If you haven’t heard Blackberry has a new Tablet coming to market it’s called the Playbook, a press release was sent out back on September 27, 2010 here.  While we won’t really know what to expect we can say this, apple and samsung will have some competition in the tablet market very soon.  Here are youtube videos of the Playbook in use with a nice comparison of the Playbook and iPad.

The videos looks awesome, let us know what you think about this device and what potential it has for personal or business use.

TBTR

The New Kindle

Yesterday Amazon.com announced they are about to release a new Kindle which is smaller, lighter, and faster.  Since Amazon introduced the Kindle it’s taking on a life of it’s own, for a device that I previously though would not be around.  Amazon has figured out the right way to market this device to those in need and they love the product hands down.

Amazon has two new models both come with a 6′ display, both have wifi, but one will feature a 3G connection that has no contracts with no additional cost.  Don’t get your hopes up to high this device will not let you surf the web like the iPad, but I would say thats probably coming along soon for Amazon. *wish list*

Kindle Wi-Fi $139 Click here to view

Kindle 3G $189 Click here to view

While I can see the uses for this new Kindle I have never been able to bring my self to pay the high cost of the other older 1st generation units $300+, but the new lower cost and the additional improvements make this a possible 2010 Christmas Gift to myself.

Enjoy

TBTR

Over the last few years the cost of storage devices has come down to rock bottom pricing.  Remember when 20GB Hard drives cost hundreds of dollars?  I even remember the days when a 256MB portable pen drive cost about $49.95.  While I always thought that was way to expensive I didn’t buy at those prices.  One thing for sure with the cost driven down so low , most of us who used pen drives just went out and bought a portable 2.5 or 3.5 hard drive giving you gigs and gigs of space to place your movies, music, and DVD backups.  So now what do you do with those old pen drives that are just piling up on your desk like dust bunnies?

Portable apps has a solution for you, imagine you decided to visit a friend and while there you want to show him or her some of your documents or pictures, usually you would need to put up some website login and produce the images you want.  With Portable apps you now have a small device that can display your images, or let you pull up your bookmarks, even check email.  All of this can be done with out leaving the normal breadcrumbs on the foreign computer system.

Portable apps is installed as software on your pen drive so that as you place that drive in any computer your able to access your email, bookmarks, passwords and much more with out issues, it’s simple and a great way to keep those drives from becoming trash.

Take some time to check out www.portableapps.com they provide tons of software on the pen drive such as Firefox (web browser), Pidgin (instant messenger), OpenOffice (Like Microsoft Office but FREE).  Other applications are able to be installed with portable apps so the site will provide more links.

Make no mistake this does not replace your computer, but what it does do is provide a easy way to give you some familiarity to any computer you step up to and insert your USB pen drive.

TBTR

Comments are welcome always

introductions are usually blad, not at Apple

Many companies over the past 2 years have been trying desperately to appease the public, and most of all their shareholders during these financial times.  One company has been moved to display a calm and really serious valor for bringing innovation in times of hardship.  That company is apple with numerous consumer items at arms length it’s only fitting that they introduce one of the most anticipated items of the year.  On January 27th Apple let the world in on a secret that only the blogs were buzzing about for months.  Apple introduced the iPad which for lack of a better word seems “perfect”.

While some people look at these kind of events with one blind eye and deaf ears, when Apple speaks it’s like the old E.F. Hutton of the 80 “people listen”.  The keynote speech is up for anyone to download, and for those interested in Apple products I would say take a look at this Keynote.  While the CEO Steve Jobs looks surprisingly well, he is very thin, when you get past his lanky stance you get to the meat and potatoes of this event “The iPad”.

Simply "Perfect!"

What is it?

Apple says “It’s the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video. Hands down.”  It’s a multi-Touch computer that enables you to do all of the above and more.  It weights just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7 inch LED display.  Talk about beautiful products, this has to go down in history as just plan ass cool.  So many people have said that the iPad just looks like and over sized iTouch.  I will say it does have some cool features that allow you to surf the web, respond to emails, watch videos, and by all means even create & edit documents and presentations using iWork.  You get productivity in a small package that can make your life easier while traveling, having a client meeting, or just plain old surfing the web.

What does it do?

Well I think every person using a iPad will have an opportunity to decide how this question is solved.  We know you can surf the internet using safari no doubt (the build in browser in all apple products).  We also know the iPad has the capability to provide email in a small package, while so many of us are tied to our desk to read, and respond to email the iPad gives you a chance to come out of your email comfort zone.  Think about those photos that you have on your computer, say you want to organize them.  You can do that and more with the iPad, it gives you a chance to edit, move, and also watch some amazing slide shows right from the iPad.  It’s helps ease your access to pictures that you would normally have to display on a laptop.  No more, you now get a chance to show the best slide shows of your summer vacation at any time to anyone.  Think about, if your a photographer, and you want to show people more about photography and how you seem to capture the moment.  It’s all right here on the iPad.  We could talk about how well the device is tied to all the music you already own in iTunes, or the more than 140,000 apps in the iTunes app stores,  no need to buy your apps all over again, they work already out of the box on the iPad

Last, but not least the iPad has something very new to the Apple Store, iBooks.  Steve Jobs showed how effortlessly the iPad is able to display your books to be used as an e-book reader.  With a battery life of about 10 hours you could read most of a great novel during a trip overseas.  While there are other e-book readers out there, I don’t think you will find one that does so much more than just read books.  Lets be honest other e-readers only display in monochrome, but don’t we read in color?

Why should I want one?

I could sit hear and think of numerous reason why the iPad would be a great purchase, weather your a mac or windows fan.  Take these notes with you How much does it weigh? 1.5 pounds.  Can I surf the internet? Yes Am I able to listen to my music? Yes Do I get a chance to slow a slide presentation with out taking 10 minutes of messing around with the VGA cables and trying to get my laptop to display on the projector? Yes Do I get more precise use of Google Maps? Yes Notes and Contacts are included.  Honestly what more can you ask for in such a small package.  While netbooks have been making great strides, you need to understand the value of this new product.  I will never say that something fits all, I think its possible that Apple has created a product that’s not only pleasing to the eye but pleasing to the pocket book.

Take some time to get to know the iPad here at the Apple site, also everybody will have an opinion it’s not right for every occasion, but it’s damn close.  Congratulations Apple for being the true innovator we always knew you were, keep up the good work.

TBTR

Microsoft and Bill Gates (The riches man in the world) should be proud and over joyed at the soon to be success of the new Windows 7 OS.  PC manufactures, along with others should be burning the midnight oil with glee knowing they have a product that we can all stand behind. According to CNNMoney article “Windows 7 ready to launch” Experts expect that PC users will change their operating system for the first time in about eight years when Windows 7 launches today.

We all know someone or heard about someone that had horrific experiences with Vista.  As a network administrator I gave recommendations to my superiors about what technology we should implement, and what we should wait on.  I always stated that we should wait out the Vista movement for the next flavor, and I was 120% right from a support stand point.  Vista came along and gave us too many issues I felt like from a support stand point it would have been a true nightmare not only for me but for management as well.

Windows 7

I don’t see the issues of the past with Windows 7 I see an operating system that has been tested, tested, and tested again.  Personally back before the summer started I started using Windows 7 on a older less powerful machine.  “Wow” are the words I uttered when using Windows 7 for the first time, because I think Microsoft finally got it, the bells and whistles don’t mean a thing if the OS does not perform some of the most basic functions with ease.  I can speak from experience that Windows 7 is a great OS to use on your current system, and also on a older system that you would have normally thrown away.  Don’t listen to the clutter that’s gonna start about well you should just buy a new computer, I would presume that those Tech support places will all be saying this, but resist my friendly computer user unless your computer is a Pentium II or lower with less than 512MB.  If it’s any better than that I’m tell you Windows 7 should be an eye opener.

What about Windows XP?

Well for those of you who have used Windows XP in my opinion you will gain a better Operating System in Windows 7, and workhorse right out of the box, new features, speed, and the capability to take off where Windows XP ended are clear indications that you should go for it.  Lets just say with the introduction of Windows 7, in 6 months no one will remember that thing called Vista in my opinion.  Now if your using XP at this point and you are going to install Windows 7 your gonna have a problem upgrading.  This has always been the Microsoft policy when upgrading, if your two generations back in Operating systems, they don’t make it very easy for you to upgrade with a “One click solution” I would guess there will be many companies taking advange of this (creating software to help Windows XP users upgrade).  My best advise for anyone looking to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows7 please do yourself a favor, make a backup of your critical data, such as documents, pictures, program data for specific programs and such.  Then insert your new Windows 7 OS CD and choose to do a clean install on your computer or laptop.  Then place your data and programs on the new OS.

Windows XP all flavors (Pro, Home, Media Center, Tablet, and x64) will be unsupported in the next two years so upgrade is eminent

Don’t let the experts scare you into buying a new computer, the one thing I have noticed is that with older machines I have had great success with Windows 7.  Currently I run Windows 7 in VMWare on my MacBook Pro and it’s been working like a charm, to my credit I had to tweak some stuff, but that’s what I do.  I hope your success with Windows 7 comes soon, I will say that you will not be disappointed going from any other OS to Windows7

Chime in and tell me if you have been using Windows 7 or if you plan on upgrading to the new OS in the comments?

TBTR

Data, no matter how much you have now days, your needs keep growing year over year, and for some people it’s month over month.  Recently I’ve been reading more and more about storage devices, and backup solutions, stay tuned for more coverage of these topics.  I recently blogged about Dropbox where I talked a little bit about how you can use this service to share, and backup data.  Sometime ago I also talked about Google Docs which gives you online space for documents and other files. I recently ran across a press release about the new Seagate FreeAgent DockStar $99.99, the name reminds me of DeathStar but maybe that’s because I’m a StarWars Fan.

Anyways the FreeAgent DockStar by itself does nothing, it’s just a docking station, with a power adapter and a ethernet port, but when you couple this device with FreeAgent Go portable storage solution you get a large amount of data that you can now store and access from across the internet which means anywhere in the world.  The device as stated has a dock port for the FreeAgent Go device, 3 USB ports to plug in other storage devices including USB thumb drives, and NON Seagate storage devices, a power adapter and ethernet cable.

So you ask the question what is this product just supposed to do for me?

You get a device that can enable your storage to be placed on the internet (encrypted) so you can access your iTunes music, your pictures, your video, your documents etc.  It can even create a RSS feed for each of those directories, which now enables you to give that to anyone who can plug the feed info into a feed reader so as changes are made to your directories they get updates showing the changes without the traditional notification of calling someone, or having to email them to say take a look at the new data I uploaded. Here are some of the highlights:

• File sharing at its simplest with a clean, web-based interface.
• Access files from any networked PC or Mac® computer in your home.
• After service activation, access and share files with friends, over the internet — no special software required.
• Enables friends to upload content as well, creating a comprehensive share space.
• Appears as a local drive whether in the home or accessed through the internet, for simple drag-and-drop access.
• Dock a FreeAgent Go™ drive and connect up to three USB storage devices.
• Send pictures straight from your iPhone® to the FreeAgent DockStar network adapter.
• Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

Think about this…

Imagine your out of town, visiting a friend or loved one, and you want to show them that video from this summer. Without a device like this or some kind of web service you would just have to wait till you got home, figured out a way to upload all the videos you want to show them, then pray that they know how to access the files.  This solutions eliminates that issue, all you have to do is connect to the internet using any computer and supply your username and password, then start streaming the video directly to this computer.  That is awesome, an just down right cool when you think about all the other things you would have to do otherwise.

In my case it now eliminates the fact that I had to keep my server running at home while traveling hoping and praying that something didn’t happen to my hard drive on the computer or it didn’t over heat and start a fire.  Those days are long gone in my book with the FreeAgent DockStar.

Conclusion

I think that Seagate is obviously on the right track to supply us with a solution that makes things easy, but the one draw back I have is the fact that the device uses the underlining technology of pogoplug.com which is not a bad thing it’s just that DockStar only comes with a 1 year pogoplug subscription for internet sharing after that first year you have to pay $29.99 to continue usage that is where the device fails in my eyes.  Why should we have to pay after 1 year, when if we just purchase a pogoplug for $99.99 the Internet Sharing is FREE for ever.  Most people who purchase this device would not know this if they didn’t know the underlining technology is pogoplug.  Shame on you Seagate for trying to pad the bottom line when you really don’t have to this way.

TBTR

Samson the makers of premiere Audio devices is set to make a splash with it’s new Video Recorder dubbed “Q3″.  This device is cabable of recording video at 640 x 480 resolution, althought I don’t see any references to HD quality I’m sure the video image is usable.  Lets face it even if you have have a HD video camera, sites such as Youtube don’t allow you to upload in HD quality, so your audience never gets HD quality. 

Sampson known for audio equipment is trying to take a way the bad audio stigma, that comes with these small video devices. Sampson’s Q3 has True Stereo Sound, which makes for a awesome device that can definitely make bad video much better with quality audio. 

This true audio is achieved by the Q3 having two condenser mics on-board, arranged in such a way that gives you the best stereo recording possible. When I see the Q3 it’s look clunky and futuristic but when you think about it, that could be an advantge when holding the device, it probably provides a better grip.  The unit also includes audio meters so you can set and monitor your levels as you shoot, this is an added plus when you look at the other video recorders that don’t give you any choice in the matter when it comes to audio settings.

Overall the Sampson Q3 looks like a winner although I predict that most will overlook the Q3 as a novelty because The Flip, and Kodak Zi units get most of the coverage and are seen in a lot of online circles.

Features:

Built-in stereo condenser microphones with X/Y configuration for true stereo imaging
Get up to 1 hour of video with bundled 2GB SD card
Accepts up to a 32GB SDHC card for 16 hours of recording time
Large 2.4″ LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 240
Video resolution of 640 x 480 at 30 frames/sec
Video Format: MPEG-4 SP
NTSC / PAL TV output
Optics Lens Type: Fixed Focus (0.8m to infinity)
Audio formats with video include 44.1/48kHz 16/24-bit Linear PCM WAV or MP3 up to 320kbps
Audio only formats include 96kHz 16/24-bit Linear PCM WAV
Auto Record Level automatically adjusts audio levels during recordings
Uses two standard AA batteries or NiMH rechargeable batteries
USB 2.0 with built-in cable
Windows and Mac OS compatible
Built-in speaker and tripod mount
Includes on-board editing software, YouTube up loader software, Apple Quicktime, TV cable, softcase, windscreen, 2GB SD card, two AA Batteries

P.S. Promise me if you get a hold of one before I do, you’ll pass it along so I can review this puppy.

TBTR

Hp is about to introduce a new digital frame that seems to go far beyond the normal viewing of photos.  The HP DreamScreen will allow you to show photos, connect to the internet, access social media and more.  For the suggested price of $249 you can have one.

We all know how these devices show you pictures, but what about your friends latest pictures from Facebook, or their most recent status updates?  Now that’s what I’m talking about, remember it’s not a full time computer, so don’t think you will be responding back on the unit, and it does not have a touch pad.  (YES I’M STILL WAITING FOR THE APPLE TABLET) That kind of makes me sad, but come on they gotta keep the cost down somehow.  Imagine Pandora streaming music for you, the DreamScreen does that too. I’m finding a weather forecast is pretty important in Florida, DreamScreen has you covered.

This seems to be just the beginning for the digital photo frame revolution which for 2009 is a $25 million dollar industry, projected for $50 million by 2013.  When twitter, and a open API are available (I hope)  I’ll be more able to really show my geekness to those who visit me and my HP DreamScreen.

As an avid blackberry user and former Network Administrator I have come across a ton of scenarios where backup was needed but not practiced.  Some methods I’ve used to fix these problems come from knowledge base articles, to online forums, to just plain old common sense.  There is one thing that as a tech junkie I have to talk about today.  That subject is about Backing up your data, While there are many articles on the net about backing up your personal (Computer) data many don’t talk about backing up your cell phone data.

I have been a blackberry user for over 5 years now, and in that time it’s come to my attention over and over again, the question is not if I will lose data it’s when?  That “when” you may never know, but since blackberries and Smart Phones in general are the norm now days.  We all have to take the proper precautions to save our data.  Some of us have saved data for years, and while most people can’t understand why someone would want to save so much useless data.  I have a ton of reasons I’ll go into on another post some day.

Why Backup your Smart Phone

Simply you have over time added more and more task, contacts, memo’s, notes, and other things to your Smart Phone that if you lost today, you have no where to get it back.  A lot of these phones can carry an enormous amount of data including files, pictures, calendars and other things.  These items are usually stored in the ROM of your smart phone.  Wikipedia.org defines ROM as Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified (at least not very quickly or easily), it is mainly used to distribute firmware (software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to require frequent updates). ROM cannot be removed from your phone, it’s a permanent storage area within your device.

This ROM is your internal MEMORY which saves your data, pictures, and other items to your device.  Some smart phones also have a memory flash card that lets you create a place to store more data, that you can also remove from your phone and even access with a computer given the right software sometimes. Usually this flash card only saves pictures, music, video, and items that you record, but it does not save any contacts, calendar, task or other items that are part of the phones software.

I understand ROM, but tell me why I need to backup

A Smart phone is just like a computer it can fail, and if it does will you be able to recover that special number, or contact calendar from your device?  In most cases NO, you will never get that data back and it’s over.  You have to start from scratch with entering all your contacts again, which means an enormous amount of your personal time, not to mention the loss of critical items that are gone forever.  Don’t even think about sending your device to a specialty tech shop that deals in lost data, if you do plan on spending hundreds of dollars.

You don’t need to lost your data, at least you can always have a backup with in reach at any given moment.  Most Smart phones come with software that you can use to import contacts, task, calendar functions and other things that help.  Along with that most of them allow you to backup your data right to the same computer that you use to do all these functions.  I’m only going to discuss the blackberry method today but remember there are many manufactures out there that also do this, please consult your device manual for more information.  Better yet call your carrier, and ask for the data team or someone that can help you set up backups with your phone and the accompanying software, that is what they are there for in my opinion.

Blackberry backup method

You will need:

• Blackberry device
• USB Cable

Since I’m all about saving time and allowing you to get the best resources for answers I took the time to sift the net and found some resoruces that should help you in the process.  They tell you how to make that backup of your device and should help as a written example of how to do this, I hope my words hit home.  Remember this can happen to anyone, it’s only a matter of time.

Indiana University With a Blackberry, how do I backup and restore data

BlackBerry Cool Backing up your Blackberry (Cool Screenshots)

BlackBerry Rocks How to backup and restore your Blackberry (Even Cooler updated Screenshots)

TBTR (Comments are always welcome)

This post might get a little technical please forgive me a head of time for showing my full geekyness.

Wireless routers get older and older every day, if you were an early adopter of WiFi technology. The price and headache you paid in the early days is now a thing of the past. All good things must come to an end or end of life cycle in geek terms.

Most wireless routers were made with the future in mind by way of something called a firmware update.

What is firmware? According to wikipedia.org firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device. It can also be provided on flash memory or as a binary image file. This can be uploaded onto existing old or new hardware by a user.

Usually this gives the device new code that can fix issues (software bugs), add features, or totally change a device to do new, different and exciting things.

New is what happens when you install Tomato Firmaware on your old Linksys WRT54G, GL, GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom based routers.

Routers that are known to work with Tomato:

• Linksys WRT54G v1-v4, WRT54GS v1-v4, WRT54GL v1.x, WRTSL54GS (no USB support)
• Buffalo WHR-G54S, WHR-HP-G54, WZR-G54, WBR2-G54, WBR-G54, WZR-HP-G54, WZR-RS-G54, WZR-RS-G54HP, WVR-G54-NF, WHR2-A54-G54, WHR3-AG54
• Asus WL500G Premium (no USB support), WL500GE
• Sparklan WX6615GT, Fuji RT390W, Microsoft MN-700

This will not work on Linksys WRT54G/GS v5 or newer WRT54G/GS routers.

Your probably asking yourself why do I need this? Well the truth is you don’t need this at all. The reason why we talk about this today is to let you know that if you have an old wireless router mentioned above, and it’s crashing or your always having to reboot the unit. You don’t have to toss it you can update the unit and turn it into a super router.

With any firmware updates you run the risk of bricking your unit just be sure you can afford to do this before ever doing a unlicensed firmware update.

Other programs that do the same thing listed here:

• DD-WRT
• FreeWRT
• HyperWRT Thibor
• OpenWRT
• Tarifa
• X-Wrt

Have Fun.

TBTR

While I love technology I decided when the iphone came out not to even think about spending that kind of money to be what I called a “BETA tester”. If you were one of the lucky ones who was able to plop down the money then great for you, but I gotta ask how does it feel to pay Apple to test the iphone?

Fast Forward to last weeks introduction of the 3G iphone cost lower, but not really it’s hidden. Now I will not call the new iphone users “BETA testers” but I will say I envy you all and wish I could buy one but that’s a whole nother story.

Now to the problem yesterday I sent a co-worker here who has a new 3G iphone the corporate wifi key he wanted to connect with his new iphone. This wifi has the longest wireless key I have ever created about 63 characters and symbols long. Today I get an email from the users saying the key is wrong. I advised him it’s not wrong and if he paste and copy correctly he will then be able to use said wifi.

This is when I got the shocker…. he said he can’t copy and paste with the iphone. I was like WTF you got to be kidding me dude that’s some Bullshit. So I took a stroll down to his desk to see what the hell is wrong with this guy and I was about to caulk this up as another person with money that does not know how to use technology.

But to my surprise when I got there he was right I tried everything in the world to get this thing to copy and paste, well in the end it did not work. I guess this does not work because of the interface they use to make the screen touchable. To me I think they could have figured out a way to do it, but whateva.

While looking up how to cut and paste on the iphone I came across this video which shows you how this could work if they figured out a way to do it at Apple.

iPhone Copy and Paste from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.

I guess when you pay all that money they have to figure out a way to keep you pissed off waiting for the next update release in hopes of new features.

You would think that something so simple would already be built into the iphone, oh well.

Just for shits and giggles lets assume your out somewhere ladies and you see a hot guy with an iphone, tell him if he can cut, copy, and paste on his iphone you will go home with him no questions asked and do all the things he likes… Then when he has racked his brain and figured out he can’t do it say, I’m going over to the guy with the blackberry curve cause he can cut, copy and paste…

Disclaimer one day they will figure it out and when they do, don’t blame me if you didn’t get the memo and your still using the above joke, the joke will be on you, or maybe not…

TBTR

Every day there is something going on in technology that gets me excited. Today is another one of those days I caught wind that Netflix has finally finished working on it’s streaming video player. The device has been called “The Netflix Player” not the greatest of names but hey they probably tried really hard.

It looks like the player is gonna be an awesome device and another push by netflix to try an innovate. They really need to make some changes at netflix because of the pressure to perform and also to out do the competition blockbuster. As many of you know blockbuster is trying to buy out Circuit City if this happens Netflix is in real trouble without something new and innovative.

The Player instantly streams movies from Netflix directly to the TV. It’s a device that enables netflix subscribers to instantly stream over 10,000 movies in the Netflix arasonal. This does include the TV shows which have multiple disk, that will help the individual who loves old shows and wants to watch them over and over again. The only problem is they have not set up all the movies so the latest movies that are out are not streamable at this time, but I would guess it’s only a matter of time. I would say they should have new movies coming on line very soon. To me this means I can get my movies faster on release day I love being the first person at home to watch the new DVD’s.

The device features:

• Remote Control
• HDMI Port
• Componet Video
• S-Video
• Composite Video
• Digital Optical Audio
• Analog Stereo Audio

The device is priced at just $99.99 and is available for purchase as we speak.

Read more about this story here on the Roku site and the Press Release.