Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Twenty Products and Services that fundamentally change our lives

As you have probably read our last blog post about losing your mobile phone and how much it affects your life, it has got me thinking as to what products and services we have that fundamentally do change our lives.

Part of our daily routine has many gadgets and services that we use and do probably not realise just how much these have changed what we do and how we act. They will have gone from being a luxury that we either will have bought as a one off or present given to us and then most likely bragged about this to try and show it off. 

As everyone does with something new, you know you do it I do too! There’s nothing wrong with doing it, why not show off a brand new present that you have got keeping up with the cool trends in the market, it makes you look cool to have that product too. The majority of people will have experienced getting something new and cool in the market and felt like the best person around, but that was a while ago now. 

These products and services have become so predominantly present in our lives that we basically live by them now. Without them we would feel like we could not do something or would not be able to function feeling like a important part of your world has disappeared.

Previous on the last blog, you will have seen and understood just how it feels to lose your phone, it’s like losing a limb. No connection, no friends, no nothing. So why don’t we have a look and see how each of these products and services have come so predominant in our lives that we live by them, they are no longer a big of a luxury as they used to be.

1. The Mobile Smart Phone

The mobile smart phone has no longer become just a phone. Years ago, a phone was a phone. It allowed you to call people and text, a way of keeping in touch and communicating with other people when not together. However now, so many smart phones have been brought out, such as the iPhone, iPhone 4, ,4s, 5, 5c, 5s, HTC and so on. With the technology constantly changing and improving, it now allows us to do whatever we need on a mobile than how we used to in person.
Take for instance what we can do on a smart phone now; It becomes our bank – online banking can be done through the phone so no need for a computer, and now Barclaycard you can pay for anything with your phone – just one swipe away! How crazy does that sound, imagine doing that years ago. Not to mention all the apps, navigation tools, social media sites, fitness, music and so on. I could literally talk about how everything we do in our life can now be done through our smart phone, it actually is mad when you think about it in detail!


2. Tablets

Tablets now in the market have become a number 1 device to own. Why would most people want to use a desk top computer or a laptop still when they can do all that on one screen? All brands are now bringing out tablets, from Samsung, Apple, Microsoft to even Tesco’s own. Tablets have provided people with a on the go service, to be able to do what they want or search for what they need wherever they may be and whenever they wish too. It has brought about a whole new concept, that wherever you go you can take your tablet. You don’t need to search about for a computer when you have that handy thing right there with you. Who would have thought that years ago from a desktop computer to a laptop, would come about a tablet device, which allows you to do whatever you do on a computer or laptop, to now on one little screen wherever you are. It is just incredible.


3. Microwave

Remember how you used to cook your food years ago? (The oldies will know of this, only joking!). Think of how the transformation has gone from conventional cooking to a microwave. A electric square box that you can shove food into, switch it on and few minutes later there you go, you have a ready cooked meal that would have took only a fraction of the time as to what it would have used to with conventional cooking. It has provided a handy service for everyone, an especially student which makes them living alone for university much easier when it comes to cooking and feeding for themselves. It can save them a lot of time when in a rush to do University work, as it will with most people and is a main priority that everyone needs in their life at some point. If you don’t already have one which would be a surprise, I am sure that you will get one soon.


4.  Trolley Suitcases

Trolley suitcases are the more simple services that we never did used to require. Imagine now having to carry around your heavy luggage when travelling or moving or going away. What a pain that would be!

How grateful are we now for them putting wheels onto our suitcases! It has made our travel experiences much easier. I bet you can’t imagine suitcases or trolleys being without wheels in the past.  The way that we have taken it for granted as a service that we just assume will be there for us is only natural. But think what you would do if you didn’t have wheels on your suitcases. It has provided convenience for families, travellers, kids and even old people when doing their shopping. Trolley suitcases have become a main essential in our lives now.


5. SAT Nav

Now we all know how important a Sat Nav is in our life! Oh god just imagine trying to travel somewhere without having satellite navigation to be able to guide you about. It used to just be a road map or atlas that you would have to study to find your way somewhere prior to the journey. 

Trying to remember all those directions off by heart or reading a map on your own travelling on the road, danger just shouts out to us. How inconvenient were those paper maps and directions to navigate us about. The change in the revolutionary technology of Sat Navs is just amazing. Now Sat Navs are either built into your mobile device, into your car stereo or available to buy to attach in your car on your journeys to help navigate you; and they speak to you! 

So you don’t have to pay too much focus on looking where you need to go, you simply can just hear someone directing you on your way. Now I know that no one now will like to go without a Sat Nav. If you don’t have one in your car handy there ready to use or even so built into your car depending what one you have, it will surely be on your smart phone ready to use when needed. Sat Navs have become a daily part of our routine to help guide us in where we need to go. 

The upgrade from paper maps to Satellite Navigation has become so major in our life’s that we do take it for granted now.



6. Flat Screen TV’s

Flat Screen TV’s have become a big want now in people’s homes. Remember what old TV’s used to look like, big square bulky devices in your house. Now they are an essential item that the majority of people have in their house. 

Imagine having an old TV, would you embarrassed if someone came into your home and seen it? Most of you would, and why is this, this is because Flat Screens TV’s became the new trend and now they are what people need to have in their houses. It will either make them look good, the house look good or even provide a sense of feeling good through having one to show off. 

You may not realise it until you think about it, but Flat Screen TV’s are needed now in your life, whether you don’t have one yet, you secretly or knowingly want one. 


                            


                                                               

                                                                         






7. Recordable TV

Talking about Flat Screen TVs becoming a need now in people’s life, it brings me on to thinking about how recordable TV is now making its way gradually into everyone homes onto their Flat Screen TVs. 

Recordable TV is now replacing videos and DVD’s. TV now is recordable, depending on what service you have or what television you have, it is now possible to record any film or show that you don’t want to miss. Surely not everyone may have this yet, but everyone knows about it. Plus with guarantee it will make its way onto almost everyone’s TVs in the foreseeable future. Just as Flat Screen TVs have become a major in people’s homes, recordable TV will also end up the same. 

It is a trend that starts off and everyone eventually wants to have. 3D TV is also now making its way around being available on certain Televisions, it isn’t an essential as all the other yet, but in the future will be just as key as Flat Screen and Recordable TV.


8. Electric/Hybrid Cars

Electric and Hybrid cars are now becoming more popular in people’s lives when it comes to choosing a car. The electric and hybrid cards allow carbon emissions to be reduced in vehicles and provide better for the environment. 

Providing better for the environment is an absolute main activity that everyone is getting on board with. Every company, area or place everyone is talking about being green and better for the environment. No doubt that in the future, most cars will become electric or hybrid so that the world will not have as many bad emissions in it as it does now. 

Providing well for the environment is changing our lives, even designing cars now one of our main transportation, to make sure that the environment is looked after better. The majority of cars will most likely change to electric/hybrid in the coming years.


9. Drive thru

Getting food and take away are a nice luxury to a little night in that everyone has that once in a while. However they may be nice to order but paying that delivery price is sometimes just not worth it depending on what you want. That’s when drive-thru came about. 

They were handy for whenever you fancied something to eat you could just pop to a drive-thru wherever you were. You did not have to order or wait ages for a delivery and pay the charges; you can just nip yourself whenever you want and collect food and take it home. A drive-thru also allows you to not have to que in a massive restaurant, you can just order and collect in the comforts of your own car. 

Imagine now not having a drive- thru to be able to collect food whenever you want, you wouldn’t like it! 

That’s how popular it has become now in our lives and changed the way about which we eat and order food.  Restaurants know how popular it is that they in the future will most likely out drive-thru on most of their food places to save the service going elsewhere if waiting time and que is too long.


10. Email

Email is definitely one of the main sources of communication in everyone’s life. Think how it used to be just hand written or a typed letter then just posted to whoever you needed, it took ages and ages for the communication to happen and anything to get sorted. 

Now email has come about. It is so prompt in our life’s that if it got taken away from us, we would have lost a main communication tool to friends, work, family, colleagues or even other businesses. It is the number one communication tool between everyone and it’s literally a vital part of our routines, whether it is at work or not at work, it allows us to speak to whoever we wish and whenever we want, and know that we don’t have to wait ages for that reply.



11. Internet

The internet now is essentially defiantly 100% sure something that everyone in the world has. No matter where you go in the world, the internet will always be there. It is such an important aspect of the world and everyone’s life that they actually could not go without it. It provides any information you wish open to anyone and available to all one way or another.  

The internet in a huge aspect has definitely changed our lives. We rely on it to search for what we wish, to communicate, to have fun, to shop literally to just do anything and whatever we want. Imagine being without it!



12. Google

Google is the top search engine that everyone uses. It has changed how we search for everything. Google is so big in our lives now that we use it for everything. We use it for searching for food, shopping, information, history and even our health! 

That’s how important it has become to us now that we even use to search for symptoms or to help us out when we are ill or feeling unwell. We trust google to come up with an answer for how we are feeling; or even an answer for anything we search for we expect to get it answered. 

Just imagine how it would be and feel to not have google. It has stopped us from looking at encyclopaedias and yellow pages; it now provides us with everything and anything we want. And I know that everyone uses it for a lot, lot of stuff and information needed.



13. Social Media

Social Media these days now is how we live the communication side of our life. It has provided us with a whole new way of communicating and staying in touch with everyone that we now take it for granted. 

Everyone or even most people ranging from young to old have social media. Not only has it become so conspicuous in our lives, that it has become so important with businesses to be able to advertise their company and even celebrities. Facebook and Twitter are the ways that people communicate, have fun, gossip and even advertise. 

Social Media is everywhere and it a way of how we live our lives now. Without it, we would feel empty; how would we search for jobs, get job offers, find friends, communicate, gossip, have fun, be nosy and so on. That’s just how much it has changed our lives!



14. Taking Photos

Taking photos you might not think has changed that much in our lives. Although it has; photos now you do not always need a camera for or an actual photograph device. Photos are taken through our smart phones which can be taken wherever and whenever we are. 

Think of not being able to take a photo on your smart phone when you want, how annoying that would be. That shows just how much taking photos through our camera phones have changed in our lives.




                                                                            

                                                                                                              







15. The IPod

The iPod being brought about has now changed how we listen to music. Remember we used to have Walkmens and Disc Mans and you would have to actually buy the CD and insert it into the device. Now with the iPod brought out, it has allowed everyone to listen to music by just downloading it for free online and then listening to it whenever you want without any problems. 

The iPod became so popular in our lives that it actually almost probably put business such as HMV into administration. That proves how much people used it daily and stopped buying CD’s.



16. Book Publishing

Just think how book publishing has changed the way we now read and buy. Book publishing is not done how it used to be, it is now all done through self-publishing and kindles. They have become so popular that people will buy as they can download a book whenever they want and have it handy on them whenever they want to read. 

They also can store a selection of their favourite books and reads them when they feel like it. This has changed the way that most of us read, we choose to do it electronically rather than buying books off the shelf.



17. Mass Production

Mass production has enabled the way we make products as fast and efficient as we do today. There is now a large demand for mass produced products created at a  low cost and with a small workforce. Henry Ford brought this about when he decided to introduce and create the Model T Ford car. It was Henry's intention to produce the largest number of cars, to the simplest design, for the lowest possible cost. 

This combination of accuracy, continuity and speed introduced mass production to the world. At Highland Park, Model T production reached record levels, with a complete car leaving the line every 10 seconds of every working day. 

                                                                                

18. Aeroplane

Aeroplanes make the world go round, literally. Anywhere we want to go we can get there through aeroplane. They allow us to travel wherever we wish without no worries of how we are going to get there or any complications along the way. 

Imagine now not being able to go on holiday or where you need to due to not having the available travel access, how awful would that be.


19. Medicine

The improvements now in medicine have revolutionised so much that a lot of illnesses can now be helped or cured. Without the advancement in medicine and no access to it, there would still be a lot of very ill people about. 

Medicine is surely something that people do take for granted now if they have access to it, they just expect to get it when ill. Think yourself lucky others sometime are not lucky enough to be able to have medicine like we do in our lives. Makes you think doesn’t it.




20. Computer Technology

Computer Technology allows us to create any piece of work or anything we wish on the computer. It allows us to search, design, create and do a lot of stuff we never used to. I bet a lot of you think about how it has all changed, and how now the world and people themselves most likely could not go without. 

At least something in their daily lives would be revolved around computer technology whatever that may be.


 
                                                                    
                                                                            
                                                       

This list just shows us how we have taken everything for granted and that we do need it in our lives, whether that may be now or in the future at some point each of them point will prove handy.

Skignz will surely add to this list and even could replace one or two items on the list with the pieces of revolutionary technology that has been created. In the future, you could use Skignz in your life.

That is how Skignz could change the future and become a major part of revolutionary technology in your life.

Download the app for free and see what you think of Skignz.


The Teams Work - Samantha Collins

Hi, my name is Samantha Collins and I am a Marketing Executive at skignz. I got the job just after I graduated which for me was lucky as it can be hard for some people to be able to find a job once they have finished University. 

I have really enjoyed my job so far and what I have learnt from it. It is a whole lot different from learning at University and putting it all into perspective in an actual job; you bring stuff to the organisation and learn a lot along the way – it is a two way street.

My role as a Marketing Executive includes me being in charge of all the social media accounts developing the social aspect of the company. I expand its promotional activities through Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook, Flicr, Blogger, Instagram, Pintrest, Pearltree, YouTube, Stumble Upon and Google+. 

I also attend meetings to participate in the development of the company and provide help with any other activity happening within the business. 

I have been working with Teesside University while at skignz, which has been a good experience and fun, as I have attended meetings with some very important people of the University and had some promotional fun for skignz and Teesside along the way.

Now just a bit about what I like to do myself. I like to go away places, even if it is just for the day, night or even for a while; it is fun going to new places that I haven’t been before and also gives a change of scenery! 

I enjoy going out, spending time with friends, shopping; cinemas lots of stuff really!

So how about you help me out a bit, you see I am very busy working on the Social Media for skignz whilst preparing for a lot of other jobs, so please check out our Social Media sites, I will post the links below and see what you think of skignz!



Have a lovely day.

Sam x











Never take your smartphone for granted

One of the essential devices in a person’s life now is their mobile phone. Anyone of any age has one, I was surprised when I found out a 9 year old was getting an iPhone! 

At least 90% of people cannot go a day without their phone or leaving the house without it. It has become a main source of communication and it can feel like you have lost a limb if you have left your phone at home or even so lost the phone itself.

One of our Co-Founder had recently just got a brand new iPhone 5. They had it around 3 weeks when it went missing. Someone had stolen it and had not handed it in. They had been without a phone for 9 days now and still could not track where it was on ‘find my phone’,  due to it still not being switched on, as has two other people that I know of that have lost theirs recently too. When you have the phone, most of us do take it for granted; putting it down wherever and leaving it easily accessible for someone to be able to take it or watch what you do with it.

Having been without a phone for almost 5 weeks now, a new handset still has not been replaced. It has felt for them like they have lost a big part of their world. When telling me they explained how they were not even be able to do simple things that they usually do such as; being able to receive texts from their wife to call into the shops or do a small errand when out, no access to emails other than using iPad in a coffee shop, Wi-Fi hot-spots or in clients offices and no access to contacts to call from landlines. The iPad did allow them to set up I message however that precluded them from sending SMS to people not using apple devices. 
These may be general activities but think about the more important ones that affect personal life, feelings and work.  They were not able to do their expenses through their phone, check their personal banking when needed, search the internet or even put the lottery on. Besides that imagine not being able to see the images of his daughters whenever or family to remind him pleasantly during the day. It has many effects on us that we do not realise. No apps available such as weight management and health apps, along with Kindle app to read when alone, having music to be able to listen to whenever and even not being able to check any travel information when travelling for work.


All of these may seem like not much to you right now, but imagine not having them whenever you needed, it would be such a pain!
The hassle that he went through to get a replacement phone took weeks and still is ongoing now. Having to speak to insurance companies and go through the hassle of sorting cover, and not telling them in time creates a bigger problem, but do people even tell their insurance they have a new hand set within three weeks?  They should tell you how long you have to inform your insurance company of that you have a new device to insure. Passing on that the replacement phone has still not arrived, what does he use in the meantime? An old handset, a new handset or get a new sim? All of these cost extra money on top of getting a new phone and sorting insurance out.

It has taken so long and nothing is still resolved. His phone still has not been found or shown up on find my phone. This makes us think; does this really work, or have people now found a way around it and know how to make the phone not show up.

All of this just shouts out that we need a new way to be able to find our phones. Let me introduce skignz to you as the new way to track and find your device. Skignz is an app that you can download to your device. It allows you to place skignz wherever you wish through using google maps. You can then load up skignz on your device and there will be a skign shown on your phone whereby you can see the skignz you previously set up and all the information that it contains.

Well you can also do this for your device. You can place and set up a skignz on your phone. Through doing this and making it public for anyone to see, if you lost your phone you would be able to load skignz up either on an iPad or another device and track to see where your phone is. It is a new way and a new piece of technology that brings an advancement to stop the need of google maps and change to skignz. It does exactly the same and better, and saves you the hassle from having to try read maps and allows you to plan ahead for journeys and much more.


Instead of having to go for a while and have the feeling knowing that something is missing from you, your mobile phone which you are used to having on you at all times is quite disconcerting. It is like your lifeline to the world and your media centre all in one!
If you wish to find out more about Skignz then please use the links below to our website and social media pages including our blog posts to see how else you can use Skignz.

If you got a new mobile device for Christmas this year then make sure it is apriority that you download and see how it affects and changes your life in a more positive and stress-free way.

www.youtube.com/skignz

Friday, 6 December 2013

The Teams Work - Thomas Edgar

Hello Ladies & Gentlemen,

Welcome to my blog post.

I’ll keep it short and sweet as I have a huge workload and I prefer to 
communicate in pictures so firstly here is a picture of my desk stuffs.



I work in a creative way! This is my station. The nerve centre of design.



So I have being working on content for promotional material surrounding
 a confidential client, positioned within the top 20 brands internationally we are 
all pleased to be a part of this. So what do I do? …Well I am an integral part of 
the promotional process, I provide images and content that is used within videos
and static images that are on social media and included within most of the 
promotional material.

Above is a big paragraph although there are not many opulent words that impel 
the mind to burst into overdrive I wanted to show you a picture that is 
personally one of my favourites.





Well thanks for reading I kept it short to spare you some of the time you 
would of wasted to download the app and try it, while additionally and to the point, 
I cannot write any more, as my mind is as blank as a sheet of paper I will spare you
 the picture. 

The skignz app is currently available on iTunes & Google Play

Get your copy now: 

www.skignz.com/download

Signing out

Edgar