Experts predict that within the next five years more people will use mobile devices than laptops or desktops. Businesses must cash-in on this trend to stay competitive and maintain customer loyalty. Here are some of the best marketing apps available today.

Foursquare

This is one of the most popular apps at the present time. It has been called the Craigslist of location based apps. Users earn badges and other rewards for visiting. You can find your friends on the app, which fosters a sense of community. You can also get a list of local places in your area and receive tips on where to go and where not to. Businesses can offer their own rewards, which becomes free marketing.

Yelp

This is the yellow pages of mobile devices. Besides finding businesses, customers can get reviews and offers from companies. Businesses can advertise for free and communicate with their customers. It’s easy to use, and customers can search in various ways, including by location and category. New businesses can get highlighted.

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If you’ve just graduated from college or simply looking to get back to the workplace after raising your children, it’s important to see what’s happening in the business world. You will find that many of the traditional styles of doing business are gone; replaced with modern ideas in a modern world. To compete with other job applicants, it pays to know what to expect.

Technology

Technological advances are the reason behind many of the changes. How you conduct business has changed a lot in the last ten years. You no longer sit in an office behind closed doors. Instead, many employees are on the go, using laptops and mobile devices for their work.

Even email is becoming obsolete with faster methods of communication such as text messaging and social networking. Instead of working in the same office as your co-workers, you may be collaborating online with people from all over the world.

You’ve heard for years the dangers involved in online dating. People can use fake profiles to get the attention of potential victims. Most people are aware of these problems and take precautions by meeting in a public place and using all of the other safety measures they’ve been taught. However, researchers are discovering other dangers of online dating that have nothing to do with your safety.

Psychologists have studied the behavior of people who date online. Many of them claim that online dating is not as effective as real world dating. They compare it to shopping for a mate as people study profiles looking for the perfect match. They say that it can actually lower a person’s chance of finding someone because it warps their expectations of potential mates.

The problem lies in using profiles to find someone. According to psychologists, what people look for may not be what they are actually attracted to. Most people don’t really know what attracts them to certain people.

You can’t deny the success of online dating; in today’s busy world it can often be the only way of meeting someone. So, how do you make online dating successful and find a real world match?

You may remember the old spy movies where people talked to their watches or pulled daggers out of their coat sleeves. While some of that was pure drama, today’s technology has advanced into clothing. Fashion designers and cyber techies are combining to create clothing with a double use.

Practical Hoodie

Imagine always having headphones with you when you go for a jog. The hoodie has headphones woven into the material, with a jack in the pocket. The drawstrings have the earplugs that you can easily put into your ears; no more tangled up wires.

Oakley Sunglasses

A lot of companies have made their sunglasses with a built in music player. Not all of them look as cool or work as well as the Oakley sunglasses. With these sunglasses, you don’t have to carry an mp3 player.

James Bond Style Watches

Imagine being in a tight situation and you talk into your watch to your partner for them to rescue you. Now you can do that with cell phone watches. With Bluetooth technology, you can wear an earpiece that is connected to your wristwatch - aka cell phone. Don’t expect them to have all of the features of a Smartphone, but you can make and receive calls.  

No, we’re not talking about the U.S. this time. While it has received the majority of attention, the United States was not the only nation hit by the housing crisis. Canada and Australia, along with other nations, have also suffered in the housing industry.

Australia

Evictions have increased in Australia as the cost of housing rises. The poorest Australians need 27 times their annual income to purchase a home. The dream of home ownership is slipping away from many Australian citizens.

Canada 

There is also concern that Canada may be following in the United States’ footsteps. Many lenders are becoming less stringent about the loans they issue to borrowers. The ratio of household debt to income reached 150% last year, which is just below the 160% that the U.S. was before the housing market collapsed in 2008. At the same time, the net household income has fallen, which makes people even more vulnerable. Incomes can’t keep up with inflation.

Every business will lose some customers over a course of time. Some customers move, others no longer need the service, or their life situation changes. The problem arises when more customers leave because they are unhappy with some aspect of your business.

Should you care about losing customers? Yes! Loyal customers refer their friends to you and help your business grow. Is there any hope of getting them back? Again, the answer is, “Yes!” Here are some things you can do to get your customers back into the fold.

Find Out Why They Left

You will not know what to change to make your customers happy if you don’t know what you did wrong. You need to find out if it was the service, the price, or some other reason that caused them to leave. You need to know if they went somewhere else or just decided to do without your service or product. Let them know you want to make things right with them, but you need to know what went wrong. 

Some people make New Year’s resolutions to get rid of them, while others make a fresh start on their birthday - whatever time of year you choose to make a change, everyone wants to break a bad habit. The trouble is that people often fail to permanently get rid of the annoying bad habit. Here are some tips to improve your chances of being successful.

1.  Analyze Your Bad Habit.

Before you can get rid of a bad habit, you have to know why you do it in the first place. For instance, if you want to quit watching too much television, you have to know why you do it. Are you bored in the evenings? Do you automatically turn it on when you walk in the door? By understanding why you do certain things, you can figure out how to break the habit.

2.  Decide on a Replacement.

It is much easier to break a bad habit if you replace it with a good one. Using the example mentioned above, instead of watching television you could read a book or pick up a hobby. A bad habit can leave a void in your life. Filling this void with a new habit will make it much easier to give up an older one.

Since the dawn of the DIY revolution, people everywhere have taken a liking to fixing things on their own. While a computer is a nuanced system of electronics and hardware, you don’t have to be a mechanic to repair many common computer problems. 

1. Computer Won’t Turn On

Be sure the computer is plugged into the power supply. If you receive no activity from the computer even when it’s plugged in, you may have a problem with the power supply unit on the computer. The power supply unit is a metal box located in the back of the computer to which the power cable is connected. To remove the unit, unscrew it from the back of the computer and disconnect the wires. Take it to an electronics store and purchase a replacement with the same wattage. 

2. Computer Is Slow

There are three probable causes of your computer’s slow behaviour - a fragmented disk, spyware activity, or a defective disk. Run ScanDisk to determine if there are any disk errors. Then run the Windows Disk Defragmenter program to improve the performance of your hard disk. Your computer could be running slow because of malware applications abusing your computer’s memory.

Feng Shui is an old Chinese system designed to improve one’s life by arranging things according to the laws of nature.  Many people use this idea to design their homes.  If you are interested in creating an oasis in your home using Feng Shui, here are some tips to help you.

1.  Get Rid of Clutter.

One of the most important things you can do to establish a sense of peace inside your home is to get rid of excess items that you don’t use or love.  This is not just a principle of Feng Shui; it pertains to any type of design you use.  However, it will help to create more energy in your home, which is the basis of Feng Shui.  You will be able to find things you need easier and won’t be dragged down by mounds of stuff.

2.  Create Quality Light.

Light improves energy whether it is artificial or natural.  Make sure you have access to good lighting in the rooms of your home.  If you have several windows, use light curtains that can be opened to allow natural light into the room.  If you have a room that does not have much natural lighting, buy lamps and bright lighting.  

Health-care reform law can be difficult to understand, but when you understand it, there are many ways that you can save yourself and your family some big money. Several provisions are now going into effect and several others are often underutilized because patients don’t understand their options. Here are some ways to make sure you get the most benefit from new health care legislation.

1. Make Sure Your Adult Children are covered

Adult children may now stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26. Also, they do not have to be enrolled in school to gain the benefit of their parents’ health insurance policy. Before this legislation went into effect, adult children had to be enrolled in school full-time, or be under the age of 21. Parents usually have to wait to add their children to their plans until the open enrollment for insurance coverage in the fall, but there may be exceptions that would allow adult children to be added in the middle of the year. Your insurer or employer will be able to tell you more.

2. Have Preventative Tests, Procedures, and Vaccines Done

Depending on your age, you may be eligible to receive screenings, tests and vaccines without having to pay a deductible or co-payment. These screenings may include immunizations, diet counseling for adults with a higher risk for chronic disease, tobacco cessation interventions, and depression screenings. You can consult your insurer and check Healthcare.gov for more information.

According to Kiplinger.com and the AARP, there are great places to live outside of the U.S. once you have made it to retirement.  There are two major considerations in choosing your ideal place to live: cost of living and health care.  These are primary concerns for people who are not earning a living anymore and may be in declining health.  Here are 5 of the best places to live that have the best of both.

Italy

This country is not just for American tourists; it is also a great place to live.  Besides the culture and food, you will appreciate the temperate climate and beautiful scenery.  The summers are warm and dry while winters are comfortable with some rain.

Italy ranked 2^nd on the Global Retirement Index for health care.  It provides all residents with a health plan or you can use your own insurance for private hospitals.

The country also ended up 11^th for cost of living, and a retired couple could live on less than $3,000 a month if their home is paid.  Italy also has a Social Security agreement with the U.S. that would benefit someone who has had employment in both countries.

There are numerous methods and software programs that are available to help protect your children from the dangers of the internet. You will want to find the one that fits your needs and is easy to use. Here are some popular features that you can use to monitor your child’s internet usage.

How They Filter

Some programs filter by keywords. You can block sites that use these words to prevent your children access to certain information. Other programs block by URLs, while still others monitor dynamic sites. A dynamic site is one that has constantly changing information, such as a news site. While some information may be appropriate for children, it may change to something they shouldn’t watch.

Some programs record what is said in a chat room, while others prevent access to a chat room altogether. They can block emails that contain specific content. This is beneficial if an unknown person should try to send explicit emails to your child. You can also monitor what your child does on social networks like Facebook. Some programs will even allow you to restrict the information that your child can share on public sites.

There has been an increase in the number of serious delinquencies on loans that the Federal Housing Agency has insured. In August, 8.4 percent of the loans in their portfolio were considered delinquent with three or more missed payments. In November, this rose to 9.3 percent. News from an independent audit in November has fueled worries that the FHA may need a bailout. The audit found that losses from mortgage defaults had left the agency’s reserve fund with only 0.24%, which is $2.6 billion during the 2011 fiscal year. This number is based on the net worth of the reserve fund compared to the value of the loans that the FHA has insured. Congress mandates that this level remain at 2%. In 2006, the FHA reserve fund had 7%. 

If the FHA does need a bailout, taxpayers would be the ones bailing them out. Joseph Gyourko, author of the report ‘Is FHA the Next Big Housing Bailout?’, said, “It’s highly likely that the FHA will need a taxpayer bailout over the next three to five years.” He also asserts that it would take at least $50 billion to bailout the FHA, if the housing market remains the way it is. At the very least, the agency would need at least a $20 billion bailout to meet the 2% level set by Congress.

To avoid an FHA bailout, home prices would have to go up, so that the agency does not have to count on their reserves. If home prices continue to drop, the FHA may have to seek a bailout from the Treasury Department. There would also need to be fewer delinquencies on home loans.