle tracking devices are effective against all known methods of vehicle theft, including the all-too-popular relay theft, replicated car keys and the hacking of onboard computers. The 24-hour monitoring center is always on alert for any theft attempts against your vehicle, and the experienced staff on-site will immediately contact the responsible parties to confirm the threat to your vehicle and take appropriate action. 24/7 surveillance is one of the core security measures provided by Thatcham vehicle tracking systems – it ensures that one of the employees is always keeping tabs on the movements of your vehicles, and they will immediately contact you in the event of any suspicious activity.

Conclusion

Vehicle theft is one of the inevitable truths of living in the UK – your vehicle is at constant risk of being targeted by organized criminals and opportunistic thieves. Thatcham approved vehicle tracking systems are designed with the most effective security measures in mind, offering a wide range of tools that are instrumental in protecting your vehicle against theft. They integrate the powerful tools of GPS tracking technology with Thatcham security protocols to provide car owners in the UK with the highest level of security that today’s technology has to offer. With a recovery rate of close to 100%, Insurance GPS trackers are unrivalled in recovering stolen vehicles compared to other vehicle protection systems. Whether you have a high-end performance vehicle or own a vehicle fleet, Thatcham vehicle tracking systems are the best solution on the market against the experienced car thieves roaming the streets of the UK.

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Crypto Exchange Volumes Are Not Accurate

Miley on May 12, 2020

Today, there are more cryptocurrency exchanges than ever before. In fact, popular platforms have started offering whitelabel services for anyone to start a new platform. The way these platforms work is simple. Users who want to buy and users who want to sell come together to trade their cryptocurrency, in hopes of profit. The total amount (in USD) of these trades, forms the daily volume of the platform.

Since platforms like these started becoming popular with the public, daily volumes were a solid method to understand how popular a platform is, as well as its ability to provide liquidity to smaller altcoins.

In time, however, the reported daily volumes started to seem somewhat inaccurate. The top exchanges seemed to be relatively unknown, sometimes even unheard of.

Many traders started to question the validity of those daily volumes. Is it possible that an exchange with a mere 2000 Facebook makes more than $10 million in daily volume? Wouldn’t there be a more active community to support this?

As a response to this inconsistency, the asset management firm Bitwise decided to explore the topic in further detail. The investigation led to a 104-page whitepaper which revealed some shocking findings.

Exchanges artificially inflate their volumes

The analysis of Bitwise led researchers to an eye-opening, yet not shocking, conclusion. Most cryptocurrency exchanges were artificially inflating their reported volumes using a variety of methods.

What did surprise the researchers was the vast amount of platforms engaging in such practices. More than 95% of the reported volume was actually nothing but smoke and air. Non-existent!

Why would these platforms purposefully ruin the reputation of the crypto markets? Well, to understand this, we need to look at CoinMarketCap. The popular tracking platform includes a list of the most popular exchanges’ reported daily volume. The higher this volume is, the more they can request for new altcoin/ICO listings. It also makes these platforms more visible to new investors.

Of course, this misinformation does not serve investors. In fact, it makes the space less trustworthy. So how can one then find platforms that are actually transparent with their customers? Thankfully, Bitwise managed to discover all exchanges that reported the actual trading volumes of their platform.

In efforts of making the findings easier to understand, Paybis created a helpful infographic. Check the following overview to get a better understanding of Bitwise’s findings.

The findings of Bitwise’s research report was disheartening for crypto-enthusiasts. Some even argued that the purpose of this research was to create more FUD in the market. CoinMarketCap, however, validated the findings and introduced new metrics to fix the issue at hand. In late 2019, the company introduced the Liquidity metric. Using this metric as a filter gives more reliable results and helps users better distinguish platforms that are trying to improve their image using shady methods.

A short while ago, CoinMarketCap got acquired by Binance, and the Reported Volumes metric finally started showing information in a more transparent way. The information now looks a lot more realistic and favors the platforms that have been doing all the hard work in the past few years.

2020 and beyond

The cryptocurrency sector is still making its first steps as an investment option. The good news is that the metrics of data collection keep improving, together with the crypto space itself. In time, irrelevant platforms will not be able to sneak into top listings using unethical methods.

Additionally, Binance seems to have set the new standard when it comes to the operational practices of crypto exchanges. Thanks to its multiple acquisitions, it is no longer possible to build a strong brand without being compliant to the new industry standards.

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Why Animation Explainer Videos Will Reduce The Bounce Rate

Miley on May 6, 2020

Do you wonder why visitors leave your site quickly? Do you feel like someone or something is preventing you from engaging with your customers? If you are unable to relate to your customers or express who your rivals are, it’s your bounce rate in online marketing.

You will only add to their increase when visitors take one look at your landing page and leave in a few minutes. The scenario, no leads, no engagement, no conversion, no sales, and absolutely nothing else! If you want your business to keep going, your Bounce Rate has got to be stopped and significantly reduced. If you want to stop this happening, you need a custom animated explainer video.

According to the company Inovit (inovitagency.com) which is engaged in the production of animated and educational video, a customized explainer video is a right choice for a marketing video that will literally explain to your audience in an entertaining and engaging manner who you are, what you do, and how you can solve their problems.

Let’s look at the reasons why using a powerful explainer video will give you the option to turn your site around and save the day.

You Must Capture Their Attention

Think about this, the human being only has am attention span of 8 seconds! That’s less than a goldfish! That means if you are not paying attention, you are feeding your rivals’ bounce rate.

Worry not, by placing animated explainer videos on your landing page you will capture visitors’ attention very quickly. According to resources, that’s a good two minutes longer than average which is a staggering instant 1500% boost.

Stand above the crowd by creating an impressive, appealing video and add a really nice image to draw in your visitors so they will engage with the video.

Increase Your SEO Rates

The longer your visitors spend searching your website, directly, it will affect your rank with search engines. Keep in mind, if you do not show on Google, it won’t matter how great your service or product is, no one will be able to find you.

Your goal is to keep visitors on your site and turn them into customers. An animated marketing video will be your best avenue because videos are 53 times more likely to show on Google’s first pages than simple text ever will.

Make sure to add relevant keywords to your video’s headline on your site, your blog, and your YouTube channel. Make it easier for your visitors because the more comfortable they feel the faster you can lower your bounce rate down to zero.

Address Your Bounce Rate & Turn Visitors Into Customers

The bounce rate shows off your marketing weaknesses because it shows the number of visitors that did not become engaged with your brand. This bounce rate will also show how you are losing money.

When you incorporate an explainer video that runs for less than 2 minutes, you will have the potential to have customers understand your business ideas quickly and allow them to watch your videos to the end. Also, if watched to the end, you will have 65% greater chances to convert your visitors into customers, leaving your enemies in the dust.

Just remember, an explainer video is the most profitable and inexpensive way to immediately engage your audience. You will appear on the first pages of Google and be able to turn your visitors into very faithful customers.

Development Insights Martech Products

6 Important Skills for Project Managers

Miley on April 13, 2020

When you’re a project manager, you tend to have a lot of things on your plate, and it can be difficult to get them all right if you don’t possess the necessary skills. To help you, we’ve put together a list of six skills that help project managers experience success on a regular basis.

Keep reading to learn what skills you’ll need to cultivate to make an impact on your business.

1) Empowering Individuals & Collective Teams Can Take You Far

Although the word “project” is in the title, one of the biggest parts of being a project manager is actually the management of your team. In most cases, companies that encourage the empowerment of their employees have been shown to have the highest records of growth and long-term stability.

When you as a project manager know how to empower your team and encourage them to become the best versions of themselves, you encourage both their growth and the growth of your company. Empowering women is especially important. And as any successful executive or business owner could tell you, happy team members make for higher rates of productivity, sales, and customer satisfaction.

So if you haven’t yet begun to empower your team members to take initiative and introduce their own ideas into your everyday business practices, there’s no better time than now to start.

2) Planning is an Absolute Must

As a project manager, you play a major role in decisions both large and small. In fact, you’re likely presented with more than 10 critical decisions over the course of each day, and in many cases, those decisions will have an impact on the long-term and short-term growth of your company.

So it goes without saying that making decisions that reflect a larger-scale plan is a must.

First, though, you need to successfully plan both the big picture and minute details of each project from the get-go.

When you do this successfully, you increase the chances that your project will go off without a hitch, and you help empower team members to ensure the completion of vital steps within the plan.

3) Know How to Appropriately Communicate with every Generation

Once you’ve come up with a plan, it’s also necessary that you know how to effectively communicate to each of your team members. If they don’t understand exactly what’s expected of them, you run the risk of running into problems later on.

The most successful project managers know how to tailor their explanations to the various generations according to their particular communication styles.

Baby boomers, for example, tend to communicate best in face-to-face settings, whereas Gen Zers tend to demonstrate the highest rates of comprehension in digital settings.

The ideal communication style often varies from one generation to another, but more so from one individual to another. That’s why getting to know your team members and their individual communication styles can help you ensure smooth transitions between each step in your project management process.

4) Time Management is Essential as a Project Manager

If you’ve adequately planned out your projects, they likely have a projected completion date. It’s at this point that effective time management becomes a necessary skill if you want the project to be completed within that projected timeline. To do this effectively, you need to have a clear idea of your team members’ respective skills, the resources available, and the resources that will be necessary to ensure timely project completion.

5) Make Sure You Know Your Stuff

The market is constantly changing, and your knowledge of your field needs to adapt to reflect those changes. The most successful project managers know that their learning is never done, and they actively look for opportunities to know more about their job, current market trends, and the elements that affect both each day.

To put it simply, make sure you know your stuff. Because the more actively you approach learning, the less likely you will be to enter a project with outdated knowledge and information. This will then enable you to make informed decisions about the necessary timelines, tasks, team members, and overall plans for each project.

6) Know When You Need to Negotiate with Peers and Clients

With the willingness to learn comes the knowledge that you won’t always be right. If you can embrace that knowledge and put it into action when interacting with peers and clients, you’ll find yourself miles ahead of other project managers. This is because project managers who approach complicated situations with this mindset tend to be more successful in negotiations than those who approach the same situations with the thought that they, and only they, have the answers.

Simply put, an accomplished project manager knows when to stand up for their thoughts and ideas and when to compromise.

Conclusion

Part of being a project manager is knowing how to manage your projects effectively. If you take the time and energy to cultivate the skills we mentioned above, you’ll be well on your way to achieving the success you’re looking for.

Good luck!

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Are Monitor Arms Worth It? – The Benefits of Monitor Arms

Miley on April 9, 2020

Is it worth tracking arms? What are the advantages of one control arm? Since many of us stare at computer screens most of the day, it is important to optimize our comfort and make our viewing experience as enjoyable as possible. Monitor weapons will help with both; however, they save desk space and streamline your work area, giving your monitor the “floating” look. Not sure yet? Read our Purchase Guide for the Display Neck.

Benefits of Monitor Arms

The monitoring arms will help to reduce the pressure of the neck, back and eye and the pain associated with such discomfort. In an everyday work environment, being able to adjust the height, width, and angle of a display to the best position for your height and seating or standing style makes a world of difference. Improved relaxation leads to higher productivity, improved health and decreased stress.

Types of Monitor Mounts

Monitor arms are “mounted” to a desk or a wall and there are several types of monitor mounts including:

Spring Mounts
Post Mounts
Wall Mounts
Rail Mounts
Laptop Mounts

Spring Mounts

Spring mounts are the costlier display arm solution, but additional flexibility and adjustability come with the added expense. Spring mounts can move in any direction and allow the positioning to be very precise. They are meant to move around and are suitable in office or work environments where the show is used by multiple people. Those mounts support almost all positions of swivel, tilt, and rotation. positions of swivel, tilt, and rotation.

Our favorite spring mount is the Humanscale M8.1 monitor arm.

Spring mounts come in two types: gas and mechanical. The more expensive gas spring mounts run quietly and have a smooth, very fluid motion. Mechanical spring mounts work lighter and are not as smooth as gas spring mounts, but they last longer with fewer parts and no seals.

Post Mounts

Post mounts are cheaper but still give a strong, secure link to your desk. The arms can be modified on post mounts but are more rigid in that they cannot be rotated as extensively as spring mounts. Nonetheless, post mounts are a perfect monitor mounting solution for a personal space where you are not shifting your display after changing it the first time.

Our favorite Post Mount is the SpaceCo SpaceArm Stubby Single Arm.

Wall Mounts

Wall mounts are meant to be built just like a wall-mounted TV on a wall. Wall mounts fit well for medical professionals including dentists and physicians whose equipment needs to be moved out of the way quickly. Wall mount solutions also include mouse and keyboard trays, so a whole “machine” can be taken out to show a patient something and then pushed away while the work is being done. Wall mounts are great at home, too, if you don’t want the extra adjustability provided by a spring or post mount and want a clean look without anything attached to your desk instead.

Rail Mounts

Rail mounts are less common in consumer environments, as they are usually used in the financial, medical, and security industries where many (6 +) monitors are mounted. Rail supports, while offering a variety of flexibility and customizable options, accommodate more weight than a typical display neck.

Laptop Mounts

Laptop mounts are very similar to a typical monitor arm in that they are mounted to a desk but are designed to support a laptop instead of supporting your show. There are also options for laptop mounting which support a second or third display so you can mount both your laptop and external monitor.

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How To Promote Your Business With eBooks – 21+ Tips (Infographic)

Miley on April 8, 2020

As a digital book, eBooks are easily available and can be accessed from a variety of devices, which makes it an excellent digital marketing tool to promote your business or services. As a long-form content format, eBooks are research-based, informative and a go-to source for all the information one needs about a particular topic. More importantly, by creating an eBook, businesses can portray their professional knowledge & expertise, improving their brand’s credibility and generating potential leads.

However, creating an eBook is not an easy task. As a long-form content, if your eBook is not engaging or interesting, it wouldn’t yield the desired result. Thus, the first tip is to research your target audience to know what they want and offer them an excellent piece of content that can also be a great resource. When creating an eBook for promotion, businesses also look to fill in the ‘content gap’ in their niche market. This could be anything that they feel provides value to their customers, helping them to better understand the products and services they are offering.

Another reason for the popularity of eBook marketing is because it is a cost-effective marketing technique, which can keep bringing in results (leads) long after its first published. If you want to make use of this digital marketing technique to promote your business, then the below infographic can help.

This infographic comprises of 21+ effective eBook marketing tips. These are tried and tested methods that will help you garner maximum results once you publish your eBook. Thus, if you want to know how to promote your business with eBooks, then check out the infographic now. Also, for further details, you can refer to this comprehensive guide. Plus, for reference purposes, you can download this infographic for free!

21+ Tips To Sell Your Business With eBooks [Infographic] by the team at BigRockCoupon.in

Products

The Trend of Smart Home in 2020

Miley on April 5, 2020

In recent years, the word “smart home” was frequently quoted in various media, it’s becoming a wide-spreading concept. There is a famous saying: the ultimate goal of the development of science and technology is to serve the people and their lives. It is true that the smart home has now come into our own houses and daily life.

The smart home is based on the residential platform, using network communication technology, security technology, automatic control technology, audio, and video technology to integrate the facilities related to home life. There is a control terminal to control all the facilities, realizing the living environment of environmental protection and energy-saving.

Since 1990s when the concept of smart home was firstly proposed by Bill Gates, this spectacular industry has been booming.

At present, under the trend of increasing the overall consumption level, the smart home presents vigorous development under the support of the policy, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things technology.

Let’s do some math, the global smart home market volume is $35.7 billion in 2017, with an annual growth rate of 26.9% from 2018 to 2023, the expected 2023 will generate a total scale of $150.6 billion in this industry.

In 2018, China’s smart home market of $6.532 billion ranked second in the world (following the United States). But in terms of market penetration, China is only 4.9%, presenting still a substantial potential market space.

According to the report released by IDC, from a global perspective, “safety and control” and “energy or lighting” are the preferred applications of the smart home. Among them, intelligent lighting, home security, smart home appliances, and smart video occupy a significant market share in the smart home category.

The scale of China’s intelligent lighting market increased from 1.9 billion yuan in 2005 to nearly 15 billion yuan in 2017, with an annual growth rate of about 25%. In the future, driven by smart home, the market scale of the intelligent lighting industry will accelerate to expand and exceed 27 billion yuan in 2020.

The market scale of China’s intelligent home security in 2018 is nearly 30 billion yuan. It is expected that in 2020, smart home security will create a hundred billion.

After the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the demand for smart home devices of consumers will be stronger. In the fields of home furnishing, catering, logistics, and so on, people hope that the power of intelligent equipment can replace artificial labor to reduce the risk of infection.

For example, the smart touch panel of GVS is a highly integrated control panel which can also connect to the elevator control system, hence you can reserve an elevator before you go out of your door, besides there are security functions can easily be integrated like access control, and camera .

Meanwhile, in the exit system of the community, GVS video intercom can be used to realize safe access without touching the card reader.

According to relevant data, the growth rate of the smart home market is more than 30% every year, which is bound to attract more people. Experts predict that the global smart home market will grow substantially in the next two or three years.

As the first country to enter the global smart home market, about 32% of American households are equipped with a smart home system, and the number of users is expected to reach 53.1% by 2022.

In Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, it is generally believed that a smart home can save money and bring convenience. While in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and other southern European countries, the interest in the smart home is not as good as that of the northern neighbors.

Of course, with the rapid development of the smart home industry, we should not ignore some problems existing in the current smart home industry like poor interoperability between products, inconsistent protocol standards etc. But GVS is definitely one of your best choices as they’ve been focusing on KNX for over 12 years, with a full line of KNX products and solutions, come and try GVS, make your home smart!

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A Few Things Every Software Tester Should know

Miley on April 3, 2020

With so much information readily available for consumption, it can be draining and overwhelming. If you are a budding or aspiring software tester that is looking for great material to read online, then you are in the right place. Since you are about to start your journey as an epic tester, as I did at a software development company in Houston or simply planning on learning how to become one, remember that you will have tasks to work around and constantly learn new tools.

Every product will pose new challenges for you as a tester and you will have to be able to adapt to the changing environments. If I were to tell you a few tasks that you will be required to perform as a tester, that would give you a clear idea or an insight into what you are getting yourself into. Remember, they are in no order or necessary, as every project will bring in their own set of complexities for you to challenge and overcome.

So without further-a-do, let us dive into the various activities you should indulge in before starting your career as a software tester.

#1 Why are you interested in becoming a software tester?

Before we even begin our tech-talk, you need to ask yourself this important question. Are you really interested in becoming a tester? What is your understanding of software testing and how accurate it is? Just think about the career path that you are planning to tread on and make sure it is entirely your own decision and not influenced by someone else.

#2 What exactly is software testing?

Software testing has become a vast field and now it is not just about using the product, finding out the bugs, and running quality checks. Testing is a process that starts as early as the requirement gathering phase. From making sure the product is behaving the way it should, the risks involved, user experience, and much more is all part of testing.

Make sure your knowledge is fine-tuned and up-to-date with the latest practices and evolution that software testing has observed.

#3 Meet other testers

Networking has its benefits and what better way to socialize than meeting fellow testers and learning from them? Trust me, it will do you wonders to meet people that are in the same boat as you do or have professional work experience to become your mentors. Either way, you will be able to connect with them and get the much-needed help, guidance or a listening ear during the tough times.

So keep a lookout for all the testing conferences that include TestCon, EuroStar, Agile Testing Days, and many more. You can even join online tester communities and mingle.

#4 What is your understanding of the ‘bug’?

Is it the same as an error? Is it something that crashes the software product? What is it? There are so many definitions online like: Taking Wikipedia for example, “A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways”

Pretty generic, right? However, a bug can be defined as anything that places the value of the product in jeopardy. Now whatever threatens the integrity of the software is a bug. According to this definition, a bug isn’t only present within the code, it could be in the specifications that we overlooked. Hopefully, this cleared much of your concept on what exactly is a bug.

#5 White and black box testing

The two famous approaches to software testing are White and Black Box Testing. White or Glass Box Testing is when a tester is aware of the internal workings like the code. The tester runs test cases that are based on the knowledge of the program’s internal code. This kind of testing tests the lines of code (LOC), branches of code, and focuses on overall coverage of the statements.

The biggest drawback of White Box Testing is that you will never know about any missing functionality. It is purely technical and tests out the code integrity. Another roadblock that tester faces is the constant following of a testing pattern that reduces their ability to detect anything unusual.

To curb all these problems, Black Box Tester plays a significant part. Why? Because they are unaware of the internal working of the product and they are responsible for testing out the requirements and functionalities.

#6 Regression testing

When you are dealing with an agile model for software development, you are bound to do regression testing. The process of making sure everything works together even after changes were made is part of regression testing. Consider the example of when your favorite app gets an update and suddenly a previous functionality stops working? This is why regression tests are performed to make sure that new updates, builds, or added features haven’t broken anything. In a nutshell, it is re-testing the previous features after a change has been made.

The regression test strategies may differ from company to company.

#7 Mobile Testing

Safe to say mobile testing has become a field of its own. You could develop a career out of just being a mobile tester. So this is definitely a strong area you can experiment with and check if it clicks with you. There is a lot of material online to get you started.

Considering that mobile app development has become a lucrative field with millions of apps existing on App Stores and countless under development – Mobile testing is another branch that is an integral part of this area.

Mobile application testing can be defined as a process where apps developed for smartphones are tested for their functionality, usability, consistency, compatibility, security, performance, load, installation, and user experience.

#8 Write about your journey

There is nothing better than sharing your experience and journey as a tester. Writing will center you from all the chaos your work brings and help you reconnect with many others that are a part of the software testing community.

There is much more to tell you but I am sure you have the passion and desire to explore more and become a great tester.

Development Insights Martech Products

7 Hidden Features Every Samsung User Must Know

Miley on February 20, 2020

If you’re a Samsung user then we have some really interesting facts in store for you. Let us share with you 7 not-so-hidden features that are present in your Galaxy Smartphone that you might not know about. After learning about these super cool features, you can totally show them off to your friends and family. Before we proceed to reveal these specs, please note that:

Some of these features might be available in other Android smartphones as well.
Few of these features might not be available in older models of Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

So without further ado, let’s dive in to see the exciting hidden features in Samsung mobiles!

1. Shortcut to Launch Camera

We all know one way to launch the camera that is tapping on the Camera icon on the menu, but did you know there is another way too? You can launch the camera by pressing the Power Button twice. This setting can be changed to other apps as well. So if there is another app you’d rather have on this shortcut then all you gotta do is go to the Settings and modify this feature.

2. New Way to Unlock

Tired of pressing the Power Button to light up your screen to unlock? No worries, you can easily unlock your phone by double-tapping the locked screen.

3. How to Launch Google Voice Assistance?

Only a few people know the benefits of having Google Voice Assistance on your smartphone. Who needs Iphone’s Siri when Google Voice Assistance is there to perform all kinds of phone-related tasks for you? That’s right. You can launch Google Voice Assistance by long-pressing or double-tapping the Home Button. If you are using the new Galaxy A series then long-press it and if you’re using any older model then double-tap it.

4. Smart Stay

This is a super cool feature that allows you to keep your screen lit while you’re still looking at it. By keeping the ‘Smart Stay’ mode on, you can read long articles without tapping on the screen to keep it on again and again. It’s a good feature for all the readers out there! Just go to Settings and look for Motions and Gestures option and you’re good to go.

5. Smart Alert

This feature is also a part of Motion and Gestures settings. Your phone will vibrate when you pick it up after missing a call or receiving a text message. This feature allows you to be more punctual and vigilant in replying to important calls and messages. We can all think of someone who is really poor at that, so make sure you share this cool feature with them.

6. Screen Off Memo Using S Pen

Great news for all the Galaxy Note users! You can write memos on your Note phone using S Pen on an off screen. Yes, you read that right. Just go to the Settings and turn this amusing feature on. Your precious Galaxy Note will save that memo for you and also help you save a lot of time and effort in writing a memo after unlocking the phone.

7. Send Out Auto SOS Message

Believe me, when I say, Samsung really cares about you. If you don’t believe me, then check out their ‘Send SOS Messages’ feature available in almost all Smartphones. All you have to do is press the side key quickly three times and an auto SOS message will be delivered to your emergency contacts. This quick emergency alert sent to your loved ones can definitely save you from a critical situation.

About the author

Anna Watson is a graduate from San Diego State University and a blogger online. She loves to write about tech, business, marketing, and many more. Follow her on Twitter at @annawattson25.