Emerging Technologies

This morning I will be giving a presentation to the MARK INC board and some key volunteers and staff on emerging technologies and he digital lifestyle. I have high hopes for this presentation, because I think that many people are just not aware of what is going on in the tech world and on the internet (though they may have their suspicions). This will be a good opportunity to give them some information about where content delivery is going and what the technology will look like. I'll report back later.

Facebook

So I just caved and set up a facebook page. I have to say that it is an exceptionally better system than My Space. If your interested, friend me!

Small is Beautiful

If I believed in the concept of luck then I would have to say that I am having an incredible stretch of it. So over this past couple of weeks it seems that everything I own is systematically breaking. My treadmill broke (I fixed it and then it broke again), my computer died, my gas stove needed a replacement valve, and now my iPod is on its last legs.

I tell this story to share my pain, but also to say that I have taken this opportunity (the dead computer) to make the switch. That’s right, I have purchased a Mac, a mini to be exact. It’s smaller than a cigar box and uses my same monitor, keyboard and mouse. It’s really cool too. I have had it a couple of days and I just can’t believe how fast, sleek and simple it has been to use. When I went to the Apple store to purchase it I also picked up a book for those switching from a PC to a Mac. It has been quite helpful.

There are a few drawbacks to the switch, like having to listen to all my corporate and geeky friends say that it was a mistake. Now I am not a Mac fan boy, but I’m not a Windows one either. I just love technology that works well WITH MY LIFE. I’m not building a corporate network in my condo and I’m not a big PC gamer. I mean come on people the only game console I have is an Atari Flashback that my sister gave me for Christmas. I think I have used it once. The Mac works great, looks great and is fast. If I discover otherwise, I will definitely post something, but for now I’m happy.

My Cell Phone Saga

So I realized that I haven’t posted in several days and that is not cool. I want to be more disciplined about this, so I have decided to share some more details about my cell phone saga. Let me go back to the beginning of the story. Last Christmas my mom and dad gave me some gift cards from Cingular so that I could apply them to the purchase of a Blackberry. I spend time doing research on what I had a need for and all the Smart Phones that could do what I wanted. At the end of this journey I decided I really had no need for a Blackberry, especially when you had another $50 added to your monthly service charge for its data package. Then I became enamored with the Sony Erickson w600i (see picture below).

It had a cool interface, and nifty camera, could play music and had a function that synced up with a calendar in outlook. I thought this phone would satisfy my needs. It also had no required data plan, so I purchased it using the gift cards (this is another story about how I couldn’t get them to accept the cards, but I won’t go into that). One of the cool features of the phone is the way it opens. It’s what is called a swivel. You can see how it opens in the picture. So the phone served me well, but I failed to use the calendar function because I really didn’t like the interface. The phone, camera and music player were all nice, but I really found that my iPod is superior in every way to this music phone in usability and quality. I loooove my iPod. But I also liked my new phone. So the year went by, and it became apparent that I really am too busy in my personal and business life to not have a PDA.

I started researching stand-alone devices and thinking about what I would get. I would get a stand-alone device because I had a phone I liked and an iPod for my music. I was thinking about making the move on the PDA sometime in December hoping to get a bargain with Christmas shopping, and then my plans changed dramatically. On Thursday of last week, I went to open my phone and it didn’t want to open. It was stuck halfway thru. So I closed it and tried again and it opened. I thought…”that’s weird.” SO I used it and then by the end of the call I forgot about the whole thing (I can be forgetful sometimes). Later I went to use it again and when I pushed with my thumb to open it, it snapped apart. Frustrating!!! So I called my provider and they said that it was sad that I didn’t have insurance and the phone was not under warranty for that issue. So this meant that I needed to get a new phone, but as I thought about this I also realized that it was another opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I started researching Smart Phones again. It had been a year and some of the things that I didn’t like were less of an issue, although I still did not want a Blackberry. I was determined that I wasn’t going to get something the size of a brick that I had to hold up to my ear. Thank goodness Cingular has just come out with their first flip smart phone (pictured below).

It is a computer in a phone, isn’t the size of a brick, and has all the functions I am looking for. The better news is that I discovered that my employer has a relationship with Cingular. This meant that I could go to the Cingular Business Premier website and they had special phone upgrade offers for me. I checked the local store and the phone (Cingualr 3125) listed at $450.00. Although I wanted it, I was not willing to pay that amount, but as with most cell providers you can get a better deal. I called and they quoted my $430.00, still not low enough. The premiere website listed it at 250.00 as part of my employee discount, and then as I singed up for a contract extension the price dropped to $128.00. I ordered it and it should arrive in a day or two. In the meantime I took my simm card out and put it into my moms cell phone, since she hardly uses hers. I had to do this because other than Skype I have no phone in my home. The only other frustrating part of this story is that it took my 3 days to order the phone online because Cingulars business premier website was up and down. The odyssey is almost over thank God. Now I just need to figure out what I should take from this situation because we learn from everything.