Companies can also set access levels and permissions to control the data employees can access and the tasks they can perform remotely.

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Whether that be WalMart, the tractor or a production line: they all add to the collective wealth as they free up labour to perform other tasks.

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The point about games is that they make players want to perform difficult tasks and pay for the privilege, says Brian Burke of Gartner, a consultancy.

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At the same time, contemporary children have very little experience with the kinds of tasks that they'll have to perform as grown-ups.

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They perform all these tasks with the owner's consent, of course.

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"They literally charge by the minute, and when the meter is running they can perform a wide range of tasks, " Mr. Neary says.

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They brought in a second set of study participants and asked them to perform the same four mental tasks.

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Passengers still can't perform multiple tasks simultaneously on their devices or stream video as smoothly as they can on the ground, but they can expect steady improvement in this area as the airlines and Internet service providers work together to improve ground-to-air service.

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They perform cleaning tasks an average of 18 times a week for a total of five hours, the company says.

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