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Before we jump in, we just want to say that a lot of the problems associated with a dying battery can be contributed by the age of the battery itself. Older smartphones might have the ability to swap out batteries, but you may have noticed that recent models do not have the removable battery, forcing you to upgrade to a new device rather than just purchasing a new battery. If you do wind up upgrading to a new device, White Mountain IT Services can help make this process easy and painless. But first, try out these tips to get maximum life from your battery. Turn Down Your Screen?s Brightness While modern smartphones have pretty great-looking screens and high resolutions, this directly correlates to more battery consumption throughout the day?at least while the screen is on. You can reduce this somewhat by simply lowering the brightness of your screen or reducing the amount of time that it?s lit up. Try to Avoid Using Media Excessive use of applications and media can drain your battery, especially games and high-quality video streaming. To minimize battery usage for these, consider limiting your use of these applications unless you really need them. Turn Off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and Location Services Services like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and Location Services are all great to have enabled? when you need to use them, at least. When you?re not actively using them, they can put an unnecessary burden on your battery?s life. Plus, depending on your location, you could potentially put your device at risk of security issues as a result of using them. Better to just disable them when they are not in use. Turn Off Mobile Data Similar to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services, your phone is always looking to stay connected, and when it?s looking for service, it?s draining your battery. Turn off your mobile data to save a little bit of battery life. Plus, this benefit can compound, as when you have your mobile data turned off, you likely won?t be consuming any high-quality media or wasting battery power on apps. Just Put Your Phone Down We get it?as a business owner, it?s hard to put down the phone and not worry about who?s trying to get ahold of you or how many emails are in your inbox. But we promise that those messages and missed calls can wait until you are in the office and on the clock. Sometimes it?s good to slow down and set your phone down. The less you use your phone, the less battery you will consume, contributing to its longevity in both the short and long term. Did you find this blog helpful? Let us know in the comments below and share it out to people who might get some value out of it.

There are two big issues that you really need to focus your training around in order to fully prepare your team for success: employee noncompliance and process issues. Let?s examine each of these factors in greater detail. Employee Noncompliance There are various ways that your employees can show themselves to be noncompliant. For instance: A lack of regulatory knowledge amongst your team members concerning things like IT security, workplace safety, and other considerations is indicative that there is likely some level of noncompliance present. After all, it helps to know how to remain compliant if you?re going to. If new regulations and other requirements are met with surprise?and likely resistance?your team likely hasn?t been keeping up with the requirements that currently apply to them. If your established processes aren?t going smoothly, your team likely isn?t organized enough to meet the compliance requirements that laws and regulations will require of your business. If errors abound in your business, it?s a sign that your team lacks the training to avoid these issues. Process Issues Likewise, various issues occurring in your business? processes and procedures should serve as a sign that more training is required. There is no outlined process for your business? goals or procedures for your team to follow, leading to scattered and disorganized progress. Mismanagement and ineffective scheduling results in postponed work and missed deadlines. Those team members involved in business projects aren?t communicating effectively, leading to miscommunications and frustration. Of course, on top of all these issues and the training needed to resolve them, there are also the somewhat-expected technology issues to take care of. Whether you need assistance with your processes, your compliance, or your IT maintenance, White Mountain IT Services can help advise you. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

Where Did the Konami Code Come From? Back in 1986, the video game company Konami released a home version of the arcade game Gradius playable on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). However, in order to test the game out throughout its development for the NES, the entire game needed to be played through, each time. The developer responsible for the game, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, found this far more frustrating than it should have been. To fix this, Hashimoto created a cheat code to simplify his process that?by unlocking every power-up that would otherwise be granted throughout the game?made it much easier to move along to the point that needed to be tested. The thing is, the code was never removed as it should have been before its release, as its inclusion wasn?t caught until it was too far into production to remove it without creating additional glitches to deal with. Fortunately, the Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start combination wasn?t one that a user would be apt to put in unless they intended to. However, the code was quickly discovered, and since then has been purposefully included in numerous games. More to our point, it has also appeared elsewhere, firmly cementing itself into pop culture. Other Places the Konami Code Has Since Emerged In addition to Gradius, the Konami Code has appeared in dozens of other games. One particularly famous example is the use of the Konami Code in the game Contra, where the player would receive 30 extra lives. This is just one example of the many, many games that have incorporated the Konami Code into their gameplay in one way or another. In addition to these appearances, the Konami Code has been referenced in many pieces of popular culture outside of the video game world. Somewhat recently, it served as a major plot point in the movie Wreck-It Ralph, was encoded in the background of an episode of the animated spy series Archer, and has been recited in an episode of Family Guy. Of course, it has also been heavily utilized by various websites and services as an Easter egg of sorts. Reciting it to the Google Assistant or Amazon?s Alexa will trigger one of a few responses from the assistants, and entering it into an Error 404 page on Discord will start a game of snake. So, if you ever come across the combination Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start, now you know what it is and where it came from. Have you ever stumbled across the Konami Code before? Share it with us in the comments, and make sure you subscribe to our blog.

Set Public Goals Daily One way to ensure that your employees are doing the things you need them to do is to ensure that you set daily goals and benchmarks. One great way to accomplish this is to have a small meeting at the beginning of the day to outline what is expected and what each person will do to accomplish organizational goals.  Make Sure there Are Actual Priorities For many businesses, it?s hard to determine what the priorities are because business moves fast and everything needs to get done. A good strategy, however, is to have management set the priorities and keep them as best as possible. One good tip is to set something simple as the top priority of the day so that it gets accomplished and gets your staff feeling good about their work. Starting off the day with a victory is a good step toward continuing positive momentum throughout the workday.  Allow for Focus As we mentioned earlier, sometimes priorities have to change. This may be inevitable, but the more you can avoid shifting priorities the more you can keep people from losing focus on meaningful tasks. The more you force people to jump back and forth between tasks, the more the attention-to-detail that you depend on gets swept under the rug. Allowing your staff time to focus on tasks is one of the most important aspects of keeping a productive and efficient business humming along.  Have a Plan for Tomorrow Taking some time to assess where projects are at the end of the workday can go a long way toward being able to prioritize the next day?s work. That way, you aren?t rushing around to figure out what needs to be done the day the work needs to go out. Productivity relies on forward momentum and the more you have planned out beforehand, the more your staff can focus on getting work completed, a massive benefit for your bottom line. What productivity tips can you provide that will help other organizations get the best foot forward and be the best business they can be? Follow us on social media or give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to engage with our staff. 

Listen Too Much to One Party, And Not Enough to the Others Look, we get it? the boss is the boss, and the big decisions will therefore fall on their shoulders. Having said that, IT decisions should not be the purview of the CEO, president, or other authority alone. Big implementations or newly introduced solutions should not be incorporated based on the desire of just those in leadership positions. These things should always be motivated by progress?basically, how much benefit can you see from making a considered change? If you?re looking for some insight, you should turn to the opposite side of your business: your employees. They are the ones with hands-on experience with your technology, after all. The input of the end-user is not to be underestimated, so make sure you take what they have to say into consideration. Postponing Essential Reviews Nothing lasts forever, including the technology that your business operations rely on, the protections that keep your data safe, or the relationships you maintain with your customers. As a result, it is recommended that each of these undergo regular reviews to ensure that all is as it should be. Doing so will help you to maintain your business? functionality by preventing downtime and defending your data, while encouraging operations by helping you keep track of your most promising customers. Therefore, it should be clear that these reviews should be prioritized so that your business isn?t inadvertently hobbling itself. Failure to Future-Proof It is important that a business doesn?t simply wait for its current technology to become outdated before a plan is made to update or replace it. Acknowledging that technology will eventually need to be cycled out and scheduling regular maintenance until that point will allow a business to be better prepared for such a time. On a related note, business leadership should always be keeping an eye on trends in IT, seeking out the input to guide them to the best possible option moving forward. White Mountain IT Services can help you address all of these concerns, and more. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to find out what we can do for you.