 |
|
 |
|||
 |
 |
Technology News You Can UseApril 2010In This Newsletter
Comments from the EditorHi All: After a long hard winter, it’s finally Fiesta time in
First, a humorous piece from Jay Fraser of Tracer Detection Technology Corp about his evolution from IT Hater to IT Embracer. I can sympathize; I refused to touch a computer until they made them easy enough for an idiot like me to use. Fortunately for me that happened in the mid-90’s with the advent of “point and click” technology, otherwise it could quite possibly have been me you’d be buying your cascarones from tonight at NIOSA. Next up is an informative discussion on Unified Communications from VoIPHEAD’s Jamey Milner. Finally, Michael Espinoza of Technology Coaching closes out this month’s newsletter with the hits and misses of the new Apple iPad. I SO want one of these things. After you read Mike’s discussion, I dare say you will as well. That’s all for now. Enjoy your Fiesta and we’ll see you again in May! Cheers, Rackspace Grant Project Coming into the Light – The Evolution of an IT Dinosaur; Jay Fraser, Tracer Detection Technology Corp.When it comes to technology, I’ve been self-taught and a creature of habit. When you’re set in your ways, you’re set in your ways. Some people might refer to the saying “ya can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Well, when it comes to computers and such, I’m truly an IT dinosaur. That’s not a reflection of my chronological age, but it is clearly a statement of how I used to use computers and software. When I was in grad school, somehow I was able to convince the Dean of the
Jump that ahead a few years and I somehow acquired a Texas Instruments computer. I remember that it was as small as it was intimidating. I took it out of the box, tried to read the manual and immediately put it back in the box and proceeded to put it on the shelf in a closet in the attic. This was sometime in the early 1980’s. My first computer was an Apple2c (the one with the green screen) attached to a dot matrix printer. It was from that machine that I first worked as a consultant, surprisingly advising high-tech clients about strategy and planning. Without going through the sequence of computers and software, I slowly found my comfort zone with my Dell Laptop running Windows XP that I had purchased in 2004. Despite the ribbing I took from some of my IT friends, it worked perfectly fine, was “fast enough,” and gave me all of the functionality I needed. It had a 60 gig hard drive and an amazing 512 MB of
Then, for a number of reasons, I decided to purchase my very own Adobe Acrobat (full edition) to enable me to create securitized PDF files. Unfortunately, I got snagged by an “Adobe update worm” that never really did much harm, but slowed my Pentium 4 computer to a crawl. I finally broke down and bought a new computer around Christmas last year. I still haven’t figured out how to migrate some of my older software programs to Windows 7, but I’ll get around to it “soon” when someone helps me. I really like some of the functionality of the Window 7 OS too. And all of my IT friends told me how great MS Office 2007 was going to be (until Office 2010 is released). Well, some of the new functions are pretty “cool,” but I still can’t find things that were instinctive now that I have to deal with those ribbons. I guess I’ll just have to adapt and wonder why there are still some people who haven’t loaded the conversion software so they can read my new MS Office 2007 documents. I’ve changed, why can’t they? The Need for Unified Communications; Jamey Milner, VOIPHEADVoice is only one piece in the communication puzzle. You might have just made a deal with a partner or client, but still need to send or receive a quotation by fax or email; or if voice communication is too expensive, you might decide to carry on a lengthier dialog via instant messaging; or further still, it might be necessary to discuss a product prototype on video conferencing with several business partners. What’s more, you don't use communication tools only in the office or at home - you do so while in the car, in the park, having lunch in a restaurant, and even in bed. Also, there is the fact that businesses are becoming more and more 'virtual', meaning that a business or its workers are not necessarily confined to a single physical location; the business might be running with many decentralized elements, most of which exist only online. Due to a lack of integration of all these services, use of different technologies may not be optimized. As a result, while communication modes can be effective, they are far from being efficient, both technically and economically. Compare, for example, having separate services and hardware for phone, video conferencing, instant messaging, fax etc., versus having all of these integrated into one service and minimum hardware. (© About.com, 2010) Enter unified communications. Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, Telephony (including VoIP), video conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products and services that provides a consistent, unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types. UC also refers to a trend to offer Business Process Integration, i.e. to simplify and integrate all forms of communications with the goal of optimizing business processes, reducing response time, managing the flow of information, and eliminating device and media dependencies. UC allows an individual to send a message on one medium and receive on another. In such a situation, it should be possible to easily transfer any activity or message to another medium. For example, one can receive a voice mail message and choose to access it through email or a cell phone. If the sender is online according to presence information, and currently accepts calls, the response can be sent immediately through text, chat or video call. Otherwise, it may be sent as a non real-time message that can be accessed through a variety of media. (Pleasant, 2008) Global value chains, mobile workforces, social networking, pervasive video, and information overload: this is the new norm. To address these business complexities, you need to connect people, information, and teams, helping to enable comprehensive and effective collaborative experiences, while helping to reduce human error. (© Cisco Systems, Inc, 1992-2010) In sum, Unified Communications can help your company: • Shorten sales and customer service cycles • Reduce time-to-market • Adapt to market changes faster • Encourage innovation Did the Apple iPad live up to the hype? Michael Espinoza, Technology CoachingThis is a question that continues to be heatedly debated, and there are people who argue passionately on both sides of this issue. To help you make sense of this debate, and decide whether or not the iPad is worth all the hype, I offer the following points. 10 things to consider before you get an iPad: 1. It does not support Adobe Flash 2. It does not Multitask (Apple says it’s coming) 3. No Web
4. It’s a magnet for your finger print 5. Typing with the onscreen keyboard may be a challenge 6.
7. No HDMI,
8. Great screen but no HD 9. Price of device, Starting at $499 for WiFi 10. Customers are reporting WiFi connectivity issues 10 things you will like about the iPad: 1.
2. The touch screen experience on the iPad’s large screen 3. The bright clear screen 4. Many apps right out of the gate. 5. The gaming experience 6. Using it as an E-reader 7. No learning curve for iPhone/iTouch users 8. It is fast and responsive 9. The Netflix application streaming movie experience 10. Reading newspapers and magazines on the device My observations after using the iPad for the last week: The first thing I noticed is I am using my phone less than I did in before I got the iPad. After the first few days, I figured the newness would wear off and I would not use it as much, but that did not happen. I am using my phone less now because before, I would check small things throughout the day on my phone. Now, because of its much larger screen, the iPad makes these every day activities a much more pleasant experience. As an added benefit, it is certainly extending my phone battery life as well. I save a lot of articles in PDF format that I want to read one of these days. I can read them on my phone and I tell myself when I am saving them that I will, but I don’t ever get to them. I think this is really because of the small screen. With the size of the iPad I found myself getting to them now. Do you need this third device to supplement your desktop and laptop? Only you can decide that, however, I have been pleasantly surprised at how it fits into this specialized niche that I didn’t even know I wanted to fill. The iPad will not replace your laptop, unless all you really do with your laptop is check email and surf the web with light typing. I have been carrying it around using it for just that and so far, I have not really missed my laptop. I did put the iWorks apps on the iPad so I could do Word Processing, Spreadsheets and presentations as needed. But only time will tell if I will be able to just use the iPad and not have to carry my laptop all the time. To get a visual of how the iPad works you can go to http://www.apple.com/ipad/guided-tours and watch the videos about how the different applications work. I will continue to write articles on how I use the iPad and share the applications and uses with you. I suggest that if you are interested in an iPad, go to the Apple store or a Best Buy, play with one and see what you think. If you have a friend who has one, try and borrow it from them, and good luck with that! If they are anything like me, this early on, they will have yet to put it down.
So that’s my experience. Your mileage may, of course, vary. If you have any questions about the iPad or any other mobile device, please send me an email - I’ll be happy to answer them for you! Top
|
|