Email is among the most important tools at a manager's disposal; it's often the main form of communication with suppliers, employees, customers, etc. With the smartphone, you can now take your email with you and be in near constant contact. If you have an iPhone and use the Mail app, you may have noticed that email attachments are a bit different from other apps.

Below is a brief overview of how iPhone's Mail app's attachments work.

How to open an attachment If you get an email with an attachment, open the message and scroll down to the bottom of the message. You will see the name of the attachment along with the file type and size. If you tap on it, your phone should open it in a new window. You can then zoom in/out and scroll around.

Some attachments can be downloaded by tapping and holding on the attachment. After about a second, a pop-up menu will show, and you should be able to select to save it. Instead of saving the attachment, you can also choose to open it using other apps.

Why won't some attachments open? There may be a time where you get an email with an attachment that can't be opened. You will still be able to see it in the email, but you won't be able to tap on it. This is because the Mail app doesn't support all file and document types.

Don't worry if you can't open an attachment as chances are there's an app in the App store that will open it. The easiest thing to do is look at the file type of the attachment, which is usually indicated by a three letter code at the end of the file name. For example, a Word document will be FILENAME.doc or FILENAME.docx. A quick Internet search for something like, 'iPhone app that can open .ddd' will usually return results with an app that can open your file.

Once you download the app, try pressing and holding on the attachment in Mail and selecting Open in... from the pop-up menu. Look for the app you downloaded and tap on it.

How to add an attachment to emails You can add an attachment to an email by pressing and holding on the body section of a new email. A pop-up menu should come up, if you scroll left you should see the Select/Paste option. Tapping on this will allow you to select either a photo, video or message which you can attach to the email. Unfortunately, there isn't much else you can attach, so if you need to attach a document or other file type, you would be better off doing so on your computer.

If you would like to learn more about the iPhone and how it can help you, please contact us today.

Smartphones have become so ingrained in our lives it's hard to imagine a life without these handy gadgets. Being one of the best known smartphones, iPhone has become the go-to device for nearly every market. While these are great gadgets, they are technology, and technology will eventually stop working. Do you know what to do if your iPhone won't turn on?

Here are four things you can try when your iPhone won't turn on.

1. Charge it with a wall charger One of the main reasons your iPhone won't start is because its battery is dead. Before you deem the battery 'dead', you should check if the phone is on. Press and hold the power button for up to five seconds. Chances are, the phone has just gone to sleep. If this is the case, you should see the unlock screen pop-up after a few seconds.

If it doesn't pop up, your phone is likely dead. All you have to do is plug it in, preferably to a wall charger. Your phone should turn on automatically after a few minutes (up to five). If it doesn't, let it charge for around 15 minutes before trying to turn it on. If it does turn on, it would be a good idea to let it fully charge.

2. It's charged but still won't turn on Like all operating systems, the one on the iPhone will crash from time to time. If it does crash, you shouldn't lose any data unless you were in the middle of downloading or uploading files. These will have to be started again.

If pressing the power button doesn't turn the phone on, you should still plug it in and let it charge for 15 minutes. Then conduct what's called a hard reset:

1. Unplug your device.
2. Press the Home and Power buttons for 10-20 seconds until you see the Apple logo.
3. Let the device run for a minute or so and you should be able to use it again.

It would be a good idea to not do this while the phone is connected to your computer.Your computer may recognize your phone's hard drive and start automatically syncing through iTunes. Doing a hard reset when the device is syncing may result in losing information.

3. A hard reset won't work Another good thing to consider at this stage is switching cords. Chances are someone next to you has another iPhone cable. Borrow it and try the first two steps again. These cables aren't the most damage resistant thing in the world and have been known to wear out or fray at weak points rendering them useless. If you were trying to charge your phone through a wall charger, try again but this time connect it to your computer - make sure it's on.

4. It's truly dead If after trying different cables and charging methods, hard resetting and charging for a couple of hours your device still won't turn on, you have one option left. Go to an Apple store, or reseller. They may be able to get your iPhone working, or at the very least will to confirm the problem.

Sometimes the phones display a USB cord with an arrow pointing to the iTunes icon. This is your iPhone's way of telling you that something has gone wrong with the software and it needs to be plugged into your computer and connected to iTunes. If you see this, you will likely have to reset your phone which means you will lose everything stored on the hard drive. If you have been backing up your phone, however, your data loss will be minimal.

Has your iPhone stopped working? Are you unsure if your backup solutions are enough to keep all of your files safe? Contact us today as we may be able to help.

The iPhone, arguably the most popular smartphone, is touted to be a simple device. While for the most part it is, there is one function that isn’t. Transferring files from your computer to your device can be a lengthy process, usually involving having to connect to iTunes. Luckily, there are ways to speed up the transfer of files while making it easier in the process.

Here’s two great apps that you can use to make the transferring of files to/from your iPhone onto your computer not only quicker but less taxing too.

Bump
This app started out as a way to share contacts with other iPhone users and has since been updated to include transferring files and pictures. A recent update introduced the capability to move files from your computer to your phone and vice versa.

How this process works is you install Bump on your iPhone, open the app and select a file you would like to transfer. On your computer you can navigate to bu.mp and then bump (hit) the spacebar with your phone. A new window will open with a preview of the file, giving you the option to download it, or share it.

If you would like to transfer a file from your PC or Mac to your iPhone, click on Send files to your device on the bu.mp page and select the files to send. They will be automatically sent to your phone and can be accessed by opening the app.

The app is free from the website, and works on both Mac and PC. There is a 20 mb per file size limit, so for larger files you would be better off saving them to a cloud storage app.

Instashare
If you have a Mac, Instashare is new app that allows you to simply drag and drop files from your computer to transfer them to your iPhone.

Once you have downloaded the app on both your computer and iPhone, you then find the file on your computer that  you would like to share, drag it to the app icon and let it go. As long as your iPhone is connected to a W-Fi network, the file will be transferred in as little as a few seconds. You can also send files from your iPhone through the app, selecting the file and dragging it onto connected computers. Instashare will take care of the rest.

This app is an easy way to transfer files within the Apple environment while not having to physically connect your device to your computer. It’s also free, which could make it an interesting tool for your business. Download it from the website here, or search for it on in the App Store.

There are many other ways to transfer files from your smartphone to your computer, including using cloud storage. What are your favorite ways? Let us know. Or, if you are looking for a more efficient file sharing solution, contact us today.

One of the most utilized functions of the Internet is search. It’s often the first thing we turn to when we start up a browser, and many employees have a search engine like Google set as their homepage. While Google’s Search is incredibly useful, there’s one downside: it can be hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. To make it easier to find what you need, Google has introduced the Knowledge Graph.

Knowledge Graph is Google’s attempt to make search results more relevant to the initial queries - what was entered in the search bar. If you type in an ambiguous term like “flames” which could mean fire, software or a sports team, Google will return results on all things related to flames, leaving you to wade through results to find what you need. With Knowledge Graph, Google will intuit what you mean and provide the relevant information.

For now, Knowledge Graph results will show up as a pane to the right of the search results field and will show up when things, people or places are searched for. According to Google this means, “landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more.” When you search for something in one of these categories, Knowledge Graph will try to figure out what you’re searching for, and provide related results and information.

This information comes from a number of sources including Wikipedia, CIA Factbook and freebase, and could change the way we view information. No more having to click on 4-5 different links to get the information we need, a summary of the search topic will be shown in the search results.

At this time Knowledge Graph will be available for American English users, and will be rolled out to all users over the coming months. If you’re interested in learning more about Google’s products and how to use them in your business, please contact us.

Modern marketing has gone beyond catchy brochures handed out to passersby on the street. Marketing is now digital, focusing on email, websites, social media and search engines. While marketing has gone digital, you still need to research trends. Google has a number of apps that can help you research do this, so you can further your online marketing efforts.

Here's two Google apps that can help your marketing efforts:

Google Trends The online world is constantly changing and evolving. Something considered trendy last year is now old-hat and forgotten about. It can be tough to figure out what search terms, marketing language or descriptive terminology is popular. That's where Google Trends comes in. This site is an aggregation of almost all search terms people enter into Google's Search engine. It provides data such as how popular a search has been over time, the countries it's been most popular in and even related terms.

This powerful tool can really help you narrow in on specific terms. Let's look at a quick example: You run a chain of sport stores in New York. You want to create a new marketing initiative to drive interest but aren't sure which product to market.

Go to Google Trends, and type Ski in the search bar. You'll see a worldwide overview of interest in the term Ski, including a graph indicating searches. This is ok, but not enough to make marketing decisions off of. Under Search Terms press Add item and type in Bike. Under Limit to: Click on the box that says Worldwide and narrow your search to New York - select United States and click on New York on the map.

You should see user interest in both terms, in New York state. Both terms are cyclical, but there's a general downward trend in Ski while Bike is mostly flat. This shows that maybe you should focus on bikes instead of skis. Beyond that, the graph shows that when Ski is at its lowest interest level, Bike is at its highest.

A good marketer will view this as an opportunity. In the fall or early winter you could focus on ski related products while in the late spring you could focus on bikes.

For Google Trends to really help you, take your current marketing terms and enter them into the search bar. Next, take similar words and enter these too. If there is an upward trend on one, and a downward shift on another, focus on the upward trending word.

Think with Google Struggling with market research? Did you know that Google has a site devoted to helping businesses with their marketing? Think with Google contains marketing insight, studies, facts and figures and even information on popular trends and industries. All this is free, and could be a big help with the development of your next digital based marketing campaign.

While we can't guarantee success if you use these resources, they should go a long way in helping your company develop more effective marketing that your target market is interested in. When you develop your next campaign, why not check out these two resources. Or you can contact us, we may be able to help you further.

The iPhone is a great gadget and many users probably don't know what they would do without it. One the biggest issues with it though is its relatively short battery life, although with careful use you will likely get through a full day and some of the next. This likely means you need to charge it at the office, which probably means you carry that silly cable around with you all the time. A new charging device aims to replace this cable with something that you can easily fit into your wallet.

Scheduled to release in December 2012, the Charge Card, (no, it's not a new fangled credit card), is a device that will replace the somewhat unwieldy iPhone charging cable. The concept behind the gadget is to replace the charging cable with something you can fit in your wallet.

The Charge Card is a credit card sized charging device which is .1 inches thick and made of a hard plastic. In the middle is a rubber USB connector that pops out and is compatible with any USB port. On the opposite end is a small 30-pin connector - the standard connector used by Apple. The 30-pin connector will work with the iPhone 4s and older; the iPad 3 and older; and any iPod. It is compatible with the new iPhone 5, iPads and iPods if you have the adapter.

How it works is you pop out the flexible USB connector, plug it into a USB port on a computer, TV, airplane seat, etc. and plug the other end into your iDevice. While it isn't a battery, it does allow you to leave the cords at home, and USB ports being pretty much everywhere these days, you can charge your device whenever you need to.

What is interesting about this is that the project was crowdfunded through Kickstarter, meaning people think it's a good enough idea to invest in it. You can learn more about the project here, and if you'd like to learn more about using the iPhone in the office, give us a shout, we'd be happy to chat with you.

The iPhone and its operating system, iOS is arguably the single most popular cell phone on the market. There are a large number of great features and apps that make it an easy to use system. One app, iCloud, utilizes the cloud to ensure that all your files and important information are synced across all devices. While iCloud is useful, it can cause your phone to run slower.

Here’s how to optimize iCloud to ensure your iPhone runs quicker.

What is iCloud? Before optimizing iCloud it’s important to know what exactly iCloud is and how it works. iCloud is Apple’s cloud syncing solution. It’s main purpose is to keep your device’s important information in sync with your Mac, PC and other Apple devices. It works by uploading information like your contacts, installed apps, email, photos, bookmarks and calendars to Apple’s servers, which then make your information available to any device with iCloud installed on it, including your computer. The main purpose of this app is to back up and sync data across multiple devices, not store your data.

Every iPhone owner who has an up-to-date iPhone can sign up for the service and receives 5GB of space for their needs. By default, iCloud constantly syncs in the background without the user noticing. The only problem is syncing can slow your iPhone to a crawl.

Optimize iCloud for iPhone speed If you have iCloud set up and have noticed that your iPhone is slowing down we recommend three different ways to speed it up.

• Set iCloud to only sync when connected to WiFi. Chances are high that you have a data plan for your iPhone. When you set up iCloud, the default setting is to sync even while connected to a data network. This means iCloud is always syncing, using valuable system resources and data. You can set it to only sync when connected to WiFi by going to Settings, selecting Store and scrolling to the bottom and turning Use Cellular Data to Off. This will cause your Internet to slow down slightly however.
• Turn off iCloud sync. You can also disable iCloud until you want to sync. Go to Settings and select iCloud and turn everything to Off. When you add a new contact, or would like to sync something, you can go back to the iCloud and turn on what you want to sync. Another option is to turn it on when you go to sleep at night, then turn it off again when you wake up.
• Select what to sync. With iCloud, you’re in control as to what is synced and backed up. If you take a lot of pictures or are an avid media and app user you’ll find that your iPhone is constantly updating. You can go to iCloud in Settings and turn off non-essential apps and backups. When you need to back up your media, do so by connecting your phone to the computer and using iTunes to transfer your files onto your computer.

iCloud is a great way to back up your phone’s important information, but you shouldn’t rely on it. The optimal solution is to back up your phone using a cloud backup like iCloud as well as backing up your phone on your computer. If you’re interested in learning more about iCloud or other mobile backup solutions, please contact us.

Go back 20 years and tell a person that they’d be able to access the Internet through their mobile phone. Guaranteed these people would scoff at your zany ideas, but, it’s true, the modern mobile phone is smart, and one of the most popular smartphones is the Apple iPhone. While the iPhone is popular, it can, like any device, break. Often the first thing to break is your screen, and when it does you may be stuck wondering how to replace it.

If your iPhone’s screen cracks, chips, scratches or breaks there are four things you can do to:

Keep using it Some people that have a slightly damaged screen find that their iPhone is still perfectly functional and will continue to use it. If your screen is slightly scratched but the phone’s still working then, why not continue using it? Better yet, if the scratch comes with a funny story, it could be a great icebreaker.

DIY replacement An option for those who love to take things apart, or whose iPhone is off warranty, is the DIY screen replacement. You can order screens and related screwdrivers (needed for disassembly) online for around $100 and $15 respectively.

Be aware that this is an advanced method that should only be undertaken if your iPhone is past warranty and you’re comfortable working with small parts. For a full step-by-step guide on the process, please refer to cnet. Be warned that you attempt this process at your own risk, and we can’t be held responsible for any damage to your iPhone.

Send it back to Apple If your iPhone is still under warranty please don’t attempt to replace the screen yourself, as you will void any and all associated warranties. You should just send it back to Apple or to an Apple service center to fix. If there’s an Apple store with a Genius bar in your area you can make an appointment and take it there.

Buy a new one If you’d rather not do any of this, you can also wait for a new iPhone to be released and buy a new one. If you purchased your phone through your mobile provider, you may be eligible for an upgrade when the new iPhone comes out, so be sure to contact them and ask.

To minimize potential damage to your iPhone, we recommend purchasing a screen protector - a thin film that covers the iPhone’s screen and protects it from scratches. You could also buy a case for the iPhone, preferably one that sticks up over the screen a tiny bit. This way if you drop the phone screen down the case will hit first. If you have any questions about the screen replacement process please contact us.

One of the most popular phones for professionals has been the BlackBerry. It’s a high chance that we knew someone who was addicted to their “CrackBerry”, constantly checking their email, or texting with colleagues while out of the office. Then came the iPhone, and many professionals have moved on, only to wish their shiny new iPhone had some of the great features of the BlackBerry.

Here’s how you can get some of the email features of BlackBerry devices on your iPhone.

Auto complete text With a physical QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry is ideal for typing long emails, even more so with the ability to specify common phrases and short codes e.g., typing ‘tdy’ could put today’s date. You can do this with the iPhone as well by going to: Settings, General, Keyboard and selecting Shortcuts. Type the full phrase into the Phrase field, and the shortcut into the Shortcut field.

Blinking indicator light for new emails One of the most useful features of the BlackBerry is the LED light that blinks in different colors, depending on the notification i.e., red for new message. While you can’t set the iPhone’s LED light to flash different colors, you can get it to blink when you have a new notification. Navigate to Settings, select General and tap Accessibility. Select LED Flash for Alerts.

Specific notification As many small business owners get over 100 emails a day, it can be annoying to see a constantly blinking light. With the BlackBerry, you can set it so the LED blinks only when you’ve received an email from a certain person or group. While you can’t do this with the current software version of the iPhone - iOS 5.0, the impending iOS 6.0 will allow you to set the phone to notify you only when certain people email.

Compose email quick key Being able to quickly view and reply to an email is a speciality of BlackBerry devices, and many smartphones, the iPhone included haven’t been able to beat it. It is a relatively painless process to compose a new email on your iPhone, simply press the Home button followed by email and Compose.

While it seems to be that BlackBerry devices have had their time in the spotlight, there are many loyal users who have had to switch devices due to necessity. Many of these users probably wouldn’t go back to a BlackBerry if they had the choice, especially if they have similar features on the new devices. If you’d like to learn more about how to use the iPhone for business, please contact us.

The iPhone is one of the most popular smartphone platforms and has a wide variety of users, including small business owners and managers. Many now use their phone as both a personal and business device, but they’re finding that they’re constantly being interrupted by notifications. A barrage of these notifications can get annoying, but they can be dealt with.

Here’s how you can change your notifications to ensure that the most important are separated from the less so.

Organize first The first step is to set different levels or categories of notifications, which apps or functions fall into each level and the type of notification associated with each. You could follow a system like this:

1. Immediate. The immediate notification should get your attention and be for apps that are important. Text messages, phone calls, calendar notifications and work email fit in well at this level. As this notification setting should grab your attention, you should turn on everything: vibrate, sound, Notification Center badges, etc.
2. Less important. This notification should get your attention when you look at your phone, and is good for apps that don’t require your immediate attention. Twitter, Facebook notifications and Instant Messages are good apps for this level. For this category maybe use vibrate and Notification Center badges as the notifications.
3. Unimportant. Unimportant is for notifications that are of little use to you such as app and news feed updates, along with random apps you don’t use. As these are unimportant notifications, you could turn off all notifications, or set apps to notify you just via the Notification Center.

Once you’ve decided what notification style to use and the apps for each level, it’s time to change the notification settings.

Change app notifications To change the notification settings on your iPhone, you have to go into each app’s notification settings and choose how the phone notifies you. This is done by going to Settings followed by Notifications. You’ll get a list of all your apps which you can press on to set the notification. Be advised, when you select Sound, both sound and vibrate are turned on if you have vibrate on.

To go even further, you can tweak the notification sounds made by apps by going to Settings, followed by Sounds. You’ll see different categories of apps and the notification sound for each. Press on the category to pick the notification sound or turn vibration on/off.

With a little proactive maintenance you’ll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and be able to focus on the important notifications, while leaving the less important for when you have time. If you’d like other tips on how to get the most out of your iPhone, please feel free to contact us.