Ten Plus Systems Blog

TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT (TEI) OF THE MAC : Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By An Employee Choice Program

September 15, 2022 | Tips

TEI  Findings

Forrester developed a composite organization based on data gathered from customer interviews to reflect the total economic impact that Mac could have on an organization. All of the values in the report are risk-adjusted and represent three-year present value.

Mac costs $741 less than comparable PCs.

Reduced IT Support and Operational Costs

• Less time is needed to provision Mac by using Apple Business Manager.

• Fewer service tickets are opened by Mac users due to self-service capabilities and performance.

• Tickets opened for Mac are easier to resolve, resulting in fewer hardware-related issues.

Reduced and Avoided Hardware and Software Costs

• There is no need to purchase an OS license or software update maintenance for Mac.

• Built-in security features eliminate the need for some additional endpoint security licenses.

• Mac requires less energy to operate.

Reduced Risk of Data Breach

• Organizations reported a reduced risk of security incidents.

• Reduced likelihood of data breach per enterprise-deployed Mac is 50%.

Improved Employee Performance and Engagement

• Improvement in retention rate is 20%.

• Increase in sales performance is 5%.

• Increased productivity per employee is 48 hours.

See the entire report here.

Apple Tablets vs. Android Tablets: Which Is Best?

September 13, 2022 | Technology

Looking for a new tablet in today’s market can be overwhelming. With so many brands to choose from, picking the right tablet for you might take a long time, or you might miss out on something good if you rush into a purchase.

As experts in tablet repairs, we’re here to help you pick the right type of tablet for your needs. Should you go with an Apple tablet or an Android tablet? Let’s dive into what features you should be looking at to get the best value for your money.

Price

Price used to be a base of comparison between iPadOS and Android tablets. But now, there are tablets from known brands running Android that are in the same price range as Apple tablets. Brands like Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, and Amazon are keeping up with the power and quality of Apple tablets.

If price is a major deciding factor between choosing the winner of the Apple tablets vs. Android tablets, Android tablets fare better. That’s because Apple’s cheapest iPad starts at $329. On the other hand, the cheapest Android tablet from Amazon’s Amazon Fire line starts at $59.99.

Size options

When it comes to tablet and display size, the smallest you can get from these three brands is a 7” display. If you prefer smaller-sized tablets, Amazon Fire 7 is a good option. However, this Android tablet isn’t as powerful as iPads and newer Android tablets from Samsung and Lenovo.

The smallest Apple tablet you can get is the iPad mini, which sports an 8.3” display. For bigger tablets, you can get anything from 9” to a little below 13” tablets from Lenovo, Samsung, Amazon, and Apple.

Durability

As for tablet durability, you can opt for tablets with outer materials made of aluminum, such as Apple’s iPad models. If you have no issues with thick tablets, you can also opt for a tablet that’s thicker than normal tablets without sacrificing the processing power and operating system support.

Since newer tablets are thinner than old ones, it’ll be difficult to find a newly-released tablet with thicker builds.

Additionally, since most tablets use the same materials, durability boils down to how you use your tablet. If you’re careful and use your tablet with a protective case or a tempered glass on its display, they can last longer than when you use them without any form of protection.

Screen resolution

Regarding display resolution, you can rely on Apple’s tablets because of their proprietary Retina display. Most Android tablets use AMOLED displays, which are also of high resolution.

When it comes to display quality, the rule of thumb is the resolution should be enough to support a tablet's display size without sacrificing image quality and the smoothness of movements.

4 Common Apple Watch Issues and How to Fix Them

August 02, 2022 | How To

As an Apple Watch user, you rely on your watch for your daily activities. If one of your Apple daily drivers encounters a problem, it can disrupt your routine. That’s why knowing the quickest and most effective fix to specific issues is important. As your trusted Apple Watch repair provider, we’ve compiled a list of the most common Apple watch issues and how you can address them:

Wake Screen on Wrist Raise doesn’t work

An Apple Watch is a watch for a reason. If you use it as your normal watch, you like to see the time as soon as you put your raise up to check. However, there are times or issues that are hindering your watch from showing you the time. It can be something in the Apple Watch’s settings you forgot to change or a more serious issue with your hardware.

Fix: Check your Settings

1. On your Apple Watch, go to “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Look for “Wake Screen” and make sure the “Wake Screen on Wrist Raise” is on.

Note: You can also do this on the iPhone paired to your Apple Watch through the “Watch” app.

Fix 2: Turn off Theater Mode

1. On your Apple Watch, pull up “Control Center.”
2. Scroll down and ensure Theater Mode is disabled.
3. Simply tap on the icon with two masks to turn the feature on and off.

To know what your Apple Watch’s Control Center icons do, read this guide from Apple.

No iPhone Connection Error

Even if your Apple Watch is totally fine, it may at times encounter a “No iPhone Connection” error. However, we can assure you that this is very common and the cause can be as simple as you forgetting to turn your iPhone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on.

But if it's a persistent issue that you experience with a single Apple Watch and multiple iPhones, you’re looking at a more serious problem that needs professional care.

Before you reach out to your local Apple Watch repair provider, make sure you try to troubleshoot on your own to save time and money. Here are some ways to do so:

Fix 1: Check if Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on

1. On your iPhone, pull up “Control Center.”
2. Tap the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons. When they turn blue, that means they’re turned on.

Fix 2: Put your Apple Watch in pairing mode

1. When you first get your Apple Watch, its start-up should immediately be on pairing mode.
2. If not, it’s probably still paired with another iPhone.
3. Use this guide to reset and unpair an Apple Watch.

Fix 3: Turn Airplane Mode off

1. On your iPhone, pull up “Control Center” and turn Airplane Mode on and off.
2. On your Apple Watch, pull up “Control Center” and turn Airplane Mode on and off.

Fix 4: Restart your Apple Watch and iPhone

Apple Watch

1. To restart your Apple Watch, press and hold the side button.
2. Slide to power off.

iPhone

1. On your iPhone, press and hold the power and any of the volume buttons.
2. Slide to power off.

Digital Crown not responding

Aside from the “action” button, your Apple Watch’s Digital Crown is one of its only parts that you can press and rotate. That makes the Digital Crown prone to damage due to accidents or wear. If your Digital Crown stops responding, you might think it’s time you get an Apple Watch repair or a new Apple Watch. However, we highly recommend you try these fixes before seeking professional help or getting a new unit:

Fix 1: Restart your Apple Watch

1. To restart your Apple Watch, press and hold the side button.
2. Slide to power off.

Fix 2: Unpair and pair your Apple Watch

1. See this guide from Apple.

Fix 3: Clean your Apple Watch

1. Use this Apple Watch cleaning guide from Apple.

4. Poor battery life

Of all Apple’s battery-powered products, the Apple Watch is probably the one that lasts the longest. With the correct settings, your Apple Watch can last a day or more. But with the new Always On Display feature in the Series 7s, holes in Apple Watch’s battery life began to show.

However, if you don’t have Always On Display turned on or have a model that doesn’t have it but still think your Apple Watch should be lasting longer, you can tweak a few settings to save some juice. If tweaks change little to nothing, it’s time to get an Apple Watch repair.

Before you contact your repair provider, try these possible fixes:

Fix 1: Reset your Apple Watch

1. On your Apple Watch, go to “Settings.”
2. Select “General.”
3. Tap “Reset.”

Fix 2: Turn on Power Reserve

1. On your Apple Watch, go to “Settings.”
2. Scroll and select “Battery.”
3. Scroll to the bottom and slide to put your Apple Watch in Power Reserve mode.

Note: Read this support page from Apple Watch to know more about Power Reserve mode and what it can do for your Apple Watch.

Google Pixel 6a vs. Apple iPhone SE: Which low-cost phone is best?

July 07, 2022 | Technology, Tips

Apple released the iPhone SE on March 18 this year in the market. And Google announced the release of the Pixel 6a phone this same year, having pre-orders on July 21 and hitting on July 28. The Pixel 6a appears to be a solid Android equivalent to the entry-level iPhone SE. Prices for both are quite similar, but which of Google and Apple's budget phones is better? Here, we compile the specs to find out.

Apple iPhone SE vs. Google Pixel 6a: Display

Google Pixel 6a’s screen measures 6.1 inches with an OLED touch screen that displays 2400 by 1080 pixels and a 20:9 ratio; that’s 429 PPI density. The phone is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, an Always-on display. Apple's iPhone SE’s Retina HD LCD sports a fairly 4.7 inches with 1334 by 750 pixels of display resolution and a ratio of 16:9, for 326 pixels per inch. This device is protected with Ion-strengthened glass that is coated with oleophobic, wide color gamut, and true-tone. This makes the Pixel 6a have a bigger and notably sharper display. But both claim to have high contrast levels and wide colors.

Apple iPhone SE vs. Google Pixel 6a: Battery

iPhone SE says it has a Li-Ion 2018 mAh that is not removable. That would be 6.96 Watt-hours. This could charge as fast as 20W, 50% in just 30 minutes. This is also 7.5W with Qi wireless charging. This can offer up to 15 hours of video playback.

On the other hand, the Pixel 6a has a battery Li-Po 4410 mAh (also not removable). Its charging rate is at least 18W used with USB Power Delivery 3.0 which is lower than iPhone SE. So in terms of battery life, the Apple iPhone SE has longer hours.

Apple iPhone SE vs. Google Pixel 6a: Processor

Apple iPhone SE has an Apple A15 Bionic Hexa-core with 2 by 3.22 GHz Avalanche and 4 by 1.82 GHz Blizzard; an Apple GPU of 4-core graphics. This operates with iOS 15.4 which is upgradable to iOS 15.5. It has no slot for a memory card, yet it’s available with NVMe internal memories of 64GB and 4GB RAM, 128GB and 4GB RAM, and 256GB and 4GB RAM.

Meanwhile, Google Pixel 6a operates with Android 12 that runs with Google Tensor chipset of Octa-core (2 by 2.80 GHz Cortex-X1 and 2 by 2.25 GHz Cortex-A76 and 4 by 1.80 GHz Cortex-A55) and Mali-G78 MP20 GPU. This also has no card slot but has UFS 3.1 128GB and 6GB RAM. In this case, the iPhone SE has more edge than the Pixel 6a.

Apple iPhone SE vs. Google Pixel 6a: Price

The latest Pixel model has a lot of great features that have a low cost starting at $449. That price makes it great for comparison to Apple's iPhone SE, which starts at $ 429. Though we can’t really give a clear verdict since the Pixel 6a hasn’t reached the market yet, we have its stated specs to give us means of comparing the Google Pixel 6a to the Apple iPhone SE. It seems the Pixel 6a costs more than the iPhone SE, right? And the iPhone still has more upper hand over low-cost phones. But still, both seem to have reasonable and fair prices with all of their capabilities.

Other than the above comparisons, here’s more.

iPhone SE also has main camera features of Dual-LED flash, Pixel Shift, Auto-HDR, panorama having dual 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm, (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, and 12 MP, f/2.2, 17mm, 114˚ (ultrawide), 1.25µm with video qualities of  4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; gyro-EIS, OIS. It has a selfie camera feature of HDR that has a single 7MP, with f/2.2 video quality. Then Pixel 6a also has main camera features of Quad-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, and Panorama having single 12MP, f/1.8 wide, PDAF, and OIS with video qualities of  4K@24/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, HDR, OIS, stereo sound rec. It has a selfie camera that features Auto-HDR, a panorama that has a single 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1.12µm, with 1080p@30fps video quality. 

In terms of communication, the latest model of Apple features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, hotspot; a 5.0, A2DP, LE for Bluetooth. It also has A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, and QZSS; a 2.0 USB Lightning type. The Pixel 6a on the other hand, features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot; also a 5.2 A2DP, LE for Bluetooth. Same as iPhone SE it has GPS features and NFC.

The body of the Google Pixel 6a has a dimension of 152.2 by 71.8 by 8.9 mm which weighs 178g, while iPhone SE has 138.4 by 67.3 by 7.3 mm and weighs 144 g. Pixel 6a has an available SIM slot for Nano-SIM and/or eSIM. Both have IP67 dust/water resistance, but iPhone SE also has Apple Pay that can also be used with Visa, MasterCard, and AMEX Certified.

Graduated and Need to Buy a New Laptop? Here’s What to Look For.

June 16, 2022 | Technology, Tips

Are you considering buying a new laptop but wondering what’s best for you? Many people search for the best devices with high-end features but miss what to look for, which is what they need and what’s best for them. Here we’ll discuss what to look for.

Processor

This is also referred to as a chip or CPU (Central Processing Unit). Intel and AMD are the two companies that make processors for laptops.

Core i3 is weaker but cheaper. Yet this chip is still ample for everyday computing tasks. This is available as dual-core and at multiple speeds ranging from 1.30 GHz up to 3.50 GHz, with features of either 3MB or 4MB of cache. 

One may ample if you run web browsers, Office applications, media software, and low-end games. But it can’t handle content creation, heavy editing, or video work. It may also slow down with tougher games.

AMD Ryzen 5 and Intel i5 are indistinguishable when browsing the web or editing documents. Core i5 CPUs are capable of handling a broader range of situations. 

This is usually available as dual-core or quad-core. Its multiple speed ranges from 1.90 GHz up to 3.80 GHz, with 3 MB, 4 MB, and 6 MB cache. Ryzen 7 and Intel Core i7 can also be similar. Intel i7 features either four cores or six cores with frequencies of 2.60 GHz up to 3.70 GHz. This processor is primarily marketed to gaming enthusiasts, gaming artists, filmmakers, and makers.

The Core i9 processor is the most powerful among the four units. These CPUs feature six to eighteen cores with two threads per core when hyper-threading is enabled. It has 2.9 to 3.6 GHz, and up to 5 GHz frequencies if using Intel Turbo Boost. 

In terms of graphic performance, AMD tends to have an edge. So if you’re a video editor or a gamer, this is likely to be your upper hand. 

Memory

Choosing the right memory might boost your device’s performance. It’s been a norm to have 8GB as the bare minimum as it fits our budget and it can already meet our productivity fairly. But for experienced users, it’s not a great choice.

Your machine may get sluggish because some programs demand more memory capacity even modern web browsers lightens the load. So most users who want to multitask without the slowdown are recommended to choose 16GB of main system memory or 36 GB for those heavy multitaskers like video editors. 

The more RAM you have, the faster your laptop performance is. Check if the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, you can upgrade the RAM yourself if it is not soldered. You would also want to check if it has DDR (Double Data Rate). DDR 4 RAM is speedy and common in most laptops. But the manufacturer will give you a list, so it’s better to check before buying.

Storage

This is your laptop’s filing cabinet. The most common storage choice these days is a solid-state drive (SSD), but some budget laptops still use spinning drives. SSD is can be budget-friendly and faster especially if they use an NVMe connection. 

The recommended minimum space amount is 256 gigabytes. If you use Cloud, you can choose less. But it’s better to have a ready space for more. It will eat up space quickly if you install a lot of software or games. You may notice that the hard drive doesn’t have the same space as what was advertised. The space didn’t reduce, it just has something to do with the difference between the binary that Windows use and decimal bytes that drive makers use. 

Battery Life

Many focus on the number of hours that the manufacturers quoted. A laptop’s battery life is often different from what is said on the box. It can differ due to the screen brightness, type, or amount of software you run. These affect how long the battery lasts. 

The battery life of your device also differs from the type of processor that you use. You should look for the rating of the battery in milliamps-hours (mAh) or Watt-hours (Wh). If the number is bigger, the battery will last longer.

Design

You should consider your laptop design according to which field you are in or where you use your laptop for. If you travel and take your laptop with you a lot of times, you might like the slim ones. There are also notebook laptops, which are slimmer, lighter, and simplified sets of tools. Ultraportable and Ultrabook are quite similar to notebooks. 

Ultrabook’s strong point is strong security and anti-theft protection. In convertible (2-in-1), you can quickly switch to touchscreen mode or the traditional keyboard model. Convertibles also transform in various ways like detaching, sliding, twisting, and fold-back mechanisms. The most high-end convertible has a high-resolution screen with a wider color gamut, optimized for multimedia that is great for watching videos.

After you narrowed down your choices, check the reviews and look for something beyond the specifications you prefer. I hope you find this article helpful.