Friday, February 26, 2016

Save time, money, and headaches...IES now offers smart home & smart office systems.

The fast pace and ever growing possibilities of today's and tomorrow's technology are exciting. New products are available almost daily to fill our homes full of hi-tech solutions that make our lives more automated, convenient, and energy efficient.

IES technicians are here to help you choose the right devices from our vast range of home & business automation products that fit your lifestyle. We literally put the remote control of your home or business in the palm of your hands!

You can dim lights while watching a movie or having dinner, or schedule lights to turn on and off while you are on vacation. Stay green and save energy by checking to see if any lights were left on, or turn off anything that is plugged in. Consider using a programmable thermostat to increase energy management and reduce your utility bill by regulating thermostat use and temperatures based on your family's schedule.

Thinking about the office? Stay green and save energy by checking to see if any lights were left on. Want to schedule lights to turn on and off certain days of the week or just turn off anything that is plugged in? You can do that with our systems! Consider using a programmable thermostat to increase energy management and reduce your utility bill by regulating thermostat use and temperatures based on your operation hours.

An automation system also includes the safety of your family or workplace. IES offers a complete line of traditional sensors and security devices as well as camera and surveillance systems to protect your home or business. We even have the latest door locks & access controllers, communicating smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and wireless sensors to ensure that everyone is protected from dangers inside and out.

Don't forget about the fun stuff... We have wireless speakers for your smartphone or tablet, outdoor products for your yard or patio, accessories for your car and garage, a selection of smart products for kids, and everything your need for pet care and pest control.

When it comes to smart home or business automation, almost anything is possible - and IES has you covered for it all! Contact IES today for a quick quote - email us by clicking here or call 781-816-9437.

For more information on smart office systems, you can click here to visit the smart office section of our website.

For more information on smart home systems, you can click here to visit the smart home section of our website.

Friday, February 19, 2016

This is why real webmasters don't like using WordPress...

Let's start with the obvious in saying that, the phrase professional WordPress designer is an oxymoron. Of course, we have nothing against those who use WordPress to create websites... a personal site, a blog or portfolio, or a self designed website for their small business. We actually applaud that. The problem, however, rests not with them.

The people we're talking about are those who usually spend the bulk of their time conceiving get rich quick ploys and scams. Eventually, many of these degenerates decide to jump on the SEO train, under the false assumption that there's nothing to it. And because they can talk a good game and know how to use a CMS designed for grade school aged children, many business owners end up falling for it.

Again, I need to stress that this is in no way a shot at WordPress. It's risen to such massive popularity because of its ease of use, and functionality, and diverse layout options. It's a cool little setup, library of thousands of plugins for personal sites, organizations, small to medium companies and more. We're simply saying that if the person you've hired is talking about building you a from scratch website, and ends up doing it in a template based program, you should be concerned about every word this person has told you.

Why True Webmasters Avoid WordPress

If SEO and search engine visibility didn't matter, I can bet at least 95% of web designer in America would be using WordPress or some similar template based CMS for small business. You see, in the time it would take a truly experienced and successful webmaster to open a WordPress file, adjust all the settings, find functions, doing any outside the box customization that a prebuild plugin didn't already do, etc., they could have designed a completely original foundation for your new site. The reason webmasters design sites from scratch is because of the control, comfort and boundless flexibility it offers, not to mention you can follow several Google Guidelines that WordPress does not follow.

And regardless of how good the template site builder is; each one in their own way has limitations capable of hindering the technological creativity of highly skilled website developers. It simply does not make any sense that they would go out of their way, to spend more time working in an unfamiliar template environment, using tools and functions designed for novice and intermediates. After all, what is the point of having a pretty website that nobody can find?

The Only Real Custom Websites Are Built From Scratch

We could get into the schematics of how major search engines supposedly devalue page rank among poorly optimized template websites, or how having a plugin does not make your SEO program complete (or even effective), or even how easy it is to visually spot a website that has been whipped together simply for cosmetic purposes. The point to be made is this: The only way to ensure that your website is 100% customized for your business, is to have it built from a blank page, by an established and proven webmaster.

Did you get burned on the big promises of someone posing as a webmaster? Don't worry, all hope is not lost. Give us a call today and let us know what happened. We'll take a look at your site and let you know what issues need the most urgent attention, to ensure the visibility and rank you thought you were paying for initially.

IES is one of the leading website developers in Plymouth, MA, and has been creating completely customized websites throughout MA and the US since 2009.

Contact IES today to schedule your company's complementary website review. Mention this blog and get 10% off any project!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Do not set the date on your iPhone to January 1, 1970, unless you want a phone you can't use anymore.

There's an ad-like meme going around, designed to look like it's from Apple, telling people that if they set the date on their iPhone to 1/1/1970 and then power off/power back on the iPhone, then it will present with an Easter Egg...a theme that mimics the classic Macintosh look.

People who are claiming to be in the know say that this is a prank, like charging your phone by putting it in the microwave or waterproofing it. This prank will "brick" your iPhone. (Make it unusable).

As cool as this might look, it’s a hoax, and a particularly nasty one at that. Resetting your phone’s date that far back will so thoroughly confuse your phone or tablet’s operating system that you’ll either need to take it to the Apple store for a replacement, or just buy a whole new phone or tablet.

The date bug affects iPhones, iPads and iPod touches with 64-bit processors running iOS 8 or iOS 9. Apple says it’s looking into the bug. Users can protect themselves with a series of tweaks, such as manually setting their time and date, not enabling automatic time changes, and not turning off their iPhone or iPads.

Here's a screenshot of the meme: