Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Jan 4

Can Technology Zoom Right By Us Any Faster?

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It’s me agaaaain, and today I am blown away trying to catch up with the unbelievable speed technology uses to zoom right by us.  It is almost as if we get the latest items we want and as soon as we open the package we find out a new and/or better gadget is around the corner.  Using as a point of reference the Iphone, The 1st generation came out June 2007.  My partner went out and bought it for me.  Then we bought my first 3G about a month after it was released July 11, 2008; therefore I gave my fist generation to her and kept the new one.  Then came the 3Gs. that was released about June 9th, 2009.  What did we do?  Recycle of course and my partner ended up with my 3G.  There was a lapse of 12 months in between new phones but as soon as one comes out a news release surfaces talking about a much better product.   Now Mac is about to release the tablet and the comparison is done against the Phone.  Business Week writes about the subject with the greatest title:

Five Ways Apple’s Tablet May Change the World

Eye catching isn’t it?  I haven’t even finished playing with my 3Gs that I am waiting like a little kid to see what the Apple’s Tablet will do.  Now the question is:  Do I want it?  I would love for Apple Tablet to change my world for the better of course :-)  Wouldn’t you?

apple-tablet-005-300x204Here is the Article from BusinessWeek.com , please read below:

Five Ways Apple’s Tablet May Change the World

The iPad is on the way, and it just might reduce calling costs, cut your commute, and, to the delight of journalists everywhere, pull print media back from the brink

By Ben Kunz

Business writers love hyperbole. The ground will swell. The paradigm will shift. But what if occasionally a new tech gadget comes along that really does shake up society? Apple’s (AAPL) planned tablet may just be such a device.

Speculation about Apple’s one-device-to-rule-them-all iPad reached fever pitch this month when Yair Reiner, an analyst at Oppenheimer (OPY), dug through Steve Jobs’ production pipeline and found evidence that the tablet was being readied for an April 2010 launch.

The timing makes sense. The iPhone is three years old, the U.S. economy is rebounding, and gadget demand is pent up among Americans who held off on toy upgrades during the recession. By spring we’ll no doubt be past the holiday sales of the black-and-white e-readers that still look vaguely like medical prostate screening devices.

The world is recovering from its Wall Street hangover, and it’s looking for a new tech party invitation. An Apple tablet would be the guest of honor. Laura DiDio, an analyst at Information Technology Intelligence, has predicted the Apple tablet will be “the next big thing,” complete with 10- to 12-inch high-res screen, Web connection, and a video cam. Other manufacturers such as Dell (DELL) are preparing tablets, too, but Apple is the one to watch—because Apple is best at making radical new hardware formats undeniably cool.

Print Media Comeback

So yes, the Jesus Tablet will appear. And yes, you’ll buy one with an artificially high price of, say, $800 as penance for being an early adopter. Within two years the price will fall to $199 until everyone including your 6-year-old has a gleaming, do-anything, interactive pane of glass on his or her desk.

As that happens, the iPad will change the world in at least five ways.

• Magazine and newspaper publishing will bounce back as consumers rediscover paid subscriptions. Sorry, Chris Anderson, but not everything will revert to free. It’s no mistake Time Inc.’s (TWX) Sports Illustrated invested in a sexy tablet magazine demo that’s also due to hit the market next year.

Publishers realize they have a very narrow window to recapture the paid subscribers they lost to the Web, and they’ll do anything to grab you with the Apple gizmo. Expect to see publishers launch visually stunning versions of their magazines with swooping typography, video insets, CNN iReporter-style news uploads, social media overlays—whatever it takes to make you think you’re seeing a magazine or newspaper like never before, so much so you’ll even want to pay for it.

• Television and radio ratings will continue to fall. Unlike print, TV and radio won’t fit easily into the Apple tablet’s format. Sure, U.S. consumers still watch 5 hours and 9 minutes of live television a day, but the problem is ratings don’t hold when commercials actually air. Certainly, Apple will try to push TV shows and movies through the tablet via iTunes, but we’re betting they don’t sit well in your hand. Rather than being a device to watch television, the Apple tablet is more likely to be an interactive distraction when real TV ads come on your basement set.

Nielsen noted this trend of “concurrent media usage” this spring, in a $3.5 million study that recorded what hundreds of people actually do when commercials air. When TV spots came on, people picked up laptops, magazines, or cell phones and did something other than watch the screen. Expect that trend to accelerate when you have an Apple tablet in your lap.

• Augmented-reality views of the world will increase. If you missed this trend, it’s simple: Augmented reality puts computer graphics on top of live video feeds, similar to the yellow line you see on the field in NFL games. iPhone users now can download applications that overlay a video feed from their iPhone camera—providing floating arrows on the screen showing you, say, the distance to the nearest New York City subway station.

With a larger tablet, such video overlays on reality will become even more compelling. Expect app makers to leap ahead by giving construction workers 3D instructions at a job site, providing consumers with product reviews that float over items on sale at the mall, or serving daters a visual display of the job history, FICO score, and criminal record of that cute guy or gal they meet at a bar.

• Two-way video on tablets will push communication costs even lower. Yes, technically you can do portable video today, if you’re willing to walk around town with a laptop flipped open near a Wi-Fi zone. But by and large, our infrastructure still can’t accommodate simple two-way video on the go. Add a tablet with built-in Webcam, and suddenly video calls are as easy as holding up a mirror. You better believe AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) are sweating about the advent of Skype video in subway trains or on Hawaiian beaches. (Perhaps Apple will throw its partner AT&T a bone by holding off on tablet Webcams for a few generations. Or it will throw AT&T under the bus by cutting a tablet deal with Verizon Wireless, a scenario at least under consideration earlier this year.

• Telecommuting may finally take off. If you hate your commute and care remotely about the environment, then why do you still sit in traffic for two hours each day? Because society has decreed face time is better than phone time. But when Apple tablets make portable video truly accessible, plane tickets and poor coffee in cars may become things of the past.

We could be wrong. Perhaps it’s too much to hope for: a world where Apple provides low-cost, two-way video anywhere that saves print journalism while reducing phone costs, augments reality while cutting your commute, heck, even brings humanity closer together while stopping traffic jams and pollution.

But heck, Apple, even if you can’t solve the world’s problems, we’ll buy one anyway.

Ben Kunz is director of strategic planning at Mediassociates, a media planning and Internet strategy firm. He is author of the advertising strategy blog ThoughtGadgets.com. (Source:  businessweek.com

Well, That’s it for now.

But let me ask you something: Do you want and Apple Tablet?  I would love to hear your comments!

Don’t forget to return tomorrow for more!

And remember if you are planning to sell your house or if you are looking to buy a house: Call me!!

I am only a phone call away!

Have a good night!!!

Your #1 Realtor®

Sharing a moment with you!

Virginia R. Hoato
Realty World – Blue Property Group, Inc
DRE LIC# 01781539
Direct:  510-305-3254
Fax:  209-234-2750

Email: virginiarh@rightchoicehomes4u.com
TAMBIEN HABLO ESPAÑOL
Web Links:    http://www.rwblue-virginiahoato.com
http://www.virginiahoato.topseller.net

http://www.virginiahoato.com
http://www.rightchoicehomes4u.com
Skype Member: virginiarh1961

“FOR RESULTS OF EXCELLENCE: EXPERTISE AND INTEGRITY MUST EMBRACE YOUR NEEDS”.
(VRH 8-13-08)

Share the memorable experience of buying a home with others. Your personal referrals are my greatest compliment.

Dec 17

Realtors and Technology

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Technology is rapidly taking us by the hand through a road of new applications definitely needed to succeed in this new age of Real Estate that is dominated by the “World Wide Web”.  And I say rapidly because, while there are a lot of Realtors® having a hard time adjusting their ways to focus on Social Networking, Facebook, Twitter and computer related tasks that involve the Internet itself, developers are constantly working on fitting the MLS listings on the small screen.   Which brings up the question.  Do we get a break?  We are just beginning to get used to good old Social Networking.  Where did the small screen come from?

I am very happy with the new things technology brings, thus I embrace it and welcome the necessary adjustmIphoneents I must make to merge my know how with the tools provided by it.   Unfortunately the road is not as easy for some.   With that being said:

Here is an article I found that talks about “the small screen” which is where we are headed.

I had to share this with you.  Working together makes the road a lot simpler.  Please take a moment to read it.  There are plenty of comments.   I would love to know what you think.  Send me a comment.

Here we go:

Real estate technology is headed straight to the small screen

By Brian Boero | Jun 11th, 2009 | 22 Comments Categories: Mobile, Real estate search, iPhone

The announcement of the iPhone 3G S this week adds confidence to my belief that real estate websites as we know them are a legacy platform.

The handheld device will be the locus of real estate technology innovation in the coming years.

The inherent “limitations” of the small screen are in fact liberating for the people who count: End users. These are the folks too often forced to slog through a chopped salad of links, footers and gratuitous content served up by SEO-obsessed product teams. The small screen concentrates the developer mind and compels a better experience.

And, for now, the mobile platform is relatively free from ads. This is changing fast, but even when mobile advertising matures it is likely to be less disruptive than what users have come to expect on the big screen. Early data suggest they may even be more effective.

Most importantly, the experience is portable, which is perfectly suited to real estate.

This is why I think the Zillow iPhone app is better than Zillow.com. It’s why I am so excited about the numerous IDX-based native iPhone apps in development as I type.

But you may ask: “What about virtual tours, or big hi-res photos – won’t the small screen limit my ability to merchandize listings?”

Here’s a secret: Price a listing right. Take a dozen well-composed photos. Put it in the MLS. It will sell. No need to go nuts with Photosynth or lay down a John Tesh track behind your slideshow.

The small screen is enough screen.

The details

Consider these features of the 3G S:

1.    Location awareness in the Safari browser. This means you don’t even have to be using an iPhone app to have content – perhaps listings – served up to you based on your location. Right now, many real estate sites serve you listings based on your IP address, which is a notoriously imprecise way of determining location. A location aware browser improves location targeting dramatically.

2.    Video capture, editing and publishing. A year ago, everyone was raving about Flip cameras. Trouble was they kind of sucked. And they were yet another device that needed to be schlepped around, then plugged in to some other web-connected device for publishing. Now, users can take hi-quality video, edit it and email or text it with the click of a button. Or the video can be sent to YouTube directly from the device. Forget for a moment how Realtors might use this; think about how buyers will be able to document and share their home search.

3.    Speed. Mobile browsing – even on “high-speed” 3G networks — is still relatively slow. Mobile apps also hang more than those running on the desktop. But the claimed speed increase in the 3G S is an indication that the same leapfrogging advances in memory and processing power we’ve seen on desktops and notebooks over the past decade is coming to the handset. The user experience will only get richer as a result.

Of course, even with nearly 40 million iPhone and iPod touches sold to date, the mobile story hardly begins and ends with Apple. But I think it is safe to assume that many of the features in this new iPhone will appear in some manner across the mobile platform in the next year or two.

Do we need more real estate websites? Maybe not.

Do we still need a better way to find place to live? Definitely.

The small screen is where that better way lies.

To read the comments click HERE

That’s it for now.  Don’t forget to return tomorrow for more!

Have a good night!!!

Your #1 Realtor®

Sharing some useful information with you!
Virginia R. Hoato
Realty World – Blue Property Group, Inc
DRE LIC# 01781539
Direct:  510-305-3254
Fax:  209-234-2750

Email: virginiarh@rightchoicehomes4u.com
TAMBIEN HABLO ESPAÑOL
Web Links:    http://www.rwblue-virginiahoato.com
http://www.virginiahoato.topseller.net
http://www.virginiahoato.com
http://www.rightchoicehomes4u.com
Skype Member: virginiarh1961

“FOR RESULTS OF EXCELLENCE: EXPERTISE AND INTEGRITY MUST EMBRACE YOUR NEEDS”.
(VRH 8-13-08)

Share the memorable experience of buying a home with others. Your personal referrals are my greatest compliment.

Dec 3

This One is For Realtors……And I’ll tell you why………

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For the longest I have been coming across directions that are in Google Maps yet they are not in my Tahoe’s GPS.  Usually when I prepare for a viewing session I start with the itinerary.   I go to Google Maps and set up the route so I don’t have to drive back and forth or zigzag through town.  Once I finish just in case the addresses are not in my GPS.  Most of the times I find at least 3 addresses that my Tahoe’s GPS does not recognize.  A while back it was annoying because if I was not familiar with the streets in a particular part of town then I would to look at the print out.

IphoneWell, I have owned an Iphone since it first came out and having Google’s application helps me have turn-by-turn directions.  At home we love the one and only IPHONE.  Therefore we are always checking the applications it offers.  My partner found for me 2 GPS applications for Iphone that have Detailed Text to Speech turn by turn voice directions and it can set up to 1o addresses.  The application costs $ 24.99.  The one I like is:  CoPilot Live North America.   Now that it gets dark early it is a good thing to have.

Also if you invest in a Bluetooth that has voice control and it will pick up the voice from the GPS directions it is even better.  I use the Blue Ant Bluetooth, which once activated links the GPS to it.    It also allows you to upgrade the software via email.  After we bought ours my partner found a website where you can find it for 1/3 of the price: N1 Wireless.

I can definitely assure you this is an investment that will save you time and slight headaches.  If you are thinking about making life easier for you while taking care of business I highly recommend these two ces_banneritems.

Well, that’s it for today.

Have a good night!

Virginia R. Hoato – Realtor
Realty World – Blue Property Group, Inc
DRE LIC# 01781539
Direct:  510-305-3254
Fax:  209-234-2750

Email: virginiarh@rightchoicehomes4u.com
TAMBIEN HABLO ESPAÑOL
Web Links:    http://www.rwblue-virginiahoato.com
http://www.virginiahoato.topseller.net
http://www.virginiahoato.com
http://www.rightchoicehomes4u.com
Skype Member: virginiarh1961

“FOR RESULTS OF EXCELLENCE: EXPERTISE AND INTEGRITY MUST EMBRACE YOUR NEEDS”.
(VRH 8-13-08)

Share the memorable experience of buying a home with others. Your personal referrals are my greatest compliment.

Nov 12

Rumors: A Verizon iPhone in 2010

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I was just reading CNN.com and came across the article below.

I have been hearing a lot of people wanting an iPhone but not being able to get it because of being tied to a contract with another carrier.  Take a look at this article; it should make a lot of people smile.  Enjoy:

Two sources say Apple is building a hybrid “worldmode” phone that Verizon could use

Verizon iPhoneJudging from reader comments in this space, there are a lot of cellphone owners in America locked into Verizon (VZ) contracts who would buy an iPhone in a minute if they didn’t have to switch carriers to get it.

Verizon has made it pretty clear that it would cut a deal with Apple (AAPL), were it not for a couple of impediments: 1) the contract that makes AT&T (T) the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier, and 2) the fact that Verizon’s network (based on CDMA2000 technology) is incompatible with Apple’s smartphone (which uses W-CDMA (UMTS)).

The first roadblock — AT&T’s contract — is set to expire next year, according to widely cited 2008 USA Today article that included an interview with chairman Randall Stephenson. (Stephenson declined to comment on the details of the contract.)

The second barrier could also disappear were Apple to build a new iPhone that is compatible with both AT&T and Verizon’s networks.

Last week, AppleInsider reported on rumors that Apple may be doing just that. Its source was a leaked OTR Global report, based on unnamed sources in Apple’s Taiwanese supply chain, that said Apple was making a “worldmode” phone using a new hybrid chip from Qualcomm (QCOM).

On Wednesday, a second source for the rumor emerged, this one with a date attached. According to GigaOm’s Colin Gibbs, Northeast Securities has issued a research note, based again on supply chain sources, that says Apple will launch a W-CDMA/CDMA2000-enabled iPhone through Verizon by the summer of 2010.

This assumes that Apple and Verizon can cut a mutually satisfactory deal. But judging from the tone of bitter resignation coming from AT&T executives lately, it sounds like Steve Jobs and Randall Stephenson may have finally come to terms.

See also:

Oh, and……..please

LET ME KNOW what you think.  I am just curious,

Have a good night

Your#1 Realtor

Virginia R Hoato

SOURCE:  CNN.com.  Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt
November 12, 2009 6:04 AM