The more we rely on mobile devices the more we rely upon one small technology. Batteries. Have you ever reached for your smartphone to look something up or to get directions and discovered that it has died? Well, in a few years, that may be something you don’t have to worry about.

A Better Battery on the Way?

Thankfully, a better battery might soon be on the way, thanks to the work of a team of engineers at Chicago’s Northwestern University. A recent story reports that researchers at this Big 10 university are trying to make a battery that lasts longer and can recharge itself within minutes. Smartphone users around the world ought to be thankful.

Northwestern’s researchers have found a method to lengthen the charge of lithium-ion batteries by more then 10 times the present lithium-ion battery life. They’re even boasting that after 150 charges, which they believe represents about a year of operation, the new lithium-ion battery will be 5 times more efficient than batteries at present.

A Charged Battery for a Week

Here’s the bottom line: The new cell phone battery could stay charged for over a week and then charge itself in just 15 minutes. This is best part about it for you: It could mean that your iPod won’t run out of juice while you’re working the treadmill at the gym. But the new, better battery might have a much greater impact: According to the Northwestern story, this new battery technology could result in smaller and more efficient batteries for electric cars. This may help the United States—and other countries—cut its reliance on fossil fuels.

Batteries Powering Technological Change

The new battery technology isn’t available yet for consumers, but the Northwestern researchers say that it could hit the market in 3 to 5 years. This is a big step. When we look at developments in technology, we tend to forget about the batteries that power our latest gadgets. Battery limitations are one of the factors holding back an even greater technology revolution. The hope is that the research done at Northwestern University can change this.

Google is the household name when it comes to searching the Web. However, it may not be the best search engine out there. Microsoft unveiled Bing, a competitor, in 2009 and it shouldn’t be dismissed. Although many Internet users still use Google as their primary search engine, Bing has many features that make for a robust searching experience.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When you search on Bing, you’ll get more information about your search results than you’ll get from Google. Bing’s results include a left-hand navigation panel filled with Quick Tabs that allow users to concentrate their searches. Additionally there is a center row of search results which are grouped into logical categories. This makes it simpler for users to find multimedia files or quick answers.

Bing Goes Beyond Search Results

When you search in Bing, you get more then just search results. Bing pulls up images, and videos that are associated with your search. While Google has this feature, Bing makes the navigation a little more user friendly. Another valuable feature is what they call Farecast Technology. This is part of the Bing Travel site and it allows users to locate the cheapest airfare quickly.

Bing Video Search Shines

When you are looking for videos, Bing is ahead of the game. Users can specify their desired length, size, and resolution. One other impressive feature is that by simply hovering over a video, you can enjoy a preview of it.

These are just some of the reasons why computer users should not be so quick to ignore Bing. Yes, Google continues to be the go-to player when it comes to search engines. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the only choice today.

Cloud computing is extremely popular these days. The cloud is essentially a group of remote servers where people can store and access their information. People can store music, powerful programs, and important files in the cloud. As information stored in the cloud isn’t stored on personal computers this saves lots of computer memory. The result of this is that people can access more data without having to use up space on their computer, which can slow it down.

Not All Clouds are the Same

However, that is not all that you should know about the cloud. You have the public cloud, which is the one most of us use, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud. The hybrid cloud, as the name implies, is a combination of using both the public and private cloud.

To offer a hybrid cloud, a business may store some of their client’s more critical or current data in-house and store older, archived, and less important files in the public cloud. They might also use the public cloud to store very large programs while keeping confidential data in-house.

The Hybrid Cloud Approach Makes Sense

This frees up space on the in-house servers while making sure certain data is highly safeguarded. The hybrid cloud is a fantastic way to provide businesses with high security cloud services while reducing costs and saving space.

It’s no surprise, then, that a great number of businesses today are moving toward a hybrid cloud approach. There is way too much data floating around today for small enterprises to effectively store. At the same time, businesses in the present competitive environment don’t want to reveal company secrets and sensitive consumer data to either their rivals or hackers. The hybrid cloud could enable businesses to accomplish both feats.

A growing number of employees nowadays work remotely. This is possible due to advancements in technology. The rewards are many for both employee and employer. Employers can spend less money as they have less people that need space in the workplace. Employees that work remotely are often more productive; they spend less time commuting, and they have the flexibility to adjust their work around their life rather than working 9 hours straight, which can cause burnout.

Remote Worker Challenges

Remote workers and contractors do present at least one considerable challenge to employers: It can be hard for employers to effectively monitor the hours that their workers are putting in. How do employers know, after all, if their remote workers are pounding away at their keyboards or playing Angry Birds on their smartphones all day?

One easy way to monitor the amount of work being completed by remote workers is to set realistic goals that they need to hit. This puts the emphasis on the end result and helps prevent the manager from worrying about it, as long as the goals are being met. This also gives the employee freedom to work within the hours they are most fruitful.

Setting Remote Worker Deadlines

Employers might tell their remote workers that they have to turn in a specified amount of work every Wednesday and Friday. This will make sure that remote employees are carrying out their work. Employers might also schedule regular updates by phone, video chat, or through instant messaging, in which workers can explain how far along they are with particular tasks. Some employers may opt to require that their remote workers spend a minimum of one day a week, or two days a month, on site. This gives these workers face time with their managers, something that helps everyone stay focused on upcoming deadlines and goals.

Off-Site Not a Permanent Condition

While many people may have the personal discipline and time management skills to successfully work remotely, some don’t. So, if an employee doesn’t work well remotely, and that has become clear, remote working doesn’t have to stay permanent, it can easily be revoked. Ultimately, trust within the employee/employer relationship is one of the key components of a effective remote working relationship. The worker needs to preserve that trust by hitting deadlines and delivering high quality work.

Your business keeps you busy. You’re balancing three projects at once for your employer. You are on the road more frequently than you are at home, and your day planner is covered in ink. You would like smartphone apps that will make your life easier, not complicate it. Luckily, there are a host of smartphone applications available designed precisely to simplify life for the busiest of business professionals. Listed below are five of the top ones to explore.

Top 5 Business Apps

1. WhosHere: If a deadline is rapidly approaching and you are needing a freelancer, WhosHere lets you find freelancers for hire in your area quickly. You can send out a search, and text or call the experts that reply.
2. Locale: It’s uncomfortable if your phone goes off in the middle of an important meeting. But with everything else you have to do to prepare for a meeting it’s hard to remember to put it on silent. This app allows you to set specific modes for your phone depending on your location. So your phone will automatically go to silent when you enter your workplace, or the theater, for that matter.
3. WaveSecure: One of the hazards of traveling regularly is the probability of loosing your phone. This app allows you to lock your phone and backup the data stored on it remotely, as well as monitor its location through the SIM card. Talk about reassurance.
4. Bump: Bump is a wonderful little app. It permits you to exchange contact information with fellow business professionals simply by tapping that person’s phone with yours.
5. Scan2PDF Mobile: Need to scan receipts for your expense report, or proposals for your boss to examine? This app allows you to do that with your smartphone’s camera, change them into color PDFs, then e-mail them to your computer’s desktop.

Are you gunning for a raise or a promotion? Maybe you just want to get noticed for job security. Regardless, this can be done by impressing your boss, but how?

What about Excel? The majority of us, despite our position, use spreadsheets in Excel. This program is a very powerful business tool; here are some tips to increase your efficiency, which is sure to impress your boss.

• Hiding Information: Did you know that you can hide columns, instead of deleteing them, when printing a spreadsheet? This can be useful, for example, if the spreadsheet has private information such as salary. In order to hide rows or columns, select the associated number or letter of the row or column to highlight it, then right-click on the highlighted row or column and choose the Hide option. You can Unhide a row or column in the same way once you have printed or displayed your spreadsheet.
• Timestamping: If you wish to attach a date to your spreadsheet, you can use the Timestamp feature. Just hold Ctrl as you press the semicolon key. If you would like the current date and time hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys while pressing the semicolon.
• A Better-Looking Spreadsheet: You can improve a boring spreadsheet with Excel’s Themes option. You can find this option in Excel’s Ribbon. Just click on it, and you’ll discover a variety of different fonts and colors that you can use on your formerly uninteresting spreadsheets.
• Tracking Trends: This is only applicable for those who have a more up to date version of Excel. The feature is called Sparklines and with it you can create charts that relate trends in the information in your spreadsheet. One way you can use this is to quickly and easily figure out how many software bundles your company’s salespeople sold in the first quarter of 2011.
• Conditional Formatting: This feature allows formatting only in cells that meet the criteria that you decide on. For instance you could decided to have any dollar amount over 1,000 be a distinct color.