Best Smartphone Themes For Kids

The market for smartphones is overwhelming. In addition to the variety in size, features, processing power and brands, there is also a great choice when it comes to operating systems. There is Android, iOS and Windows. The good thing about all is that offer they offer a great level of customization. One major thing you can do is personalize the theme. You can personalise the app drawer or home screen provided you have a launcher or a home screen replacement.

There is a great selection of themes in the market and each of them varies in their appearance and performance. While a few only add a change in background design and color, others offer a complete makeover altering the icons and widgets too. You can choose the best combination for yourself.

Many parents today are handing out phones to their kids because they feel the need to be constantly in touch with them. They believe it adds a layer of security because parents can always know their children's whereabouts either by calling them or tracking the cell phone. If your child has a phone of his own, you might want to choose a home screen that reflects their likes and preferences. Themes for kids should be fun and colorful. It should reflect their age. Here are some of the options you could consider.

1. Fairytale characters -

This one is a good option for girl children as they tend to identify themselves easily with female characters in fairytales. The most popular ones are Cinderella, Princess Jasmine, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel (Little Mermaid). In addition to themes created around a particular fairytale character, many also use the setting as the background such as a castle or life underwater.

2. Cartoon and Comic Characters -

Modern children have grown up watching television more than reading books. Hence, they are more familiar with cartoon characters. There's Winnie the Pooh, Noddy, Hello Kitty, Nora the Explorer, Telle-Tubbies, Nemo, Tom and Jerry and Doraemon. Although not a cartoon character, one of the latest to be added to the list is Angry Birds. It is not only a favorite among children but adults as well. We also cannot forget superheroes like Batman, Spiderman and Superman.

3. Favorite Actors and Sports Personalities -

Children idolize actors and sports personalities. So, you could think of it has one of the options too. The Harry Potter movies were the most popular and Emma Watson and Harry Potter themes have recorded the most downloads.

4. Abstract Designs -

If your child is not very finicky about having fairytale characters, cartoon characters or the likes, it would be preferable to choose colorful, abstract designs. They are simple yet attractive. If you scour the selection of smartphone themes online, you will come across some extremely creative designs created using varied geometric figures.

5. Cars -

Boys, as young as they maybe, often have a fetish for cars. Hence, a smartphone theme with sleek and sporty cars in the background might make a good choice for your sunny boy.

6. Nature Themes -

Finally, you can use nature themes picking from a variety of sceneries such as sunrise, sunset, the night sky, autumn and the rains. In addition to this, you can pick a theme with an animal, insect, flower or fruit in the background.

Employing E-Waste Management Services for Safer and Greener Environment

With the development in the IT sector, the production and use of electronic devices has increased, leading to more e-wastes day by day. Many leading companies in the global telecom and IT sector generate huge amount of e-waste every year. E-wastes include all type of electronic products such as computer, mobile phones, and refrigerators that can be recycled, reused, resold and salvaged. Moreover, if these are not disposed properly, they certainly pose environmental threats.

Read the following article in order to understand e-waste management and contribute to have a greener tomorrow.

What is E-waste Management?

E-waste management refers to managing electronic waste by properly recycling, renovating and reusing all kinds of electronic gadgets without causing threats to the natural environment. Due to lack of knowledge on how to dispose e-waste, people starts storing these outdated products, which eventually end up in landfills. This in turn, destroys natural balance on many levels. Therefore, it becomes very important to implement eco-friendly e-waste management technologies to minimize the e-waste volume.

Steps To Follow For Proper E-Waste Management

In order to have a powerful e-waste management system, you, as a company, must first begin from manufacturing stage. Manufacturing organizations should employ waste minimization programs such as volume reduction, inventory management, recovery and reuse, and product process modification.

Experts in the field recommend that manufacturers craft the electronic equipments in such a way that they are eco-friendly. Now, in order to do so, there are a few aspects that the manufacturing companies should pay attention to, and they are as follows:

Make use of non-renewable and safe materials that can be reused, repaired or upgraded.

Try to design products with minimum harmful material.

Use energy and raw materials that are renewable. The materials used need to be biodegradable, bio-plastics or of plant-based chemicals.

What Consumers Can Do

Consumers can adopt eco-friendly e-waste management strategies to avoid polluting the environment. After all, it is the responsibility of the end users to ensure that they dispose off the electronic wastes in proper ways. You could follow some of the best practices recommended by professionals to reduce the e-waste volumes.

Follow these simple steps:

Attend e-waste awareness programs held by private institutions or government.

Purchase electronic products that use fewer toxic components.

Give first preference to energy efficient products while buying electronic gadgets.

To have an in-depth knowledge about E-waste management. You could search online and gather more information before buying the products.

Must ensure that the products are correctly disposed after they are dead.

By implementing these simple steps, we, the consumers and manufacturers, can manage e-wastes and create a greener future for many generations to come.

Techway Services his one of the best e waste management companies in Dallas, and we offer expert consultation services to help businesses in E-Waste management. Please feel free to visit our website, TechWayServices.com to learn more about how we can help you improve your business environments.

Choosing a Computer Repair Service

As your computer refuses to work according to your needs, the first thought crossing your mind is to look for a computer repair service provider, possibly from someone in your local area. The availability of too many options is a bit confusing.

You may opt to patronize a small outlet in your city center, managed by a father and son team, or decide to check with a famous service center of a reputed company.

You should never overlook a service provider referred by someone known to you. That may in fact prove to be your best option. If many people known to you recommend the same outlet for getting your machine repaired, you are very likely to get good services from that service.

Though personal referrals often prove to be good, you may not feel confident enough to patronize any particularly recommended service due to your personal apprehensions! In such circumstances, your best option will be to search online for an appropriate local service provider. Once you go online, you can find many providers and the reviews provided by their other patrons to help you make the right decision. Consider those reviews as recommendations to facilitate the process of decision-making.

Big impressive ads don't always mean the best

You just can't get carried away by a catchy web ad; no, it's not a referral. Likewise, you can't consider a flier or a big ad in the Sunday edition of you paper as a referral. In the long run, such ads help adding to your awareness of the companies in the same business, but in fact, you just come to know of what you have been told by them. Any company would feel free to advertise whatever it wants, but the message continues to be biased in favor of the advertiser.

This is not to say that all the ads are totally dishonest. A company providing the best computer repair services may or may not advertise, but one can't judge the quality of services offered by a company from the size or frequency of its ads.

Do some investigation of your own

You may be intimidated by the term investigation! Not many companies providing computer repair services survive only on the strength of the services they offer. Nearly all such companies have some small area for patronizing customers at their business premises, while all the companies having nationwide service centers are generally connected to big retail outlets.

Find time to visit those outlets, hang around for some time, and closely watch other clients coming to pick up or deposit their computers. Do they look satisfied? Try to observe the maximum number of clients and be as precise in your survey as is possible.

Watch the technicians working there. Do they have professional, helpful and knowledgeable looks? If the answer is no, look for some other provider.

Question your assumptions

Perhaps, you think the best option for you is to patronize services offered by a retailer in a big shopping center. Or you may want to avoid the patronage of a large chain at national level, just because they are big. Get rid of all such assumptions for arriving at the correct decision. Do conduct your research by talking to people around you and making a couple of phone calls. Don't get carried by the size of the building or the ads of the company.

How A Hosted Email Service Can Benefit Your Business

Today, email has become the standard way of communication between businesses. Since its significance continues to grow among companies and organizations, hosted email services are more important than ever. It doesn't matter if your business is big or small, hosting electronic mail has become vital for the setup of a company. Nevertheless, this solution can be expensive and challenging. Hosting requires several servers, applications, expensive software, and experts to manage it all. Not every company has the resources or even the need for having their own server or IT staff. This is where hosted email services come in handy. Here you will find out about the many benefits of this service.

Security

Companies that offer this solution strive for providing secure access. They usually have very resilient data centers. No unauthorized party can have access to any of your information because the transmission of this information is completely encrypted. In addition, this solution offers data loss prevention, in case some user sends sensitive information by mistake. This gives the proprietor or entrepreneur peace of mind so they can focus on other important issues.

Cost

This is the main reason why hosted email service has become so popular in the last few years. It provides companies with a great service without the extra cost for special equipment, additional charges, or having to hire a person with special skills to manage it. Plus, there is no maintenance cost. This is why it's cheaper to just contract a company to deal with this and not worry about it at all. Moreover, since you only pay for what you need, it saves you a lot of money every year.

Storage

With this solution, businesses will have the adequate space to store as many critical messages as they need. This will also depend on the plan they choose. Many companies offer flexible plans that provide plenty of storage. This allows every user to stay in control of their inbox and manage their mail in an appropriate manner.

Spam And Virus Protection

Spam and virus protection come in the form of filters and are also some of the best features of this service. Spam always stays out of the inbox and your business will be protected from any malware.

Boost Productivity

Hosted email accounts usually allow users to share a universal address book, keep and share a calendar, have mail that is always synced, and more. All of this allows people inside the company to plan and organize every project better. Also, everything is included in the daily backup of the server, that way, if a computer crashes, not everything is lost. Additionally, when a user gets a new computer there's no need to transfer all the email information from the old computer, you just have to access the server.

Finally, you can access all of these benefits remotely through a variety of devices, like tablets or smartphones. These are great reasons to pay for a hosted email service!

Clouds Belong in the Sky

Admittedly, I'm not very tech savvy. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that I'm a technodummy. So, why am I suddenly interested in Cloud?

Basically, I think I'm interested in it because everyone I know is storing their data in it.

I'm usually behind the times when it comes to technology and this is one of those times. I've been afraid of the Cloud technology ever since it came out.

My worries centered on the fact that nothing on the Internet is really secure even though we keep being told that it is. My rationale has been that if hackers like WikiLeaks and OpenLeaks could hack hundreds of thousands of government classified documents and break into every kind of banking information, then nothing on the Internet is secure.

I've also been afraid that my data could get lost in Cloud storage. There have been too many times when I have sent a document that has gotten lost in an Internet black hole, or someone is sending me a document while we're both sitting at our computers, and it's gotten lost in the ethers.

I recently stored my music in a Cloud that is probably floating around somewhere. It took a week for it to be stored and since then, I haven't been able to find it. I know it's out there somewhere; I just don't know how to bring it down to earth and get it into my laptop.

And after I stored my music in the disappearing cloud, I heard that one of those Cloud data storage facilities was shutting down and their customers were being asked to make other storage arrangements.

I saw a lot of posts and it sounded like controlled chaos. People were concerned about losing their data or that they had too much data to move quickly and efficiently. It sounded like pandemonium judging from the intensity of the posts that I was reading.

When I see things like this happening to the newest and greatest in technology, I'm kind of glad that I'm not so savvy about it. It makes me move much more slowly until many of the bugs are worked out before I buy the latest gadget.

I think I'll stick with my backup system of multicolored floppy disks. At least I can see them. I can't see my music in the Cloud so I'm not even sure it's there, but the floppy disks? Those I can see.

Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver.

Connie is the author of the books, "Whispers of the Soul," "A Slice of Life," "Whispers of the Soul for the Rest of Your Life," "From Where I'm Sitting," "Are You Listening?," "View from the Sidelines," "Reaching for the Brass Ring of Life," "Purple Days and Starry Nights," "Here and There," "And That's How it Goes," and "The Counseling Effect."

3D Robotic Sculpting: A Basic Introduction

For as long as can be remembered the world of design has always been a complex one. From the moment that an idea is conceptualised to the design process and sculpting, making an idea come to life was a long process. With larger sculptors in particular, whether for film, television or even to recreate a historical artifact, whatever the purpose; creating something could take months however this process has now been drastically improved as a result of some incredible advancements in technology.

3D robotic sculpting has completely changed the design world for good and in fact made the entire creative process a whole lot easier then it could have ever been. Using state of the art machinery and computer software, what could have taken months to create now only takes weeks.

As our reliance upon technology continues to grow, robotic sculpting is no doubt going to continue growing and is expected to maintain a strong prominence and role in the creation of incredible work.

Not sure what robotic sculpting is and how it works? Below are a few of the basics to help you get understand it all...

Robotic Sculpting or 3D Robotic sculpting as it is often known is exactly what it sounds like. CNC Robotic arms use 3D scanning capabilities to create an object or exact replica.

Robotic sculpting has been a part of the design and manufacture world for many years and most popular is used to create buildings, sets and replicas for film and television however it has also prominently been used for the replication of historical statues.

The original idea is scanned and data is downloaded onto a computer. The computer programme is then used to render the perfect 3D design that is needed; this can often be a long process as it is important that, before the sculpting begins, the design is perfect. Many professionals can alter the scan and add or remove elements to create exactly what you are after.

Once the design is complete, the robotic arm can begin sculpting. Although it is not a speedy process, robotic sculpting can create the object of desire far quicker then it manually could.

Robotic arms can generally sculpt a multitude of materials including granite, marble, foam, glass and plastic.

Whether you're looking to create something unique for your business, whether you are after a vital piece for television, film or a stage set or are simply curious as to how things are brought to life, hopefully the above points will have given you some food for thought.

Next time you see a model or sculpture, have a closer look; you never know, 3D robotic sculpting may have played a part!

How Variable Data Printing Works In The Real World

Variable data printing (VDP) can support a wide variety of applications that add value to printers' services. These range from personalised direct mail campaigns with or without complementary online elements, to 'self-service' publishing models for both business-to-business and consumer products in which customers choose the content and unique documents are assembled, printed and shipped to them.

Print-led direct marketing for customer loyalty club: Pet food manufacturer Royal Canin increased its customer club membership in Sweden from 5000 to nearly 40,000 through a VDP campaign linked to an online questionnaire and prize draw. The direct mail campaign was sent out in three stages to a total of 520,000 recipients. It included a brochure and a personalised card which pictured the recipient's pet breed - by partnering with the Swedish Kennel Club, Royal Canin was able to use a mailing list that contained detailed information about the Kennel Club members' animals.

The mail piece also included a personalised coupon for a discount and a link to a website for the opportunity to win a year's supply of pet food, in exchange for answering questions about the recipient's pet. An option to join Royal Canin's loyalty programme was also offered online. The campaign results were tracked and additional analysis carried out; this indicated that more than 80 per cent of the recipients viewed the campaign positively. The data gathered during the campaign can be used to better communicate with customers in the future and to further customise promotional mail pieces.

Multi-channel marketing for reactivating charity donors: Child-focused charity Save the Children Australia used a combination of customised direct mail and cross-media to recover nearly 200 donors who had become inactive, converting more than a third of them to register to make regular monthly donations. Starting with data that only included name, address, year of first and last donation, duration and frequency of the contribution and the project for which the donation was made, comprehensively personalised mailings with a donation form and personal landing pages for donation were created. Reminder emails were sent and each recipient was also contacted by a call centre.

Images were selected according to previous donation themes and some were further personalised with the recipient's name. In addition to a personalised URL, individual proposals for a new contribution were included in the text, together with details of the benefits that the previous donation had brought. Similar imagery and personalisation were also used on the personal landing page and in the reminder email. The overall conversion rate was almost four per cent.

Web-driven custom business report printing: A print-on-demand implementation of cross-media software has been used by Zurich-based information provider Neidhart + Schön (N+S) to enable customers to order customised financial reports on publicly-traded companies via an online portal. Declining print volumes and price pressures led N+S to implement a system that allows shareholders to choose the chapters that interest them and combine them into a finished document that is either delivered in digitally printed form or as a downloadable PDF.

The contents of the reports are created by an external agency and delivered to N+S as PDFs where they are split into chapter-sized sections to be chosen and combined in the order desired by customers. The base layout can be modified to fit the corporate identity of the customer and multiple languages are supported. Once the customer has made a series of simple selections via the portal, the new document is assembled automatically, including the creation of an individual table of contents and adjustment of pagination to suit print, if required. Complete documents are presented for download or sent to print. An additional option allows for personalisation of content and layout of the cover to suit the customer.

Consumer web-to-print for customised greetings cards: UK personalised greetings card business Funky Pigeon (owned by WH Smith since 2010) has used variable data printing software from the outset to support its rapid growth, offering tens of thousands of designs and products via its web portal. Image personalisation is a key component of the brand's success, with in-house designed image sets offering customers more than 10,000 motifs on a wide variety of themes, from spoof and humour to content suitable for virtually any occasion.

Photo upload by customers is also of growing importance, with around half of the orders produced now including images uploaded by visitors to the portal. Rapid rendering and near-instant previews are critical to conversion rates in a consumer-driven business like this and once designs are approved and orders placed, the cards are printed on digital presses for shipping. Other complementary high volume products are continuously being added to the portfolio to expand the appeal and increase sales value.

These varied examples demonstrate how VDP is a powerful enabling technology for a multitude of value-added services that print service providers can use to expand their portfolios, build customer loyalty and increase profitability, even to the extent of forming the basis of a complete business model.

This is one of a series of articles based on The ABCs of VDP, a free e-book from EFI that explains the benefits of variable data printing (VDP) and describes with examples how print service providers can produce, promote and sell VDP services to their customers, expanding their business portfolio and increasing profit margins.