Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

My First Hands-On Experience with the Palm Pre

Friday, June 26th, 2009

palm-preWith a compact body style the Pre fits well in your hand & would appear to travel well in your pocket or purse. The downside to the compact size at first glance is the screen size as it is smaller than most touch screen smart phones, but the display is very clear with great graphic quality.                   

As I attempted to configure the phone for initial use I noticed the lack of navigational windows or keys. Until I researched the many gesture features of the phone I had a hard time moving through, between or even closing applications. Once I had knowledge of the gestures on the phone using them was almost fun as opposed to being just functional. The full slide out keyboard may be to a lot of people a great selling point if they don’t prefer the touch screen keyboard’s of other phones, but just like the phone it is very compact & a bit hard to use at first. 

My first task was to setup an Exchange email account. After some searching for the correct menu, setup was fairly easy. You don’t need to be an IT professional to setup an exchange account, but do need a working knowledge of Exchange Email, Outlook Web Access, & your Company’s Network. Other account options that come standard are Gmail, Yahoo, & Facebook.

 After first use, overall the phone has a functional design, looks good, & is fun to use. But the Keyboard is a bit small, the response time for opening programs can be slower then desired, & has a high learning curve for first time use.

Zach Hart – IT Manager

Bing show significant increase in paid paid advertisers (PPC).

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

bing_vs_googleBing now has another feather in their cap.  According to Efficient Frontier’s latest report, Bing’s share of paid clicks increased to 13% from 8% prior to its launch two weeks ago. If this trend continues Google will have something to really worry about.

This is in addition to other positive indicators we’ve observed over the last few weeks such as Bing getting the number two spot in search market share for a day. The fact that Bing is showing some positive performance in the search industry is a good thing for all of us.  This industry has needed some competition for years to force research and development in all search engines.  The consumer will be the one to win in this competition.

This is all simply preliminary data which may turn out to be nothing at all.

What do you think of all this?

Can Bing help you?

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Clearly a large number of people are jumping from using Google and Yahoo to Bing.  Media hype is likely to blame for much the increase in Bing traffic over the last three weeks. But will the search engine ever overtake Google? Only time will tell.  Google isn’t sitting around and waiting to see though as the June 14th article titled FEAR GRIPS GOOGLE in the New York Post explains “Sergey Brin [Google's Co-Founder]  is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service”.

So, can Bing help you?  Here is a video Microsoft released showing some of the new features of Bing.  Let us know your thought. 

Clearly a large number of people are jumping from using Google and Yahoo to Bing.  Media hype is likely to blame for much the increase in Bing traffic over the last three weeks. But will the search engine ever overtake Google? Only time will tell.  Google isn’t sitting around and waiting to see though as the June 14th article titled FEAR GRIPS GOOGLE in the New York Post explains “Sergey Brin [Google's Co-Founder]  is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service”.

So, can Bing help you?  Here is a video Microsoft released showing some of the new features of Bing.  Let us know your thought.

Verizon introduces global broadband data with USB1000 stick

Friday, June 19th, 2009

verizon-usb1000

Are you one of the many international travelers that has to carry multiple cell phones and broadband devices when you leave the states? Well the international cell phone has gotten much better in the last couple years but broadband is a major problem. That is until today with Verizon’s release of its Novatel-sourced USB1000 that features EV-DO Rev. A for domestic use plus triband HSPA when you’re roaming around the globe. The stick itself runs $149.99 on contract after a $50 rebate, while monthly global data plans run from $129.99 for 100MB of data in 31 countries to $219.99 for 200MB; both plans include 5GB for use in the US and Canada. It’s available today online.