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Technological developments in digital devices and communication have resulted in a permanently connected population. You can talk to business clients on the other side of the world, send messages to friends on different continents or simply call your mother to check in at any time of day. It’s a shift the general populace has embraced. Look around yourself next time you’re in a public place and see how long it takes the average person to sneak a quick glance at their phone....

SoundBetter offers a central, online hub, where engineers, producers, studios, and session players can offer their services to home recording musicians around the world. Through the site, musicians can find and hire local or remote work, based on several different criteria, including reviews, specialties, credits, location, and sound samples. In July of this year, Jeff Wald wrote a guest post on Forbes titled “Forget The Jobs Report – Focus On the Freelance Economy”....

The Early Days Image via Flickr by ryanmerritt In September of 1927, Philo Farnsworth changed the face of entertainment forever when he transmitted an image of a straight line from one room in a San Francisco laboratory to another. It was the first all-electronic television, and while Farnsworth never reaped the financial benefits of his discovery, his gift to the world is unimaginable in scope. Roughly 20 years later, only 6,000 people owned the extremely expensive devices....

ThDstrct launched quietly 2 months ago – and it is actually a spinoff of a similar site in Vancouver, which launched in March 2011. The Vancouver site has been a huge success for connecting and collaborating with fellow creatives – and it is still growing daily thanks to a partnership with the blog Vancouver is awesome. One thing I love about this site is its simple and elegant design. You just see photos of people laid out in a grid pattern, and when you click on their photo, you go straight to a website that showcases their work (I’m on there – and you can see Tech Cocktail co-founder Frank Gruber in the bottom row of the above photo)....

Corporate lore says that the office watercooler is a sacred space, where ideas get exchanged and unexpected connections are made, boosting productivity for the price of an extremely heavy jug. But the watercooler also symbolizes something simpler: friendship and connection. We bond over styrofoam cups (or, these days, Nalgene bottles). In one scientific study, talking to a friend for a few minutes actually boosted participants’ memory and ability to suppress distractions – surely skills we’d like to have at work....

Hines himself is an idea man. Having majored in marketing while in college, and then spending the next 10 years working in marketing for companies like the Tribune Media Group, Hines can’t reflect back on a time when he was ever considered “technical.” Hines continues to serve as an idea man at BTSocial – a startup that has created a web and mobile app that helps business travelers make in-person connections with other people while they’re on their business trips – holding responsibility for the overall direction, strategy, and marketing of the company and its product....

South Florida’s first brick and mortar coding school, Wyncode, announces a nine-week development boot camp to teach students computer programming skills and how to create their own web apps located at The LAB Miami in Wynwood. Wyncode trains local developers on HTML, CSS, Ruby on Rails, and JavaScript so at the end of the course they will have the skills to join a tech company as a junior web developer or create their own web application....

That’s awesome, but here’s the kicker: A new semester is on its way! And it’s high time to brace yourself for entering new classes, writing new papers, learning new things, and getting new skills. Academic research is one of key skills for every student to get in college: it’s impossible to ignore and avoid while writing academic papers, and that’s why it would be better for young specialists to acquire it....

These business mistakes also make the entrepreneurial journey ever so interesting. What’s more, what separates true business leaders and achievers from those who just couldn’t cut it are in fact the mistakes that they make. The business hunch, the gut to continue when you’ve obviously had a huge fail, and to maintain your confidence in the next steps… These phases are mission critical when overcoming the down points in your entrepreneurial career....

Online security has become a serious issue in recent years, and passwords are at the core of the issue. Considering they represent the first and strongest line of defense when it comes to security breaches and individual cyber attacks, having a good one can go a long way. Fortunately, our top-rated password manager, 1Password, is making some improvements to its popular platform to make life a little easier for its many users....

However, just because relocating is easier now, doesn’t mean new employees are willing to pack up and move anywhere. In fact, according to data from ZipRecruiter, there are a few places that are really piquing the interest of potential employees around the world. And the tops cities on the list will… not surprise you even a little bit. ZipRecruiter found that most employees are most willing to move to New York or Los Angeles, a fairly standard point of view considering their respective statuses as the tech hubs of the nation....

How do you listen to music at your workplace? How do you talk at conference calls, or play soothing sounds for waiting customers? If a Bluetooth speaker doesn’t figure into any of these activities, it’s time to think about getting one for the office. Bluetooth speakers are portable, connect wirelessly to your phone or computer, have high-quality sound that can fill a room, and include many types of extra features....

1. Uscreen Uscreen is an A-Z platform. It gives you everything you need to run a digital empire. If you are just starting your business and creating your website, Uscreen is a great option for your membership platform. Everything you need is here, so you don’t have to worry about managing a lot of different tools for managing your services. This system lets you offer digital products, video hosting, built-in payments, affiliate tools, marketing tools, reseller programs, and user management tools....

With the ability to cut costs while improving service quality for everything from making payments to managing wealth, fintech is a disruptive force to be reckoned with. It is shaping the future of lending and trading in ways that make peer-to-peer business models possible and changing how consumers feel about dealing with banks and asset managers. Those service firms who do not innovate accordingly face the possibility of being regarded as a relic, and may lose up to $4....

FTP/Telnet Access Even if you use tools such as Frontpage in managing your website, then you still need to have FTP access for full control over your website. Although granting FTP access is already a standard for most web hosts these days, there are still a few that don’t grant that privilege. This is why you need to ask about it first before signing up for a web host. On the other hand, Telnet can also be useful as well in troubleshooting CGI scripts and doing some dedicated server configurations....

While gaming has been the primary goal of virtual reality, its inability to glean mainstream attention has been a thorn in the industry’s side for years. Fortunately, the health sector is providing a unique opportunity for virtual reality, as it has been shown to have some surprisingly positive effects on users well-being. Relieve Pain With doctors prescribing everything from expensive physical therapy treatments to dangerously addictive prescription drugs to treatment pain in their patients, a less costly option would be nice....

A niche podcast can cover everything from food to TV to entrepreneurship to how great Denzel Washington is. In fact, you can even break the main audiences for podcasts into six key categories of listeners with disposable income to spare, as audio distributor audioBoom did in a recent blog post. The Foodie, The Stable Homeowner, The Subscriber, The Fitness Fanatic, The Traveler and The Music Enthusiast all come with their specific interests and are all willing to invest in a trustworthy ad aired on their favorite must-listen podcast....

Going East, however, large reputable corporations (e.g., Oracle) are outsourcing their product development and/or internal applications to hungry, cheaper experts in Russia, China, India, and the Far East. This is beneficial for the bottom line however outsourcing can cause problems to arise such as security issues, integrity issues, legal issues from weak or confusing copyright laws and even cyber crime. While many companies are outsourcing successfully, they are also finding that they have to rigorously vet their offshore contractors, craft strong legal frameworks, and remain personally involved in the process....

We asked three entrepreneurs what their number one tip for taking a professional headshot that can be used for years to come. Check out what they had to say and make sure you don’t have any spinach in your teeth. – Ryan Meghdies of Tastic Marketing – Jessica Baker of Aligned Signs – Steven Buchwald of Buchwald & Associates Read more about inspiring entrepreneurs at TechCo

Canvas App SMSnoddle Link Management System Diffle We didn’t sell anything We didn’t sell anything We didn’t sell anything The market window was not yet open We focused too much on technology We had the wrong business model Monitor 110 The lack of a single, “the buck stops here” leader until too late in the game No separation between the technology organization and the product organization= Too much PR, too early Too much money Not close enough to the customer Slow to adapt to market reality Disagreement on strategy both within the Company and with the Board Overto Kiko EventVue RiotVine Didn’t focus on learning & failing fast until it was too late Didn’t care/focus enough about discovering how to market Eventvue Didn’t make compromises in early hiring decisions – choose expediency over talent/competency Weasable And this worked really well for foursquare thanks to the mayorship....