What and Where to Buy Headsets for Your Office

For years people have been telling me that family, love and happiness are the most important things in life…These days I realized that I’m able to take or leave all that as long as We have this radio accessory in the world.

Technology has improved the way we do just about everything in and outside of the office. If you are trying to update the way your office does things with the latest technology, you might want to seriously consider purchasing Bluetooth headsets. This will allow for all of your employees to answer their phones and maintain telephone conversations via a headset, which means no awkward phone handling and the ability to multitask while on the phone with ease.

One of the best Bluetooth headsets that you will find on the market is made by Plantronics. There is not just one Plantronics headset to choose from, but most will find that one of their products will easily suit their budget and will also suit their needs. These headsets seem to be straight forward and reliable and will work in conjunction with a variety of other products to make the communication process in the office as simple and as straight forward as ever.

If you have been wondering how Bluetooth headsets will work for you in the office, you should know that they can be linked to your office phones. The way this works is that the headsets are programmed to work with your current telephones. When one of your employees wants to make a call they can dial the phone, but then they will be able to speak through their hands free head set. When they end the call, the call will be disconnected as soon as they disconnect their headset.

Worried that this technology will wear out and will not hold up under the constant use? While this was common in the past with Bluetooth products, it’s no longer the case. The technology has been greatly improved over the years. Now, when employees come into the office they can put their headset on, use it throughout the day, and when they leave the office for the day they will simply put it on the charger so it is fully charged to then use it again for the duration of the next business day. While it sounds too good to be true, this technology has definitely improved over the years and the improvements will serve you, your employees and your clients well.

The Plantronics headset is a great option because this is a very well known brand that has taken the time to really improve their products. Not only do they work as they are said that they will, they will continue to work over time and hold up to repeated use very well. Also, they tend to be one of the most affordable options, despite their durability and fine craftsmanship.

Not sure where to buy these Bluetooth headsets for your business? The good news is that you don’t have to leave the office to shop around. You can purchase your headsets online for a great price and have these headsets shipped right to your office space. You can unpack, allow the headsets to charge overnight and then following a simple set up process, they will be ready to use. Who knew that hands free could be so simple, straight forward and affordable?

Google are starting the robots race

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Google has officially announced that it has acquired seven robotics companies in the last six months, with the ultimate aim of creating a Google robot.

As far-fetched as it might sound, the firm’s takeover of companies like ‘Bot & Dolly’, ‘Industrial Perception’, ‘Autofuss’ and ‘Redwood Robotics’ is a clear sign that Google has big plans in this area.

Andy Rubin, who (perhaps ironically) oversaw the development of the Android operating system, is in charge of the project. He has stated that Google has a “10-year vision” for its robotics interests.

“We’re building hardware, we’re building software. We’re building systems; so one team will be able to understand the whole stack”.

However, despite rumours to the contrary, Google has explicitly stated that it does not plan to create any kind of robot for consumer purchase, leading some to speculate that the resulting Google product will be used to handle deliveries, thus going head-to-head with Amazon’s proposed Prime Air Project (which would use unmanned drones to deliver goods to customers by air).

The company itself has remained cagey regarding details. The official word so far is that “Any description of what Andy and his team might actually create are speculations of the author and the people he interviewed”

That’s what we get for asking nicely.

The project will operate between offices in Palo Alto, California and Japan.

The companies taken over by Google specialize in an esoteric mixture of robotics-based sciences. For example, Japanese acquisition ‘Schaft’, taken over earlier this year, specialize in the creation and operation of humanoid robots, while American company ‘Holomni’ work mainly with caster wheel modules that can accelerate a vehicle’s motion in any direction.

At this point in time, despite lots of media interest, just what Google plan to do in the field of robotics is anybody’s guess, however it should be noted that the science of robotics has come along in great leaps over the past several decades. Perhaps it is time for a Google Android in every home?

During a recent interview with the New York Times, Mr. Rubin described robotics as “A green field” and it will certainly be interesting to see what grows from this.

The Oculus Rift: virtual reality is no longer a joke

What will you do if i stated I had found a earphone article that is not only interesting but educational also? I knew you would not believe me, so here it is the informative, excellent and fascinating piece

The decade�s most exciting development in computer hardware looks a little like a fat black envelope stuck to a pair of ski goggles, and I had one strapped to my face two months ago as I sat at a desk in the Earls Court Exhibition Centre preparing to fly a Spitfire under a bridge.

Headphones over my ears replaced the thumping bass of the surrounding trade show with the spluttery growl of a Merlin engine. Looking down, I saw a pair of khakied knees and a gloved hand gripping a control yoke; above and to either side, the sun glittered through the cockpit canopy. As I flipped the aircraft into a turn and dive, my senses insisted that I was soaring, upside down, under an iron bridge and into a canyon. But my body and brain remained obstinately upright in a chair in west London, at the glorious mercy of a technology that promises to bring back that most laughable of Nineties computing obsessions: virtual reality.

This device is called the Oculus Rift, and it has come a long way since 2011, when Palmer Luckey, a 19-year-old Californian student, built the prototype from scavenged parts in his parents� garage. Luckey was an enthusiastic collector of old VR hardware the clunky headsets that had enjoyed a brief tenure in Nineties amusement arcades and had long dreamt of bringing back the technology in a useful form.

But despite the colourful cyber-predictions of films such as Lawnmower Man, there were good reasons that the virtual reality craze had fizzled out by the millennium. The headsets were too heavy to wear for long, and immersion in the blocky graphics of these early virtual worlds came at a price: a stiff neck, motion sickness and the feeling of wading through treacle.

By 2011, however, the magic combination of accurate motion-sensing with lightweight, high-resolution displays no longer seemed so far off. As Luckey realised, the technology was by then integrated into most decent smartphones. So his prototype Rift used the equivalent of a large smartphone screen to display offset moving images, one for each eye, which the brain combined into an illusion of 3D depth. Head movements were tracked with phone-equivalent gyroscopes and accelerometers, adjusting the view so the user could look freely around a 3D world.

Two years on, Luckey�s company Oculus VR is still piggybacking on vicious competition in the smartphone market, as its product lead Joseph Chen freely acknowledges.

�Those guys are tearing each other apart trying to get the next best thing,� he says. �That has basically driven the costs down to where they�re affordable: displays and sensors that used to be hundreds of dollars now cost pennies.� Oculus charges just $300 (�180) for a low resolution �developer kit� � a kit for companies interested in developing software for the device � and has shipped more than 40,000 worldwide, the biggest deployment of virtual reality headsets in history. It has raised $91million (�55.5 million) in investment funding and done this without actually having a product on the market: you can�t buy it in shops until next year.

The excitement surrounding the Oculus was palpable at the Eurogamer Expo, the games show where I tried out its second-generation prototype. This is understandable: to many enthusiasts, the prospect of stepping wholesale into a virtual fantasy world fulfils one of the oldest promises of the medium.

An example of the view using an Oculus Rift

But there�s more to this technology than gaming. Among the demonstrations Chen showed me was a London tourism experience, built from 360-degree camera views of locations in the capital by the media agency Visualise. The viewer begins perched on top of the London Eye wheel, staring out over the capital, and can beam into various 3D-modelled locations across town � London Zoo, the Gherkin, Piccadilly Circus � by a shift of visual focus.

Another demonstration by Arch Virtual, a business that creates 3D software for a wide range of clients, offered a virtual tour of an architect�s concept house. Using a controller, I was able to �walk� wherever I liked in the building. The sense of inhabiting real space in these demonstrations was astonishing.

Jon Brouchoud, the Wisconsin-based architect who runs Arch Virtual, says that using the Rift developer kit transformed the way he designs. �Any time you�re looking at an architectural illustration projected onto a screen it�s distorted,� he tells me. �There�s a natural distortion based on the way 3D maps onto a 2D surface. Put the same environment in the Oculus Rift and it�s completely different. Being able to stand inside a space, go back to the drawing board and then stand inside it again completely changes the way you design a building. If this isn�t the game-changer for architecture, I don�t know what is.�

Arch Virtual, Brouchoud says, has also taken on several secret projects for medical clients. VR technology has already been used to aid neurological recovery from trauma, as well as to treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, post-stroke rehabilitation and phantom limb syndrome.

Andrew Poulter, an expert in computer science and simulation at the MoD�s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, envisages still other applications for the technology hinted at by the Rift. In the past two years the US army has spent $57million (�35million) on an immersive training simulator called the Dismounted Soldier Training System, which tracks not just head movement but limb positioning and weapon movements.

In Britain, Poulter explains, head-mounted VR technology is still �only being used experimentally, within a research context�, although his lab has been looking closely at developer versions of the Rift.

A visitor to a trade show tries out the Oculus Rift

A good deal of British military training, Poulter explains, is still done with on-screen computer programs. But the Oculus Rift, he says, �represents a new class of hardware with real potential. And it is games technology that now sets the trend for the defence industry, not the other way around. The defence budgets of even the largest countries are relatively small compared to the massive budgets that the entertainment industry has.�

It�s easy to forget that none of this technology is really available yet. Oculus is shipping only to developers with the technical know-how to plumb the depths of the software, while many of its prospective rivals remain shrouded in mystery. A few weeks ago, Sony filed a patent related to a head-mounted display, seeming to lend credence to rumours that it plans to launch a VR headset in 2014 for the PlayStation 4.

But the competition is certainly gathering. A device called the CastAR, which overlays 3D images onto a real-world view, recently completed a successful run on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and has entered production. On the morning that I sat down to write this piece, news broke that another Oculus rival, the gloriously sci-fi sounding Avegant Glyph, will take to Kickstarter in January: it promises to project 3D images onto the human retina and fold up into a pair of headphones when you�re done with it.

The team at Oculus, meanwhile, promises a further revolution in display technology when it exhibits a new prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and says it will have goggles in the hands of consumers by the end of the year. Looking forward into this immersive future, one is tempted to agree with the 90-year-old lady whose experience with the Oculus Rift has attracted more than two million viewers on YouTube.

�This is something else,� she exclaims raptly, clutching the visor to her face with both hands. �Am I still sitting where I was? Holy mackerel!�

CONNECTING STAFF SEAMLESSLY AT SOUTH FLORIDA’S PREMIER RESORT

Now then ladies and gentlemen, i have another excellent earpiece piece of writing to read, i know, you don’t have to thank me each and every one, just click a social like to the article to demonstrate your appreciation.

Lauded for its stunning oceanside location, impeccable service and sophisticated Mediterranean villa-style architecture, Acqualina® Resort & Spa on the Beach is one of the premier luxury destinations on Florida’s Riviera coast. Guests expect a flawless five-star experience at Miami Beach’s only AAA rated Five Diamond resort and Acqualina sparkles, year after year.

Service at this jewel on the Atlantic is legendary and a legion of staff attends to guests with immediacy and discretion. As industry accolades grew, Acqualina looked inward to see how it could enhance its award-winning service and improve productivity throughout the resort.

The Challenge

IMPROVE THE WAY STAFF COMMUNICATE AND COLLABORATE

Interacting across four and a half acres, from intercoastal suites to residential mansions, the staff at Acqualina Resort & Spa on the Beach depend on clear, reliable, digital communications to support their activities and help them respond seamlessly to guests.

“Two-way radio communication at our resort is critical,” explains Juan Velez, Acqualina’s IT Director. “We need all our employees to be informed what happens, all through the resort. Our resort is divided into four main departments – engineering, security, housekeeping and the front desk. They all use two-way radios for internal as well as interdepartmental communication.”

In the past, Acqualina’s different departments used the same radio with the same features to communicate and collaborate. This one-size-fits-all approach wasn’t ideal for the individualized and nuanced nature of their tasks. Maintenance’s duties, for example, were distinctly different from management’s. While an engineer would want the audio on his radio to automatically adjust as he walked from a quiet corridor to a noisy boiler room or read work order tickets without scrolling through screen after screen, resort managers sought a more stylish device to complement their professional attire. And security personnel and the front desk required a portable so discreet, it was virtually invisible to guests.

No matter the device, the department or the staff member using it, Acqualina wanted to make sure all their different radios worked seamlessly together.

MOTOTRBO DELIVERS THE

RIGHT DEVICE FOR THE RIGHT USER

MOTOTRBO’s expanded portfolio offers the ideal solution for Acqualina’s different people and diverse needs. Rather than relying on a single device for multiple departments, MOTOTRBO provides the breadth and depth of two-way digital radios with industry-exclusive features. Only MOTOTRBO puts the right device into the hands of the right user.

Acqualina’s management is excited by the way MOTOTRBO radios work seamlessly together – from the feature-rich XPR™ 7550 to the ultra-thin SL 7550. “When I first saw the MOTOTRBO SL Series, I thought it was a cell phone,” says Velez. “It fits absolutely well with all our uniforms. It looks professional when it’s in sight, and it can be discreetly concealed.”

Security Officer Max Jenue-Gens believes the innovative features on the new MOTOTRBO portables, such as Intelligent Audio which automatically adjusts the volume based on background noise, increase his department’s efficiency.

“One of my favorite features is Intelligent Audio because we don’t have to keep on readjusting the volume on the radio,” Jenue-Gens says. “It helps us not deviate from the matter at hand by reaching to try to adjust the volume.”

ENHANCED DATA IMPROVES

THE HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

Acqualina’s Director of IT appreciates how MOTOTRBO’s enhanced data applications make workflow more efficient and personnel more productive. “The new color screen is a big improvement because we use this radio to receive HotSOS¹ tickets. We used to have a monochromatic screen with only one line. Now we

can read the entire message at one glance. This is helping us to improve our operations and become more efficient,” as Velez points out the large screen with five lines of text.

Maintenance Engineer Alberto Ruiz agrees. “It’s a lot easier to look at the LCD screen and look at the call and go to the room as soon as possible without interrupting anybody. Because of the LCD screen, you’re able to see a lot of calls a lot clearly. You’re able to get on

to the HotSOS ticket really quickly and close out the call and leave a memo on there as well. So it’s really convenient.”

INNOVATIVE FEATURES KEEP STAFF FOCUSED

MOTOTRBO’s industry-exclusive features are a first for a two-way radio, and Juan Velez underscores their importance in helping different departments perform

their duties and remain unobtrusive to guests. “We find the vibrate alert very useful. All our employees can use it while they’re in the public areas, or the directors and managers can use it while they’re in meetings or areas they don’t want to be alerted with a regular beep from a regular radio. The SL Series handles that really well.”

The photosensor on MOTOTRBO, which automatically adjusts the screen brightnes to ambient light, is a boon for staff who work in and out of the bright Florida sunshine. “It’s incredibly helpful when my team is moving between low light areas and high light areas,” says Velez. “The radio adjusts itself to display the buttons on all the layouts. And with night mode, you can actually switch the colors on your display so it shows a crisper image.”

CLEAR INFORMATION AND LESS CHATTER

As Juan Velez sees it, enhanced data applications are driving greater efficiency throughout the resort. Communication is clearly transmitted and voice traffic is significantly reduced. “With the new data communications, we’re using less voice, meaning our channels are more free of voice and chatter. All our employees are more focused on the job and they are able to perform a lot better and faster.”

Not only are more jobs completed each day without back-and-forth conversations, but MOTOTRBO eliminates confusion. “The work order tickets provide precise instructions on what needs to be done. There is no room for misunderstanding.”

FASTER RESPONSE

AND GREATER PRODUCTIVITY

“We use HotSOS to send messages to all our employees. Normally, the message takes one to two minutes to reach us,” describes Velez, versus the immediacy with which MOTOTRBO delivers the same application. “It’s a lot faster than we normally get even using cell phones. We get the messages faster and with this new screen, it’s a lot easier to read all the communications.”

What’s more, he points out, “We have noticed an increase in productivity because the messages reach our users faster and they are able to reach the guest request a lot faster than before.”

“With the data communications, we’re reducing the voice chatter and able to send one message without having to talk for two minutes. This has improved our communications tremendously. Especially when you have 120 orders each day.”

Juan Velez

Director of IT, Acqualina Resort & Spa

FLAWLESS FIVE-STAR SERVICE

From the front desk to the back office, MOTOTRBO is fortifying Acqualina’s ability to deliver an exceptional experience to every guest. “It’s about providing great customer service and making sure our guests feel safe,” says Max Jenue-Gens, Security Officer. “The bottom line for this radio and how it helps me do my job in a great way is clear communication. And for security that’s very important. We’re able to distinctively hear what is being transmitted loudly and clearly.”

“It means a lot that we have a radio that can provide that service because at the end of the day, I want

to be satisfied knowing I’ve given our guests and residents a five star Five Diamond service. And the new MOTOTRBO radio helps us accomplish that.”