Posts Tagged ‘consumer electronics’

Telephone History

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

With six billion people on the planet today using some form of telephone, it is probably the most widely used piece of technology in the world.

The invention of the telephone is often attributed to Alexander Graham Bell, who in 1876 was the first to obtain a patent on a sound transmitting “apparatus.” But truth be told, many other inventors had been working on similar technologies ever since the 1830’s.

The same year that Bell got his patent on the telephone, a Hungarian engineer named Tivadar Pusks created the telephone switchboard, an essential component for the creation of a telephone network.

From the 1870’s until the 1890’s, telephones were sold in pairs that would be connected over a distance for personal or business use, e.g. between a factory and the residence of its owner.

The creation of a telephone network through the use of switchboards began in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1894. The operators were almost exclusively women, and for the next half-century, this was how all long-distance phone calls in the United States were relayed.

The ability to place direct long-distance phone calls was introduced only in 1951, when eleven cities across the U.S. were assigned “area codes.” Those cities were: Boston (617), Chicago (312), Cleveland (216), Detroit (313), Milwaukee (414), Oakland (415), Philadelphia (215), Pittsburgh (412), Providence (401), Sacramento (916), and San Francisco (318).

Since this introduction of area codes and automatic long-distance calling in the 1950’s, technical advances were made and signal transmission became digitized (as opposed to analogue) but the way we used telephones remained pretty much unchanged for four decades. Only in the 1990’s did VoIP get introduced, and Mobile Phones experience their boom.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

The most recently invented major telephone technology is called VoIP, which stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol.” VoIP was invented in 1994 by Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty. However, the technology could not be put to practical use until the first software was released by VocalTec in 1995.

Dozens of companies today offer VoIP telephone services at low cost compared to traditional landlines; two of the most successful being Vonage and Skype.

While extraordinarily price competitive, three disadvantages commonly mentioned with VoIP phone services are, 1) You cannot make emergency calls (911) through your VoIP service, 2) Your number will be unlisted, which may make you more difficult to find, 3) Your phone will not function when there’s a power outage.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones experienced an explosion in popularity in the 1990’s, driven by lower cost and expanded networks. However, it may surprise you to know that the first successful mobile phone took place in 1946, from a car in St Louis, Missouri.

Ten years later, the first automatic car phone was introduced in Sweden. That contraption, constructed with vacuum tubes and relays, weighed close to 90 lbs.

Even though the technology transmit phone calls wirelessly is old, the use of cell phones did not take off in earnest until the 1990’s. At the end of the 1980’s, only one in seventy Americans use some kind of mobile phone, and many of those were the kind installed into automobiles. Ten years later, the number of American mobile phone users had jumped to one in three. Take another leap to the year 2011, and the number of cell phone subscriptions surpassed the population; which means that on average, every American now uses a mobile phone.

Worldwide today, there are 5.9 billion mobile phone subscribers out of a world population of 7 billion. Compare that to a mere one and a quarter billion landline telephones. The mobile phone revolution is complete.

With a background as a translator, writer and publisher, Kent J Davidsson currently works in the utilities and communications field. For quotes on communication services, including phone, Internet and television, please write to his team via e-mail write to@lower-utility-bills.us.

Which Printing Device Is The Most Suitable For One’s Printing Requirements

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Printers may be purchased relatively low-priced nowadays, based on one’s requirements. If you only require something compact for producing documents in the home, then one of the compact, less expensive printers might be all that you require. If, however, you have a business or company, your needs might be diverse and so you will most likely require one of the bigger, higher priced kind of printers.

You may additionally need to have extras such as more printer trays. They are practical if you have to print on various size sheafs of copy paper or when you have an organization that does a large amount of printing. Should it be simply for home use, then it would be silly to purchase these additional features.

Generally if the computer printer is likely to get used by a lot of employees, you’ll need to acquire a computer printer that has the capacity of being networked. This prevents you needing to acquire a computer printer for every single work station. Their computers can easily be networked into the main computer printer, which saves a bunch of money and space on workstations – not having them cluttered up with a computer printers. Your employees can easily wander over to the principal computer printer to get hold of their printed pages.

For those who only print text, then there’s no need to have to acquire a color computer printers. Even though it is nice to get a color printing device in the event you now and again want to print an item in color, the drawback with this is that if you won’t print in color often, the color cartridges are inclined to dry out. Then when you do wish to print something in color, you will need to change the color cartridges.

And it may prove costly if you’ve got to dash off and obtain replacement color ink cartridges every few months. This does not matter a great deal if you use color often – at the least you are getting your money’s worth; it may just get a little costly once the cartridges just dry up and require to be changed, simply because they haven’t been made use of for a couple of months.

Want to find out more about laser printer scanner machines? Then be sure to visit my site printer scanner copier for more information and advice

Massage Chairs For Stress Relief In The Factory

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

One of the biggest sources of stress is the workplace. There are many demands put on us which can cause stress and fatigue. We are constantly trying to meet the next objective which can be very stressful. It is important to reduce stress during the day to increase your productivity. Many leading companies are using massage chairs in the workplace to help relieve tension, stress and fatigue amongst the workforce.

The importance of breaks cannot be overstated. One popular routine is the 20 minute nap after lunch time. Many use this as a way to relax and refresh their bodies. They report having higher levels of productivity, concentration and energy for the second half of the day.

Improve the quality of your break with a massage chair in the workplace. The reason for having breaks is for relaxation. Studies have shown that this is a great way to increase productivity. The massage chair can provide the relaxation and invigorate the body leading to greater productivity.

Many of us take breaks for granted today. We may work through breaks or lunch in order to meet our objectives. However, a number of different studies show that constantly working leads to lower levels of productivity. Instead, more short breaks increase your productivity.

The quality of your break is important to getting the gains in productivity. Relaxation is the most important quality time which will lead to productivity. You can use a massage chair to provide deeper relaxation in very short break periods.

Massage chairs represent the automation of massage therapy. They are much more efficient in getting out massages than a traditional masseuse. Massage chairs are able to massage multiple parts of your body simultaneously. A masseuse works on one part of your body before moving onto the next which takes 3 to 5 times longer.

Massage chairs should be located in a calm part of the office. Select a location which provides a sanctuary of relaxation for employees. If possible, play soft music and use low lighting to set a relaxing mood.

Remote controls make a massage chair simple and easy-to-use for employees. Most have automatic full body massage programs which can be activated with a single button. You can also set massages for a particular time in line with standard breaks.

Many human resource managers have found that massage chairs lead to a more productive workforce. Massage chairs help to relieve the stress as it arises rather than wait for it to reach a crescendo. It is important to have employees relieve their stress before it starts to affect everyone.

You may need to think of some policies governing the massage chairs in the workplace. You may want to limit the time and frequency of use to ensure many people have reasonable access to them. By drafting a few policies, you can avoid many problems arising from abusing these new employee benefits.

Get the most out of your employees with productivity enhancing massage chairs. It is important to challenge your employees and provide stretch goals. However, allow your employees to reduce their stress as it arises with massage recliners.

Wouldn’t you rather be in a leather massage chair? Learn more about these extraordinary chairs of the twentyfirst century. You can find out about the most important features with our leather massage chair categories. You can quickly find exactly what options are available and educate yourself to what you really need. There are many choices for relaxation.

The Best Way To Buy An Air Purifier Offline

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

If you are in the market for an air purifier then it is likely that you are worried about the quality of air in your home or office. This could be because of tobacco smoke, because you have pets, you suffer from an allergy or because you are worried about the amount of traffic or industrial pollution in your neighborhood.

Many people would choose to research and buy an air purifier on line and since you are reading this, you are most likely one of those people, as am I. However, there are many surfers who cannot shop online for various reasons – they may not have a credit or debit card or they may not trust sending their credit card data over the Internet. Whatever the reason, some people would rather to do their shopping in the mall.

If you prefer to buy an air purifier from one of your local retail stores, you will have to look in stores in the categories of department stores, home stores, and home improvement stores. There is quite a bit of overlap in which products these different kinds of stores stock, but they are different categories if you want to look them up in Yellow Pages.

Home stores may be your best bet if you are looking for air purifiers, but do not rule out the others too. You might also think about buying from a catalogue and having it delivered. I personally, like to shop in a hybrid form. I investigate on line and even send for brochures and leaflets so that I can get as much intelligence as I can.

Once I have the promotional material, I come to a decision which three models would be the best for my circumstances and then I go on line again to get prices. I mark the leaflets with the best three prices I can find for each model and write down the URL of the stores selling them on a separate piece of paper. Then I go to the mall and talk knowledgeably with the store assistants and negotiate the price down showing them my leaflets and brochures with the prices on as proof. I never say where those prices came from. That is my secret.

This technique of shopping works well for more highly priced goods such as air purifiers and will ensure that you get a good deal on the air purifier that best suits you, because you will realize, while you are doing your inquiries that not all air purifiers can do the same job or even attempt to. There are horses for courses even in the field of domestic or office air purifiers.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with split air conditioning systems. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

categories: air purifier,air conditioner,pollution,allergies,asthma,environment,health,home,office,business,consumer electronics,product reviews,pets,other

The Benefits Of Air Purifiers For Pet Owners

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Most people in the West have a pet: a cat, a dog, a hamster, a rabbit or a budgie. They are excellent company and doctors believe that living with a pet lowers stress and stress is the biggest killer in the West. Keeping a pet helps you live longer. It is a real pity then that some people develop allergies to their pets.

If you or someone in your close family has developed an allergy to a family pet, it can be a complicated problem to solve. Especially if you have young children. Young children become close to pets very quickly, so the obvious answer to the problem – getting rid of it – is not always an alternative. If this is your quandary, help is at hand.

You see, the allergens – the substances that cause allergies – are almost always airborne. The allergens come from tiny pieces of dry skin, hairs, feathers and dry faeces floating on the air and entering your nostrils while you are breathing. It is quite logical then that if you can eliminate these substances from the air that you breathe, you will decrease the severity of or even completely eliminate your allergy.

Therefore, you stricter hygiene routines could reduce your plight. Bathe, comb or brush your pet more often and clean out their cages or baskets more regularly. This might work, but it probably will not work completely. This is because these particles are being shed by the second, just as every human being sheds bits of skin every second as well. You have to stop these substances becoming part of your inhalation of breath.

What you actually require is an air purifier. Almost all air purifiers will extract pets’ detritus from the air, but be aware that not all air purifiers are the same. Most of the good air purifiers are fairly specialist devices. Some will eradicate smoke more efficiently, while others will trap airborne mold and mildew more effectively. Therefore, you have to check the capabilities of any air purifier you like before you buy it.

Portable air purifiers can normally only deal with a small volume of air at a time, so they will only cleanse a small room. This is all right if you live in a bedsitter, a caravan or a trailer or are camping out in a tent. If, however, you live in a house or apartment, you should try to invest in a whole house air conditioner. As the term says, this will clean all the air in your whole house at the same time, which is far better than cleaning just one room.

The problem with less powerful, portable air conditioners is that as soon as someone opens the door, you are back to where you started, whereas a whole house air purifier means that you can walk around the house and go about your daily chores as normal.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with split air conditioning systems. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

categories: air purifier,air conditioner,pollution,allergies,asthma,environment,health,home,office,business,consumer electronics,product reviews,pets,other

Can Air Purifiers Alleviate My Allergy?

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Are you one of the rising numer of people who suffer from an allergy? If you are then you have probably already tried several ways to control your allergy, but have you ever thought of using an anti-allergy air purifier? They are not that expensive, but the real question is, whether anti-allergy air purifiers have the desired result or not.

However, the answer to this question is not quite so easy. In brief and in general, yes, anti-allergy air purifiers do have the desired result, but there are a few catches. Not all substances that cause allergies are easy to trap and not all anti-allergy air purifiers are as good as each other. Furthermore, it takes different types of air purifiers to get rid of different allergens. You are unlikely to find one portable anti-allergy air purifier that will trap all allergens.

In short, anti-allergy air purifiers work by drawing in air from its surroundings and blowing it back out through a filter. Two things are important here: the volume of air that the pump can handle in an hour and the properties of the filter.

Consequently, it is essential to buy a model with a high through-put and a high-quality filter and that filter has to be kept in shape by either cleaning or renewing it regularly.

However, not all anti-allergy air purifiers are designed to do the same job. Most anti-allergy air purifiers will trap dust, skin detritus, dust mites and dirt. However, second-hand tobacco smoke is better trapped by liquid anti-allergy air purifiers and bacteria is killed only with a system which passes the air through ultraviolet light. However, this UV light must be at least 24,000 microwatts UVGI, otherwise it is virtually useless.

Airborne mold and mildew can be trapped with anti-allergy air purifiers that create ozone, although you should really call a contractor in to discover and alleviate the cause of the mold or mildew.

After you have found out what you are allergic to and discovered what type of anti-allergy air purification system will eliminate that allergen, you have to decide whether you want a portable system or a whole house air purification system. Portable units are all right for one room, a caravan or a trailer or even a tent, but once someone opens the door, you lose a lot of the air that you have scrubbed.

If you live in a house or apartment with a number of rooms, then the best choice is one of the many whole house anti-allergy air purifiers. The cheapest way of doing this is to insert an anti-allergy air purifying unit into your existing central heating and or central cooling system.

This reduces costs by making use of your existing ducting and existing blower. This allows more money to be spent on the filtration system and so, for between $300 and $1,000, you could clear your whole house of nearly all the common allergens.

These latter types of anti-allergy air purifiers really do work and are the most effective defense against allergies on the market.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with split air conditioning systems. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

categories: air purifier,air conditioner,pollution,allergies,asthma,environment,health,home,office,business,consumer electronics,pets,other,uncategorized

Air Purifiers And Home Air Quality

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

More and more people appear to be suffering from allergies in the West. It is uncertain exactly why people are becoming sensitive to common items, which only troubled a very small percentage of mankind for tens of thousands of years. Some people say it is because our world is so clean, so clinical, that our bodies have forgotten how to cope with a bit of dirt and others point to the increased amount of air pollution. So could air purifiers be the answer?

If you have an allergic reaction, the first thing to do is to work out which substance you are allergic to. This is not easy to do alone, so you will almost certainly need some professional medical help. Or you could begin by trying to eliminate dust from your house and see if that helps. You would begin to do this by cleaning or replacing any filters you already have on the air conditioning and central heating and then turning the appropriate one on. Clean the vacuum cleaner’s filter too and replace the bag, if it has one. Then vacuum the house thoroughly from top to bottom.

If this does not work, you may be allergic to pollen, mold or tobacco smoke, if there is a smoker in the house, or maybe environmental pollution from cars or and near-by industry. Try installing an electrostatic furnace filter and running your heating or cooling system 24 hours a day to see if that clears it up. The filters can eliminate 90% of household dust and some other allergens.

The majority of airborne mold particles can be removed from your air by the use of specialist air purifiers. These air purifiers usually raise the ozone levels too, which has the effect of eliminating smells and killing some bacteria. However, for a longterm solution, you will have to seek advice from a professional to clear up the source of the mold, which is usually dampness caused by leaking pipes or damp brickwork, caused by a bridged cavity wall.

Second-hand tobacco smoke is unpleasant enough, but it can cause an allergic reaction too. If this is the cause of your problem, you could try one of the liquid air purifiers. This type of air purifier is very effective at its job. Some air purifiers purport to kill viruses too, but beware of such claims. The assertion is normally based on the use of ultraviolet light, but any UV light producing less than 24,000 microwatts of UVGI is unlikely to be effective.

Unfortunately, there is no one complete solution to the problem of air pollution, because there are so many sorts of particles that cause allergies. Carpets can be a major cause of allergens, as can all fabrics, particularly if you keep pets. Fleas, their larvae and house mites love carpets, curtains and upholstery, so you need to steam clean these at least once a year and spray them with a long-lasting insecticide containing permethrin or remove the carpets altogether and get leather furniture.

It is best to know which allergy you are fighting, but if you carry out the cleaning methods mentioned above and use one of the ozone producing air purifiers, you will have gone a very long way to cleaning the air in your home and defeating allergies.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with split air conditioning systems. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

categories: air purifier,air conditioner,pollution,allergies,asthma,environment,health,home,office,consumer electronics,product reviews,pets,other,uncategorized

What Can Air Purifiers Do?

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

There are various kinds of air purifier units, so it can be difficult to know what someone means when they talking about air purifying. For instance, all air conditioning units and most central heating systems have some form of air purification built in. In fact, the air purification filters in most split air conditioning units are very sophisticated. A similar add-on unit can be purchased for most central heating and central conditioning systems.

However, you may not need heating or cooling equipment, but you may want a dedicated air purifier. Air purification units can hugely increase your quality of life, especially if you suffer from an allergy or live with a smoker or pets.

Air purifiers or air cleaners, as they are also identified, clean the air of pollutants and foreign bodies. However, some air purifiers are more advanced than others, so it is a good idea to identify what you want to remove from your air before you buy one.

This is because not all machines will take all kinds of filter and not all filters will eliminate all pollutants. Some will, but not all. So if you want to clean pollen out of the air because you suffer from hay fever, check with the dealer that the unit that you like, can do the job.

Air purifiers will greatly help allergy sufferers and some people do not know that they have an allergy. Some people are allergic to pet hairs, or dog and or cat skin particles or smoke or traffic pollutants like tyre rubber to speak nothing of the exhaust fumes that none of us want. So, if you live close to a road or a factory, or keep a cat or a dog, you live with a smoker or you suffer from hay fever, an air purifier would most likely be good for you.

How you do this is clearly up to you. If you have a central air conditioning unit already, it is probably better for you to install an air purification system near your blower. This method is relatively cheap ($300 – $1,000), but it will purify the air in the whole house.

If you live in a bedsit, a trailer or a caravan and it gets hot where you live, a split air con system is perhaps better for you, but if you just want to purify the air close around you, then a portable air purifier will meet your requirements.

One word of caution though, many of the cheaper portable air purifying units are worse than useless because they are burning your electricity without giving you any benefit. These cheap models do not have the power to purify large volumes of air and they do not have filters that are capable of blocking the allergens that trouble us.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with split air conditioning systems. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

categories: air purifier,air conditioner,pollution,allergies,asthma,environment,health,home,office,business,consumer electronics,product reviews,pets,other