Language:
SEARCH
  • Recent Posts

  • Categories

  • Archives

Communication

Apps to feed the soccer addiction

Friday, June 27th, 2014

If you still don’t know there’s a World Cup soccer tournament running in Brazil, I suspect you’re hibernating somewhere on the outskirts of Mongolia.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is the 20th FIFA World Cup tournament and (obviously!) an international tournament for men’s soccer. This year the tournament kicked off on 12 June with a group phase and it will come to an end on 13 July when the final will be played.

It’s the second time Brazil hosts this spectacular event – the first was way back in 1950. It’s also the first time since 1978, when it was held in Argentina, that it’s held in South America.

The national teams of 31 countries qualified for this year’s World Cup. Unfortunately South Africa isn’t one of them, so you’ll have to pick another team. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 cities across Brazil.

If you’ve been bitten by the soccer bug, you’ll know how important it is to keep up to date of all the latest news and match information. With the help of www.techradar.com we selected ten handy (and free!) apps to ensure you don’t suffer from soccer FOMO.

1 Official FIFA application

Price: Free
Available at:  App Store | Google Play

FIFA’s official application not only covers the World Cup, but all soccer events worldwide. This app gives you access to match schedules, but also cool extra information like team profiles. You can even choose your favourite team and keep tabs on their progress.

2 ESPN FC Soccer & World Cup

Price: Free
Available at: App Store | Google Play

Another app addressing all soccer events – ideal for avid soccer supporters. In addition to the standard information, it also supplies videos and analysis of matches.

3 World Soccer Finals

Price: Free
Available at:  App Store | Google Play

A perfect solution for the obsessive soccer enthusiast with loads of information, including yellow and red card and player information. It can also send notifications directly to your phone.

 4 World Cup 2014 Brazil

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

This Android app will be your choice if you’re a closet statistician. It also has information on referees, historical comparisons and news on future World Cups.

5 2014 Table

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

The name says exactly what this app does. It displays results in an easy table format and is perfect for accessing information quickly.

6 LiveSoccer World Football Cup

Price: Free
Available at: Google Play

Watch live matches with customisable alerts of results as they happen. The app has an extensive interface, but still remains user friendly.

7 Sofascore

Price: Free
Available at: Windows Phone App Store

Ideal for a Windows phone with live updates.

8 Squawka

Price: Free
Available at: App Store

Another app for the soccer fan who likes to get his facts straight.  Squawka gives you all the statistics to back up an argument when you need to.

9 TeamStream

Price: Free
Available at: App Store

TeamStream is a news and information service by The Bleacher Report which collects any relevant soccer news from across the world.

10 BBC Sport

Price: Free
Available at: App Store | Google Play

The BBC Sport app gives live text commentary on all the matches and access to Radio 5 bulletins.

If you have a lot of data at your disposal, you might want to consider the Live Soccer TV App.

So, now you have no excuse to miss out on this huge event. The only problem is finding a team to back …

 

[SOURCES: www.techradar.com & www.wikipedia.com]

Skype Translate released end of 2014

Friday, June 6th, 2014

We recently told you about Skype’s new free group video calls and now they’ve upped their game and added yet another new function. 

Last week Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Skype will soon be able to translate voice and video calls in near-real-time.  This means you can speak Afrikaans to your Russian colleague in Moscow and you will be able to understand each other without using a common language such as English. Since Skype has over 300-million users each month, Skype Translate will have a huge international reach.

Skype Translate uses ”transfer learning” – it get better at the languages it already knows each time it learns a new one. Microsoft isn’t clear on how this works, but we can safely say that its a very useful algorithm.

The software is currently still in it’s testing phase, but Microsoft officially announced a beta-test version will be available for Windows 8 by the end of this year. If you want to see how Skype Translate works, have a look at the demo video.

Screen shot of the Skype Translate demo at Code Conference.

[SOURCE: www.memeburn.com]

Toeter vs Twitter

Friday, June 6th, 2014

Regular KykNet viewers are by now well aware of the first, and so far only, Afrikaans social network with the quirky name,  toeter.

toeter’s claims to be “Haas Das se nuuskas”, Antie Stienie’s stoep, Nommer Asseblief’s switch board and the tannie next door gossiping over the gardencrete wall. It’s the note passed on under the desk in class and, the cat being let out of the bag and the fast spreading rumour no-one van put an end to.

There’s no lack of creative marketing, that’s for sure. According to founder,  Frans Roelofse, toeter can potentially draw one million users and has a marketing value of R450 million. Which might also explain why Afrikaans TV channel KykNet decided to support the platform and become toeter’s media partner.

toeter is a social network exclusively for everyone speaking Afrikaans – all ages, races, religions or political orientations. Just know, if you don’t adhere to their rules and misuse the platform, you will be hearing from them.

In principle toeter works exactly the same as Twitter, only in Afrikaans. It has the same functionality with a time line and also uses the @ to address other users. The well-known hash tag (#) also makes its appearance here. Users might initially have some trouble getting used to the more creative, Afrikaans terms in comparison to Twitter.

At first glance toeter presents itself as an effective social platform with all the necessary functionality. Unfortunately due to it’s exclusivity as an Afrikaans social network it’s also somewhat limiting and you won’t get as much mileage from it as with the well-established Twitter.

But try it at www.toeter.com and let us know what you think. It’s also already available for the iPhone-, Blackberry- and Android platforms.

Skype group video calls now free

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

If you have friends and family overseas, you’ll know that Skype is a pretty convenient tool to communicate with them for free or at a relatively low cost. You’re also one of already 663 million registered Skype users.

Skype celebrates it’s eleventh birthday this year and was developed as a voice-over IP and instant messaging service by Janus Friis  from Denmark and Niklas Zennström from Sweden. Friis and Zennström came up with Skype by combining the two words – sky and peer.

Microsoft became the owners of Skype in 2011 at the significant cost of $8.5 billion. However,  the head offices aren’t located in America as one would expect, but in Luxembourg and the largest part of Skype’s development team and 44 % of it’s staff os located in Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia.

Skype enables you to communicate with anyone through earphones, via video with a webcam or by typing instant messsages. Calls to other Skype users are free, while land line and cellphone calls are debited from your account.

Other than these usual functions, it can also be used for file transfers and group video calling. Until recently group video calling has only been available at a cost  to premium users, but luckily this has changed and the service is now free to all Skype users.

Skype video calling gives you the opportunity to make group calls to a maximum of 9 people at the same time with a webcam. If you want to use this new, free function, you can read more about it on the Skype website.

 

E-mail etiquette: do’s and don’ts

Friday, May 9th, 2014

If there’s one area the queen of etiquette Emsie Schoeman hasn’t commented on, it’s e-mail. But don’t think that gives you any reason to escape certain guidelines just because the electronic world seems to operate on a more informal level. Even with e-mail you can land into trouble if you don’t behave properly.

You’re probably wondering why e-mail etiquette even exists, in particular within the company milieu. There are three (very important) reasons, namely professionalism, efficiency and also protection against liability.

We consulted the internet and here are a few hints for meticulous e-mail users.

1. Be concise and to the point
Long e-mails are unnecessary and difficult to read. Avoid long sentences. Sentences should contain no more than 15 to 20 words.

2. Answer all questions and anticipate further questions
This will prevent a series of follow-up e-mails to get all the information and you won’t waste your and someone else’s time.

3. Spelling and language
Bad spelling and language create a bad impression and e-mail without capital letters or punctuation marks take effort to read.

4. Layout
Reading text on a screen is harder than written text and this makes layout in e-mails even more important. Use short paragraphs and adequate space between paragraphs.

5. Use a significant subject in the Subject line
Put the appropriate subject in the Subject line in order for the receiver to immediately know what the e-mail is about. It saves time, explaining and creates context.

6. Reply promptly
Immediately replying to an e-mail is generally expected. Don’t leave correspondence unanswered in your inbox for days when you could have answered it in a minute. Standard reply time for an e-mail is 24 hours, preferably the same working day. If you don’t have an immediate answer, just confirm you received the e-mail and will reply as soon as possible.

7. No large attachments
Don’t send unnecessary large attachments with your e-mails. Some mail servers can’t handle large e-mails.

8. Capital letters
Don’t use only capital letters. This implies that you are shouting at the recipient and can be interpreted as rude.

9. Re-read before you send
Don’t send an e-mail in haste. Other than potential spelling mistakes, it’s important to make sure if you message is clear and understandable. Remember that the recipient can easily misinterpret something when you’re not speaking face-to-face.

10. Don’t answer spam
Even if a spam e-mail claims you should reply to stop from receiving them, don’t reply. By replying to a spam e-mail, you are confirming your e-mail is active and more spam will be generated. Rather just delete the mail.

11. Don’t request delivery and read receipts
You will only irritate the receiver even before he’s read your message. Rather ask the person directly if necessary.

12. Don’t request messages to be recalled
The message has probably already been read and by recalling it, you’ll appear unprofessional. Send an e-mail explaining afterwards instead of recalling it.

13. Don’t forward chain mails or virus hoaxes
Microsoft will not send you money if you send it to 20 people – and neither will any other company. Most chain mails warning against viruses are also hoaxes. Ignore and delete them.

14. Avoid the high priority option
If you use this option to often, it will lose its efficiency. Your correspondence may also come across as pushy and aggressive. The same goes for terms like “URGENT” and “IMPORTANT”.

15. Be careful with emoticons and abbreviations
Try not to use abbreviations such as LOL and BTW. Emoticons like the smiley :) are also not appropriate in business e-mails.

SOURCE: http://www.emailreplies.com en http://www.businessemailetiquette.com

 

 

© 2013-2025 Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author(s) and content contributor(s). The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Stellenbosch University.