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Podcast Ep 60 - 11-19-08 - Yahoo CEO Edition

Jeffrey Powers — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:24:18 +0000

Another New Video Camera - CES with TechPodcasts - Thoughts to Geek News Central

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I - S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Mass Animation
Mark Cuban in Trouble
Closer to Quantum
Google Hosts LIFE
No Blackberry for Prez
…way down in CoCoMo
Drop of Blood
USB 3.0
TrackPad Fixes
TiVo a Pizza

II
Yugo CEO
Will Microsoft Bite?
Divx Sues
XM Sirius Prep

TCT Podcast - WildCharge
Email

III
Google Tracks Flash
Flash Phone
Will iPhone Bite?

Edward Jones

IV
Is OLPC Dead?
Why Hulu is Better

Listeners’ Notes:
Mac to Linux
5 Gadgets Cell Phones Killed
NASA Moon Images

YouTubin
New Trek Trailer

Twitter - Pownce - Plurk - Myspace - Facebook Group - FriendFeed - Digg the Podcast

Podcast Ep 58 11-05-08 - Dirty Web Space.

Jeffrey Powers — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:42:54 +0000

HTML clipboardElection 08 - 2/3rds Podcasts Down - Quickcast Segments - Web Design - Holiday Gift

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I - S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Apple hires IBM Guy
iPod CEO Steps
i7 on Nov.17th
Firefox hits 20%
iPhone Bug
Sony Battery Recall
OASIS forms ODF
OpenBSD 4.4 Released
WDTV
New MP3 Logo
THQ Staff Cuts

II
Comcast & P4P?
Bye Circuit City
Bye Yugo Live

TCT Podcast - Snowball Launcher and Heated Gloves
TechTweak - BlackBerry Call Forwarding

III
My Take on Windows 7
AT&T Caps
MakeUseOf Hacked

Edward Jones

IV
Apple Lineup
French Ban
How Secure is Your Phone

Apple - get an iMac

Listeners’ Notes:
Your Own Spacesuit
Electric Pacer

YouTubin
Tech of Blue Man Group

Twitter - Pownce - Plurk - Myspace - Facebook Group - FriendFeed - Digg the Podcast

Love or Hate the iPhone - Where Do You Stand?

Jeffrey Powers — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:56:42 +0000

It’s been a year and a few months since the first iPhone was sold. Since the release of the 3G model, I’ve been seeing people with iPhones I would have never expected have one. The iPhone has brought up a new way to use the internet, the phone and a computer.

Apple is under a lot of scrutiny: AT&T being the sole carrier, the Apps store program take downs and the 3G services being poor. Yet the iPhone still is the 2nd best selling phone behind the Motorola RAZR. Apple itself is set to continue through these tough times.

There has been a lot of good and bad said about the iPhone. I have seen a lot of Forum posts, even more twitters and more. I decided to go ahead and ask a small group of people over at Help A Reporter what their thoughts were. I asked to send me 1-2 paragraphs as to why you like, don’t like or are neutral about the iPhone. Here are the responses:

I love my iPhone (even though the first one went “bad” on me within the first month)! I am a book author and speaker. I use my iPhone to do “cold calls” and the 60 second presentation. My phone is set to my home page and I have book marked my YOUTUBE page. When I run into a “prospect” I can quickly show them my “media presentation” which often results in a greater interest in my project and sometimes a new client. Without the iPhone I am not sure how I would be able to make the most of chance encounters and networking with influential people.

Candi Sparks: Can I Have Some Money? author & speaker

http://www.can-i-have-some-money.com

I have not been this disappointed in something I wanted for a long time, since I ordered something from the back of a comic booker>

1) NO voice dial?? What the hell?? My Razor could do that with no program The download Voice dial thingy has to LOAD up before you can use it. You could dial 5 people by then.

2) It told me it was too hot to dial. What? MY iPhone is a 50- year old menopausal woman! My razor could sit in the sun, burn to your hand and still dial a number.

3) NO car charger, you have to pay EXTRA for it

4) Battery last 5 minutes. You can not use the features without draining the battery, completely!! This phone can do all this and you cant get a battery to last half a day???? REALLY?????

Dr. Letitia Wright - host of the Wright Place TV Show

www.wrightplacetv.com

Overall verdict: I love my iPhone. The pros are that it now has Microsoft Exchange, so that whenever I make a change to anything on my iPhone, when I get back to my laptop or desktop, the changes have already been “pushed” to Microsoft Outlook there (e-mails, calendar, contacts, etc.). Also, the iPhone has Wi-Fi, which my BlackBerry did not. So that’s a great way to quickly download things from the internet without killing your battery.

The cons, although not enough for me to switch back to anything else, are the keyboard not having raised letters like the BlackBerry. (I love BlackBerry too, but it doesn’t have MS Exchange/Outlook, and that’s a deal-killer for me) Another con, although not enough to switch back to something else, is AT&T’s sometimes spotty network coverage on their cellular network. I had US Cellular before, and their coverage was great. Last con: The battery life on the iPhone isn’t great if you’re going to be in a non - WiFi environment, downloading tons of things over the AT&T (cellular) 3G network. Otherwise, it’s pretty good. But heavy users may need to keep an iPhone charger with them.

Scott Tucker - www.MortgageMarketingGenius.com

I use my IPhone for business every day, and many of the IPhone features I absolutely love. I have come to love the touch pad and would not like to go back to a keypad actually. I love the visual voicemail. The app store and the aftermarket applications are great. The exchange integration works fabulously, so I have my calendar and email with me whenever and it synchronizes over the air.

However, the Phone itself, the actual cell phone is horrible, absolutely awful. I drop calls daily, the service will be spotty and drop calls even if it says you have plenty of bars and this is usually in my office so I know that it is not on the other end. The battery life is not for business, I have less that 20% of battery by the end of the day and I have most of the advanced features that are known for draining your battery such as WIFI off completely. I wish it were on a different carrier than AT&T, and that it had a longer battery life. Right now I try to charge it in my car between meetings to get a little more out of it. But I have been out on the town before and my Phone has gone completely dead.

I have only used the Android emulator, some guys at the office have been programming applications for it recently, and from what I can tell it is certainly not an IPhone killer. However, I bet the Phone and battery life are far superior.

Ryan Doom www.webascender.com

I love my iPhone because:

-It’s one easy place for work and personal e-mail.

-The calendar synching up with my Outlook one is great–it updates

instantly!

-The Apps are really quite fun (to find a movie, a place for dinner, or to

share photos with friends).

-After 10 months I don’t even think about the interface (touch screen) any

more. it’s just a part of how I do things.

I hate my iPhone because:

-If you get lost without a GPS the Google Maps Ap is really horrible (I have an older iPhone w/out GPS). If you are in a moving car and trying to get somewhere–good luck. It tells you to go West on a particular road. when you have no idea if you are already going West or East (if you can’t see the sun)

-Can’t send text photos so I have to rely on putting them in Flickr via the Klick ap. It works fine, but I’m not 100% happy about that.

Leah Graves

I’m a supreme fan of the iPhone. bought the first one while on vacation in Monte Carlo. literally on the beach on wireless internet the moment it was available to order. I got confirmation. finished my vacation. and flew home. Not being the patient type, I stopped by the local mall (family waiting in the car - that’s right, on the way home from the airport after our return from Europe). and bought one (didn’t want to wait for shipping!). That was June of last year. My partner and I both used it for over a year. and we both agree that it’s the most amazing phone we’ve ever owned. It was true convergence. Phone, data, real internet on the go, HTML email, iPod, video, and great apps.

Fast Forward a year - I was one of the silly guys who waited in line for NINE hours. without complaining. while AT&T and APPLE dealt with their system issues. It was all okay, though, because at the end of the day (literally). I got my two iPhones. The new one is even more amazing than the first. The new third party apps (though a few have bugs) are fantastic. I JUST loaded one that tracks my running using GPS. and I can listen to my play list at the same time. The GPS navigation has saved me many times. the restaurant finder is fantastic (I’m a road weary warrior). Even the HP12c calculator app - now one less thing I have to put in my briefcase.

The keyboard’s great. It’s intuitive. and after 10 minutes using it, you begin to understand and trust the intuitive nature. For texting, I’ve not found a better device. PLUS. I don’t get “BlackBerry Thumb” like I did with my BB devices.

Yes, sir. I love my iPhone. I used to travel with a GPS, an iPod, a Cell Phone, a BlackBerry, a DVD player, and more. Now. it’s all in my iPhone.

In fact. now we are a FOUR iPhone family. I’d say we’re all fans.

The ONLY downsides that I can find. two things. One - battery life. Still not good, but I can live with it. And, I’d like to see Apple consolidate email so that I (who uses more than one email address) could check ALL my emails with one box like I can on my MacBook Pro.

Patrick Grady

I LOVE MY iPHONE! I got an 8GB iPhone earlier this year after watching a demo from a guy in a movie theater (funny story!), and I fell in love with it immediately. As a traveling entrepreneur, I needed a compact way to organize my contacts, tasks, calendar, emails, alarms and more, and this is it!

I use it on more than a daily basis. It never leaves my side. It’s my morning alarm, my reminder to work out, my Calendar-keeper, my access to emails when away from the laptop. It even synchs with my business line so I never miss a work phone call. The touch screen did take a a little time to get used to, especially for texting, but the way the “suggest-a-word” function makes it much easier and faster to type.

Love it, love it, love it! r>

Carla Douglin - Founder & CEO The Douglin Group

http://www.thedouglingroup.com

I love my iphone except for a few glaring issues:

1) no video

2) no photos from phone to phone (having to go to a web site to review photos is just insane- esp. since it doesn’t auto link with the ID and password)

3) no cut and paste which makes it harder to work

4) the new search contacts button is right next to the add contact- fat fingers beware.

5) it’s with ATT who charge more for less, and have more dropped calls than Sprint in this area- no matter what they say.

I have had a number of smart phones and PDA - nothing comes close to the usefulness and integration of the iphone. The form factor works well (I have the 3G- which does accept standard mini-plugs- another issue with the first gen phone).

IF Apple would address at least 4 of the 5 issues above- they’d have the ultimate phone.

David Esrati - The Next Wave

My iPhone is the first tech gadget I came to use regularly. I use it as many as 20 times a day.

My iPhone truly makes me more mobile. When traveling, I no longer need to haul my laptop with me through security, and I can still stay connected via email, IM, twitter and the Internet. More than that - the cliche about having “the world at your fingertips” is true. At the very least, it’s in the app store. I recently went on a trip to New York City and found the subway maps, city maps, Google maps and search engine invaluable. I was able to navigate like a native without carrying around a big paper map!

On a daily basis I call, text, check email, look up directions, blog, twitter, take pictures, post pictures to Flickr, listen to music and check the weather on my phone.

The keyboard was an adjustment, and there are still times when I wish the software knew that “we’re” is not a misspelling of the “were” - but over all I was surprised how quickly I became accustomed to the flat screen.

My only complaint about the iPhone vs. other phones is that it doesn’t contain a video camera. It seems like there is ample space to allow it with everything else the iPhone can offer!

Britt Reints - Style Editor & Contributor at Blissfully Domestic - http://www.blissfullydomestic.com

A colleague forwarded your request for a comment about iPhone users for a story you are writing. You can count me among those who loves her iPhone.

As soon as I saw the first ads in 2007 I knew I would get an iPhone - it looked just right for me. I full expected that I’d wait until the second version was released so I might avoid bugs that are inevitable with new technology. However, I ended up getting one as a birthday gift in August - at the full, original price. While I received the $100 rebate a few months later, I think the device was well worth the original price.

Personally, I use the phone part of it very rarely - that’s my least favorite app. I do, however, use the browser, email, texting and iTunes apps daily. The iPhone replaced a traditional cell phone that I never used because the buttons were way too small and difficult to maneuver - I never attempted to try texting or web browsing on it. (Disclaimer: I’m over 40 years old.) I definitely prefer the iPhone keyboard because it works like a regular one, allowing you to immediately see what you’re typing on a large, clear, well-organized screen. (The spellcheck feature is helpful 80% of the time, but sometimes leads to confusing text messages.) The recent software upgrade was HUGE, too, because it opens access to so many new things, like Facebook, etc.

My husband ended up getting an iPhone several months after I received mine, and he uses the maps and iPod nearly daily as well. As we say, “You can never be bored when you have an iPhone - there’s just too many options to explore.”

Anyway, you wanted a few paragraphs, but I could go on and on about it. (Because the user experience was so good with the iPhone, I ended up purchasing a MacBook when I needed a new laptop. I’m very happy to be Windows/Vista-less these days.)

Catherine A. Beckman - Shrewsbury, Massachusetts

I am so disgusted with my iPhone that I have purchased the URL: www.iphone3gstinks.com That’s not 2 paragraphs, but I think it says it all.

The iPhone is elegant, but just doesn’t work. Fetch e-mail fails. I’ve tried re-dialing a client 80 times before the call goes through. MobileMe is a joke. My calendar colors STILL don’t correspond/sync correctly. And trying to get help from the support team is a complete waste of time. I have the transcripts, and they’re so ridiculous they’re humorous.

-Dan

A couple months ago, I got the 3G iPhone. I traded up from a Razor. So, I went from not so much phone capabilities to a whole new world. I love that anywhere, anytime I have access to email, internet, GPS, camera, games, etc. It took me a week or so to get used to the keyboard but it works great for my needs. I use the keyboard to send texts to my teenagers and emails to clients and friends.

Alison Ilg - Ilg Communications

Love or hate the iPhone? In a word, yes.

Love. As an Apple nut since the mac emerged in ‘84, I had high expectations for this phone. I have to say it exceeded my expectations - something that almost never happens these days. The keyboard is no problem, but haptic feedback would be a plus. In our household, my wife and I having an iPhone actually alleviated the need for a second laptop (on top of the iMac). It’s easy just to use to check mail etc. It really un tethers you and gives you freedom to be connected anywhere. And the variety of apps available - incredible.

Hate. The phone and apps crash way too much for my liking. Apps can’t run in the background. With my old phone I had MSN messenger running in the background so people could message me on the go. Now, I have to make sure my AOL or Meebo is running in the foreground. Close the window and I’m no longer online. Grrr. Syncing for me is an issue. With MobileMe it is easy, but I was using programs other than iCal and Address book before this that could not sync. Battery life is a big minus, far too short. And please, please, please, put my to do list from iCal onto the phone. I’d trade it all for a decent to-do list synced to my computer! Plus the price. A 3 year contract in Canada @ roughly $100 a month. Wow.

Dave

I’ve had good experiences with it for the most part.

It’s a toy as much as anything else. One of its biggest selling points is the App store, and the applications are what keep it distinctive and give it an edge over other smart phones on the market.

I loved my iPhone when I bought it, and as a business owner, I’ve had much less time to spend on the gaming aspect as time went on, but I still find it very dependable in downloading emails and the ability to use as a pocket computer for when I need to do a quick search, need a map or directions, need to track down virtually anything, etc.

I don’t rely as heavily on it as a phone, but I’ve had no problems with this function to date. The phone and email functions worked seamlessly on a recent trip to Turkey. I have grown quickly accustomed to the type pad, and have adjusted to the the touchscreen. I have a sense it may be helping me from thumb ailments as I’m using different fingers (more of a point and click).

The main and only downside I can see is the extremely short battery life. I hope that’s something that is corrected in future versions of the phone and applications.

N. Sedef Onder | The Halo Project Inc. www.thehaloproject.com

My name is Elliott and I am an Apple addict. I’m a second time iPhone owner and have been using the phone for about a year. Originally it wasn’t available in Canada so I bought my first one on the black market for $700. I was turned on to Apple about 4 years ago by a friend who worked in an ad agency where everyone was using Macs. First it was a physical infatuation then I discovered how user friendly everything was.

For the first time I felt like someone really understood what was so frustrating about basic computing and made it so incredibly intuitive and simple. I experience this feeling all the time and it makes me want to spend more time with my Apple stuff and buy more-you really feel wonderful using it. This is the essence of my attraction. A great example is the simplicity of drag and drop throughout Apple computers.

I trashed my PC with it’s viruses, primitive feel and endless error messages. Now I own the iMac, MacBook Air and now my second phone. Of course the phone is no different-I adore the way it interfaces with my desk top, the generous screen size. I love watching people struggling with the Blackberry keypad with pin head sized keys-mine are generously large. I love the touchscreen-everything is right there.

I saw an ad for a phone yesterday with a keypad that extends out of the phone like a drawer-it opens and closes on an as needed basis. I love that the iPhone has no moving parts-everything you want/need lives in the phone. The apps are unreal. I’m a chef so I have 500 food images that I keep in the phone.

I love that I can meet someone and give them a quick slide show of what I do and the landscape mode is amazing not to mention the size manipulation of the image by moving your fingers on the screen. My only complaint is that sometimes the screen is simply too responsive. For example, by mistake my finger touches the screen and something opens that I didn’t intend to open.

I love that I have 1000 songs in the phone, that I can answer a call while listening to music then automatically resume listening when the call is over. Of course I could go on and on.

I love the phone and using anything else doesn’t interest me. I feel like I own THE cell phone.

There are a lot more comments on the next page…..

Podcast Ep 56 10-22-08 - Employee Restructures

Jeffrey Powers — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:26:34 +0000

New ustream PC - Website Changes - Podcast Awards - Jeri Ellsworth - Garlin Gilchrist II - Tech-Mas

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I - S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Android Gone Wild
Google Gone Democratic
1Gbps WiFi
Ebay and Ivory
iDive

II
Gov. Breaches Cost Millions
Yugo Restructure
SanDisk Restructure
Tesla Restructure
-Electro Mini Cooper
Wikia Restructure
Internet & Cells Help Families

TCT Podcast - BioLine Biodegradable Fishing Line
TechTweak - Video: Remove and Apply Heatsink

III
Dream in B&W
Android Kill Switch
Psystar Cheaper?

Edward Jones

IV
&#%& Microsoft Patent
CompUSA errr Circuit City
Electric Shoes

Apple - get an iMac

Listeners’ Notes:
Build a Lamborghini
RC Hand
DOH!

YouTubin
BlackBerry Storm

Twitter - Pownce - Plurk - Myspace - Facebook Group - FriendFeed - Digg the Podcast

Email Addiction Worse: Company Data on Personal Devices

Jeffrey Powers — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:27:29 +0000

I think my email usage has plateaued for the last year. Twitter, Plurk and other Social Network sites have picked up the slack. I don’t use email as a “Instant Messanger” for the most part. I still use email of course and yes: I will check my email on my phone - my personal cell phone that is.

Email can easily be ported outside the office to a Hotmail or Gmail account and you don’t have to be in the office to do it. There has always been an issue of how to keep company data in the company. After all, you’re paid to collect data for them. Taking a clients email or phone number can be considered just as bad if not worse than taking company equipment. IT can monitor and control data so they can take it away on a moments notice. But how many companies are really doing that and by not implementing, could that be costing companies precious dollars?

I have been in situations where people get to use their own equipment to save the company money. It gets to be a real headache because you have to sometimes draw a hard line on where to support the customer. However I have also seen it where those same computers have full client lists in excel files and email archives directly on the hard drive. All information I wouldn’t be able to retract if this person was asked to leave the company or if their computer fails.

Intermedia ran a survey that looked at enterprise mobile email practices. According to the more than 300 Intermedia users surveyed, 92% of end-users access business email on their mobile device. 30% are using company-provided devices and 47% responded that their companies do not manage security for employee devices.

Now let’s do the math here. Let’s say your company does One Million dollars in sales. They have 200 clients controlled by 10 sales people (20 people per sales person). The average client is bringing the company $50,000 a year.

Now reality states that one client would be at $100,000 while another might only bring in $20,000. Still, if they are bringing in anything, it would be a tough customer to lose because an employee is hoarding their information. I have seen it happen: Not only as a corporate theft situation, but also a “mis organization” situation.

Email is not only just taken, sometimes it is just simply lost - and it might not be anyones fault. Microsoft Outlook has this feature to Archive old email. It’s great to keep your main inbox down in size but it can also be a hindrance for those IT professionals who ignore that option. Auto Archive ends up putting older email into a file on the computer. The file is then deleted or the hard drive crashes and your older email is gone.

Sometimes, email is intentionally ported to another service. I also remember times where I was asked to set up a Blackberry account to send and receive company email. While it was highly trusted employees who had these devices, the data was still being moved off the company server.

It’s not about the employees loyalty to the company, but the fact that once someone sends the email, correspondence doesn’t go through company communication system. It goes through the Blackberry email servers and tagged only with their email addresses.

A lot of companies have placed policies to make employees aware of company theft in an electronic realm. However, Intermedia also reported that 33% stated they were unsure of their companies’ mobile email security policies - and they may have even read - And signed - that policy.

One employer I worked for had no policies in place. When asked why, I was told there was a struggle between HR and IT over the policies. To my knowledge, there still isn’t a policy at that company and the end result: employees can walk out the door with company information and no legal leg to stand on. Millions of dollars can end up either lost or even worse, taken over to a competitor.

So how can you keep your company assets safe? Well, if someone needs to access their email outside, give them company equipment. If it’s just email, then offer a web based solution. If they try to collect email, they will have most likely forward to a personal email address. This becomes recorded information on your web servers.

Create or Update your employee policies for annual renewal. Remember, a simple loophole could be a set of policies that an employee signed long ago and they are not aware of the changes, especially when technology changes. Signing annually lets you make changes and employees have no excuse when they sign them.

Disallow any personal device to access data that can be re-saved. Once again, forwarding an email to another account takes the original message off your servers. Any post correspondence may not be followable. If you must allow this, the employee should sign an additional waiver to allow IT access to their account at any time up to 6 months after the employee has left the company.

Set computer policies on email to make sure email doesn’t get Archived. If it does, then the archive is in a common place for IT to be able to retrieve. It is also properly labeled so there is no overlapping or confusion. There are legal implications where businesses can get fined for not producing an email in a legal situation.

Now you might be saying “Why should I do this? I’m such a small shop”. Well, reality is small shops can get hurt the worst. Whether you are a company that makes a thousand dollars a year or ten million - you don’t want to end up with a loss the next year. You definitely don’t want to end up with a loss due to a misplaced clients list or email.

The biggest way to control email usage and theft is simply education. Make the employees understand how to send a ‘good’ email that does not consist of a 2 to 3 word message. Email organization can also make people manage their email time drasticly. Ultimately they might not need to check their email outside the office.

Of course, every company works different. Sometimes you have to trust people to not doing something that could ultimately harm the company. However, being totally oblivious to the practices could - in the end - hurt you to the point where you have to sell out or even close shop.

Mommy, Can I Have an iPhone 2.0? No.

Jeffrey Powers — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:17:22 +0000

Today I was perusing the news and so far everything I have seen and heard is over the iPhone 2.0. Within the next few hours we are going to be sitting at the edge of our seats listening to Steve Jobs give a keynote at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA. What will he talk about? Will it be the iPhone? Will we all be wowed or disappointed?

The truth is…. I don’t care. Yes, this is a great phone with a lot of innovation and ingenuity. Yes, it can do a plethora of things that my current phone might or might not do. But what is the big turn-on with this device? It’s not a magic genie that will grant you 3 wishes.

There are 5 million iPhones out there right now. That is not even 1% of the cell phone population. At $400 a pop, I suppose that’s a good reason why it’s not there.

The iPhone 2.0 is not only expected to have new features like 3G, but also - according to MacRumors - will be accompanied by a $200 rebate, making the new version of the iPhone only $199. It will be a more affordable price and possible to saturate the market.

To put the iPhone into 10% of the populations’ hands would be a major coup. That would mean over 50 million iPhones in the wild. For Apple to do this, however, they would have to abandon the AT&T contract and open the phone up to most - if not all - cell carriers. Why? Well, if Apple wants to convince Corporate America to buy in, they will have to give them the choice of who they can get it from.

One of the new projects Steve Jobs already announced in a previous town hall meeting is to add functionality so the iPhone can be incorporated and used by Corporate. This is a big step for Apple seeing as they shut down their “Corporate Division” a long time ago. Even Business Week points out Apple doesn’t have any Corporate sales people.

Still, not all corporations have contracts with AT&T. Switching to a $200 phone with 3G might change a few contracts, but not enough to hit that 10% mark. Opening up the market to other carriers will.

According to Yahoo Shopping, the iPhone is the most popular phone. However, the #2 phone - the Nokia N85 - has sold twice as many phones. I couldn’t find a statistic on it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Blackberry Pearl is also ahead in phone sales than Apple. Why is that?

There are other fish that can be fried at the WWDC anyway. OS X 10.6 is one thing. The itablet is another. Apple might introduce a new “AppleTV”. Heck, even the iToilet might get some exposure.

The most interesting thing that I see is Jobs and WWDC getting free publicityof the event. Heck, I bet there are even a good amount of IT professionals that don’t know what WWDC stands for.

For the last couple months people have been yammering on about the new phone. Waiting in anticipation over the keynote, and eventual announcement. There are some that have even jumped the gun and posted “Hearsay” and false photos and information.

After all, according to Google Trends, what is the top Internet search right now? Well, it’s Leon Powe. But WWDC is 11th and 13th, and iPhone is 21, 33, 53 and probably a bunch of other spots. Still, many news sites and Blogs including this one are giving Steve Jobs the media push. Can’t say as much for the N85. Don’t even see that in the top 100 searches.

I still don’t care if it’s announced. If they do, that is nice. If they don’t I think I’ll laugh at those who made a big deal out of it and move on. In fact, now that I think about it, it might be in Apples interest NOT to talk about iPhone 2.0? Why? Could you imagine the press they would get if Jobs doesn’t mention one word on the iPhone?

I guess we’ll find out in a few hours.

Episode 33 - 5-14-08

Jeffrey Powers — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:57:05 +0000

Now Micrahoo FREE! Site redesign - New Camera - Live Show and Talk Shoe - Job Hunt - Email Calendar scam.

On this day: George Lucas (44), Skylab One (73), dBase III (84)

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I
HP + EDS - CNet
Smelly Broadband - Yahoo
Blackberry Bold - PCWorld
AT&T the fastest? - Gizmodo
iPhone: 3G on/off - MacRumors
Punish YouTube Criminals - Techdirt

II
Space Lawyer - Gizmodo
Google Friend Connect - NYTimes
ReactOS - PCMag
YouTube software Mac - Webware
An Earful - Canada
Pokerbot - codingthewheel
Bottender - Wired

III
Android Payday - Techcrunch
Digg Town Hall - CNet
Interesting Rant on DRM - tidbits
HBO on iTunes - NYTimes
Apple talks to NBC - PCWorld
Peel & Stick Solar? - triplepundit

IV
31 Days / Dragon - Winners
10 Common Passwords - USAToday
Dell Gaming Revival - WSJ
One for SmokingGun - 1010wins

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Coffin Table
Do Not Call List
MeeMix
Most Expensive Gadget

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LIVE SHOW - 5-12-08

Jeffrey Powers — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:16:12 +0000

OK, so Hour 1 Tanked as I tried to get TalkShoe to work. Hour 2 is the meat and potatoes, so we’re talking about that. We discuss Digg, Smartphones, Blackberries and building a computer.

A look back to 1998 - Geek from 10 years ago.

Jeffrey Powers — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:18:51 +0000

Ten years ago. What were we doing? Where were we going? I know I was working in a Call center on a popular accounting package that is now owned by Microsoft. I was living on the East Side of Madison, WI and I had just switched over from my 56k modem to a broadband connection (768 kbps, I believe) on my Pentium 75mHz machine. I also got my first Cell Phone. Let’s take a look back on where we were 10 years ago and see how that has changed….

First, let’s ponder at 1998 in a whole to get a sense of reminisce - My favorite football team (Packers) got beat by the Broncos. Bill Clinton was in office and falling under all sorts of scandals. El Nino creates a humungous winter storm. California bans smoking in Bars and Restaurants. Larry Flynt was in legal battles with Jarry Falwell. Viagra was given the OK by the FDA. Phil Hartman commits suicide, Charlton Heston becomes president of the NRA, Geri Hallwell left the Spice Girls and George Michael was arrested for lude conduct.

Michael Jordan played his last game as a Bull. The Detroit Redwings take the Stanley Cup. The Yankees defeated the Padres in the World Series. Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was passed. Pro Wrestler Jesse Ventura becomes Governor of Minnesota. Exxon buys Mobil, creating Exxon-Mobil. America takes action on Iraq. Finally, we experienced a “Leap Second” on Dec 31^st.

OK, wayback machine lubed up? Let’s talk about Geek in 1998.

Apple iMac - Apple computer announced the iMac: a G3 processor in a Egg shaped case with a CRT monitor. The iMac introduced the USB port. iMac brought along “Case clones” with emachines.

We saw the first XML documents - I remember going to class and learning XML tagging. It was in its infancy, and I remember hearing many people say how XML was not going to be adopted. Silly bunnies.

Google - Google is Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They fast become the biggest search engine and long time rival of Yahoo.

The Digital Revolution - Sky Digital launched in the UK. 2 Satellites sending signal to the Sky Digibox.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Also known as DRM, it states that Digital versions fall under the same copyright standards as their counterparts.

US vs. Microsoft: Antitrust - 20 States file and antitrust case against Bill Gates and Microsoft. The process ended on Nov. 5^th, 1999 and it found that Microsoft was indeed committed monopolization.

Windows 98 - The next OS after the successful Windows 95, it came out to a lot of upset consumers. Later, Windows98, Second Edition, stabilized the OS and people were somewhat happy again.

Hate Crime - The first Cyberspace Hate Crime is tried. A college dropout was convicted of the crime.

Dreamcast - Sega launches what would be it’s last console in the Dreamcast in Japan. The system didn’t do so well even though some thought it was better than the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. It did start a underground Dreamcast following after it was discontinued.

Other Game Systems - Neo Geo Pocket and Game Boy Color.

Acquisitions & Mergers - American Online purchases Netscape Communications for $4.2 Billion. Compaq buys DEC. MCI and Worldcom join forces to be MCI WorldCom.

Space - The Galileo probe sent back data indicating Jupiters’ moon Europa has a liquid ocean covered by ice. The Clemintine probe found enough water to support a human colony. John Glenn went back into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery. He was 77.

Electronic Ticketing - American Airlines offers Electronic Ticketing for the first time. They implemented it in all 44 countries that they flew to.

No Pagers for a day - The Galaxy IV communications satellite breaks down. This brought down almost 90% of the worlds pagers without service. At that time, only

Cell Phones and such - Nokia 5120, Motorola MicroTAC 650, Ericsson GF 788e, Blackberry 850, AT&T introduced a flat-rate plan for local and long distance. The Patent for a Hands Free set was issued. Ericsson creates the first Snap on Wireless Data/Fax Modem. Opera started developing a Mobile device platform.

Video Games - Apocalypse, Area 51, Army Men, A Bug’s Life, ChessMaster, Clue, Forsaken, GuitarFreaks (early versions of Guitar Hero?), Half-Life, Heretic II, Marvel vs. Capcom, Morpheus, Off Road Challenge, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Resident Evil 2, Riven and Wario Land II - Just to name a few.

Next Week we’ll dive into Tech from 5 years ago.

*Every Monday, the 5 minute show at 5min.geekazine.com outlines “This Week in Tech History”. Check out the podcast.

Someone is always Challenging Someone – Apple iPhone vs. Blackberry

Jeffrey Powers — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:45:39 +0000

Today in the Gym I was watching a report that Apple iPhone was challenging Blackberry for market share in the corporate world. I agreed with the report – Apple has a better user interface than the Blackberry, Blackberry is too expensive in their messaging systems and an iPhone looks a lot better than a Blackberry device.

But then I got to thinking about it. Is this really news? I mean, yeah – we’ve got one company trying for a niche that another company has. However what company hasn’t tried to emulate or compete with another company’s corner-hold before?

Apple has been the underdog for many years. iTunes and iPods are really what broke Apples’ shell and put them on the forefront of something. Even though iPhone is not there just yet, Apple really shows how cutting edge technology should look.

At one time or another, a company is an underdog. How many people remember when Microsoft came to power? What was the leading company before Cisco took the reins? Google wasn’t the first #1 search engine: Google didn’t even start until 1998 whereas the web started in 1991. And no, it wasn’t Yahoo, either. WebCrawler, Lycos, Excite and Dogpile were a few of the favorites back then.

If we look at the phone market, names like LG didn’t show up until later. In the earlier days, you most likely had a Nokia phone, or a Motorola phone. Before Dell came on to the scene, you had IBM Compaq or Packard Bell computers. In 1996 Dell overtook Compaq in the Personal Computer market. And where is Compaq nowadays?

To be the “New kid on the block” is not a uncommon occurrence. To take over a market from another is once again, not a new occurrence. Keeping that status – well, that might be tougher to do.

So let’s go back to the iPhone/Blackberry issue. What can Apple do to really rival this product?

First of all, Apple needs to better integrate into Microsoft – for you are most likely going to connect to Microsoft servers. Blackberry’s biggest issue was that you had to purchase a Blackberry server – which up until a couple months ago was a real expensive acquisition. IT Admins have enough to worry about. Another server to handle email should not be one of them.

Apple’s biggest issue is simply “3^rd Generation” – Otherwise known as “3G”. Even Steve Wozniak says an Apple iPhone missed the mark when they didn’t put this into the phone.

In a nutshell, 3G is to phones as Digital Cable is to TV. If you don’t have cable, then you have a set that could possibly get 100 channels, but only have 5-6. 2G would be like having Extended Basic Cable and 3G is the full blown Digital – 500 channels.

Steve Jobs answered why there was no 3G in Sept 2007 - It was a Power Hog. The iPhone has a 8 hour talk-time phone. 3G would suck that down to 2.5 to 3 hour range. Instead Apple took stock in making the phone with a powerful WiFi system.

AT&T says that a 3G iPhone is planned for sometime this year. That is, if 3G can curb its power appetite. However, Apple should really just bite the bullet if it doesn’t and make an iPhone with either a larger battery, or with a “3G switch”. Turn it on and off at will so if you need the ability, you have it.

The biggest thing would be to have the iPhone customizable. IT Admins like it when they can control the system. It’s not because they get pleasure in it – it’s because if they know what is on a system, then they can better troubleshoot if there is a problem – especially in mobile phones, for the problems don’t occur in the office, they occur out in the field.

For instance – lets say you have a corporate computer at home and decide to install Webshots on it. Once installed, your computer starts acting slow. When you call your in house tech support, are you going to tell them you installed Webshots? Most likely not. Sometime because you just don’t think about it, other times because you don’t want to hear a lecture on how Webshots is not “Corporate software”.

Customizable interfaces mean tailoring to a company can really boost production. Some companies run their own specialized apps that shouldn’t get out to the public. These apps make corporations millions – if not billions of dollars.

When I worked at the Department of Revenue, we talked about making home assessments something an appraiser can do on a laptop. At that time the appraiser would write down the info, snap analog pictures and then come back to the office to input all the data. Imagine if they had an application that would work on an iPhone. The assessment would be done in the time they can walk through the building – including pictures. No need to go back to any office.

In today’s’ corporate world, we are always seeing one company go after another. It’s all about standing on top of the hill an pronouncing yourself king. However, some people miss the top because they are too concerned with mundane details that could propel them. After all, the premise of “King of the Hill” is to expect that someone is trying to knock you off. And someone will do that eventually.

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