Coleman Technologies Blog

Modern VR Systems

After nearly 30 years of development, VR has been adopted by a miniscule number of companies. It has, for the most part, made the biggest difference in the entertainment industry, where Samsung and Google have a lot of influence. Sony has also established itself as a major player in the VR gaming industry with its Playstation 4. In terms of business, however, these options aren’t necessarily feasible of beneficial.

Two of the most competitive options in the commercial virtual reality space are the HTC Vive (and Vive Pro) and the Oculus Rift. Oculus is owned by Facebook and has led in VR sales, while the HTC Vive and Vive Pro provides a platform for high-end computing systems that are capable of using VR. These two systems work together to provide high-end VR experiences, even if it’s mostly for gaming.

These VR options give users the ability to bring themselves into a virtual world, thus providing developers with great opportunities to build out software to capitalize on it. The applications built in VR give users the opportunity to explore the earth and space in a way that can immerse them in a simulated reality.

The Immediate Future of VR

The future of VR is leaning more in the direction of reality; unlike great journeys or expeditions to places like the moon or the bottom of the sea, VR will be used to create educational resources and training software.

Some manufacturers have already begun to anticipate this shift, using services like Microsoft’s Mixed Reality (MR) devices with hopes of business integration in 2020 a possibility. While not true virtual reality, this platform integrates virtual elements into reality, providing business professionals with great new options to achieve their goals. It’s safe to say that businesses will find some use for these virtual sandboxes to either improve performance or work out daring new ways to accomplish tasks.

What are your thoughts on VR? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

As we begin, it is important that we acknowledge that the Android operating system has been granted FIDO2 certification. In other words, the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance has given the Android OS their seal of approval in regard to the authentication standards that the Alliance has set.

What Does This Mean?

In very simple terms, any Android device running 7.0 or higher with the latest Google Chrome update installed can be used as part of a two-factor authentication strategy - more specifically, as a security key. This includes the support that FIDO2 offers for onboard fingerprint scanners as a means of identity authentication. Currently, this authentication standard is only supported by Android, with no indication of Apple devices incorporating it.

In no uncertain terms, this all means that passwords may soon be phased out.

Abandoning Passwords

Passwords have been the standardized form of authenticating one’s identity for quite some time, despite the potential issues that are present with them. How often have we seen just how many ways a determined cybercriminal has to obtain a password? Between insecure databases filled with credentials and unfortunately successful phishing schemes, millions of accounts have been exposed - and that isn’t even taking all the times an insecure password was guessed into account.

The biggest weakness that any password has is the fact that it can be shared at all, that someone other than the owner can use it. Over any other reason, this is why FIDO2 is likely to become as popular as it is expected to be. When was the last time you successfully shared a thumbprint with someone, after all? Furthermore, FIDO2 keeps all of the information that is pulled from its biometrics onboard the device, keeping it safe from being stolen on the Internet.

As an added bonus, FIDO2 won’t allow the user to input their fingerprint’s biometric data into websites that don’t have sufficient security measures in place.

How to Use Your Android Device as a FIDO2 Security Key

In order to leverage your Android device as a security key, you need to make sure that it meets a few benchmarks. First and foremost, you’ll need to be running at least Android 7.0, with the latest version of Chrome installed. You will also need to have Bluetooth activated, and a Google account with two-step verification enabled.

This is somewhat simple to do. Logging into your Google account, access the Security section. Here, you’ll find the option to activate 2-Step Verification. After a short process, your smartphone will work as a security key.

Authenticating Google Sign-Ins with Your Phone

As long as you have enabled both Bluetooth and Location on your mobile device, any Google service you try to access will prompt you to confirm the sign-in attempt via your phone. This process is exceptionally simple - all you have to do is press Yes on your phone and wait. Once you’ve done so, you can confidently access your Google account, securely. As more developers adopt FIDO2, this enhanced security will only appear more often.

What do you think of this new authentication method? Share your impressions in the comments! While you’re there, let us know if there are any other tips you’d like us to cover!

The first thing you need to remember is that, while your unhappy customer or client may not be correct, they are always right. What does this mean? Simple - even if they misinterpreted what they were entitled to through your services, you have the obligation to make them happy. This is not to say that you kowtow to every demand a customer makes, regardless of how ludicrous it is… you just need to make sure they stay happy.

How can you do this? It all boils down to communication.

How to Communicate With an Unhappy Client

Chances are, you’re going to find out that a client was unhappy by reading a review that they leave somewhere online - perhaps on Facebook, or on Google, or on a third-party review website. What they will have to say may upset you. That’s fine. Nobody likes to hear that there is something wrong with one of their endeavors. You have every right to be a little upset - just don’t let that upset seep into your conversation with your unhappy client.

After all, in their eyes, they have every right to be upset as well.

Therefore, once you’ve regained a cooler composure, you need to respond directly and politely to the negative review. While this initial interaction should be public, offer to continue your conversation in a less public way, in an offline forum. If the reviewer accepts, try to come to a mutually beneficial compromise with them. This will help to insulate you from a rash decision.

This brings up another important point - while you may really want to, you should never just remove a negative review. Not only will that make it look like you are hiding something (not good), it also squanders the opportunity to make lemonade out of your reviewer’s lemons. Again, try to make whatever issue your reviewer had right, and ask them to revise their review once things have been settled. If you play your cards right, the result could be a much better review, describing the care you put into fixing their issue.

Reviews Can Be Good, Too!

Whenever they are, you have another opportunity to embrace by responding to them.

I can almost hear you now: “Wait, if a reviewer is happy, doesn’t that mean I’ve done what I had to do?”

In a way, yes. If someone is willing to leave a positive review of your services, you clearly were able to strike a chord with them. However, while responding to a negative review could be somewhat accurately seen as damage control, responding to a positive review has a very different motivation to it.

Look at it this way: anyone who is willing to take the time out of their day to speak highly of you online is an invaluable ally to have. Positive reviews and negative reviews are very different things, especially in that people are generally more inclined to leave negative feedback if they have the opportunity.

Reflecting on this, it only makes sense to take the time and respond to positive reviews as well. A positive review is more or less a confirmation of a successful onboarding process - to keep these contacts engaged, you need to continue communicating with them beyond the point that their invoice is settled.

Are you happy with our services or our content? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Leave us a review or drop us a line in the comments!

Not anymore.
A concept called managed IT services has taken the business world by storm. Experienced technicians work diligently with some of today’s most powerful monitoring software to proactively manage a business’ network and infrastructure, keeping technology working better longer, and reducing downtime to a point where it isn’t the huge problem it traditionally has been.

Coleman Technologies is a proud managed IT services vendor. With our technicians’ expertise, we are able to offer our clients a massive cache of services that include:

• Remote and onsite support
• Around-the-clock monitoring
• Help desk
• Server, workstation, and mobile device support
• Networking support
• Software patch management
• Stronger cyber and network security
• Data backup and recovery
• Professional technology consulting
• Periodic business reviews
• Vendor management
• And more

It is increasingly rare for many small or medium-sized businesses to hire onsite IT staff. If you don’t have the support your technology needs to function properly, you are looking at variable capital expenses that can, and likely will come to pass at exactly the wrong moment.

Coleman Technologies’s IT services provide your business with access to dedicated and knowledgeable IT technicians that are well positioned with some of the most powerful technology management software on the market; and, does it for a predictable monthly rate.

If you would like to get rid of your IT headaches for good, and kick downtime to the curb, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Those familiar with the online version of Gmail will find all of this quite familiar, as Smart Compose has been predicting their next words for some time now. It will seem newer to those more familiar with the Gmail application in macOS and Windows, as it hasn’t been available there until now. 

Using Smart Compose on Android Devices

The first thing you’ll have to have in order to use Smart Compose is an active Google account, with the latest version of the Gmail application installed on your chosen device. As you type, Smart Compose will present its predictive text suggestions that a user can either accept, or just keep typing to ignore. While this form of machine learning is pretty basic, it does demonstrate how a device can “learn” how a user is most likely to use it - in this case, what word is likely to come next in the user’s sentence.

Turning Smart Compose Off (and On Again)

Of course, some users may find these suggestions inconvenient or distracting. That’s totally fair, and means that these users should deactivate the Smart Compose feature. Access the Gmail app’s menu by pressing the hamburger icon at the top left. You should see your Settings from there. You will be asked to choose from the accounts that have access to your device. Once you’ve selected the appropriate account, look under General settings to find Smart Compose. Use the toggle switch to activate it or deactivate it as you please.

While Smart Compose may not be quite as impressive as the artificial intelligence that appears in feature films, it has one major advantage over them: it can actually be used to benefit your business. For other ways that you can give your business operations a boost through technology solutions and tips, subscribe to our blog! You can also reach out to us directly by calling (604) 513-9428.