The user interface is no longer an underpowered version of the Windows desktop with a “Start” button and menu system. Instead, it is a series of large colorful tiles that expand into spaces. Each of these spaces is a window into a large pane that is full of information. Some of these spaces are dedicated to People, Music & Videos, and Pictures. Others are more business oriented like e-mail, search and office connectivity. The People space includes information gleaned from Facebook and presents a constantly updated view of your friend’s updates and profile pictures. This will attract the socially voracious younger crowd. The Xbox Live platform that is integrated into the device will also appeal to the younger user. Everyone loves Music, Videos and Pictures so these spaces will have broad appeal and are so well designed and tightly integrated with the phone that they surpass the iPhone. The business oriented space contains sophisticated Outlook-like e-mail that is constantly synchronized with Exchange server. It also synchronizes with Microsoft Office OneNote and SharePoint Server. These business functions put it ahead of all other phones and makes the Microsoft server offerings even more appealing.

The hardware that is planned for the Windows Phone 7 must adhere to a hardware specification that Microsoft has created. All the phones must have multi-touch screens, a powerful processor and three buttons for navigation. This is a departure from Microsoft’s laissez faire attitude from the past. Fortunately, it should help create a Windows Phone 7 experience that rivals Apple’s iPhone experience. The viewing spaces are all larger than the viewing area of the screen and are navigated by dragging them across the viewing area with your finger. Responsive hardware is critical to making the Windows Phone 7 navigation work well and feel like a quality product.

I am excited about Windows Phone 7, but not because it is a new generation device that integrates personal and business information seamlessly. I am excited about it because it is a new software platform that demonstrates Microsoft can still be creative when challenged. It has the potential to be much more than a phone platform. I believe that Microsoft could use it as a new tablet operating system. I can see it being more useful on a tablet form factor than the iPhone (or iPod Touch) operating system. It is more intuitive, more beautiful and encompasses everything that the vast majority of people would want to do on a tablet. I also think it is better than having Windows 7 on a tablet. It is perfectly geared for touch computing. I give Microsoft an A+ for Windows Phone 7 and for the potential that it has on other form factors.

To see demos of the user interface: http://www.windowsphone7series.com/

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

I purchased a CardScan 800c based on a recommendation from a colleague. I saw him scanning a stack of business cards effortlessly and asked him what he was using. He told me that he was using a scanner called “CardScan Executive.” He stressed the “Executive” part because he said that he had purchased a lower end unit from the company that he did not like. The “Executive” version is also known as the CardScan 800c.

The scanner is extremely easy to use. You connect it to your computer, load the software and start placing your business cards into it one by one. The unit will scan the card, save the image of the card and then recognize the relevant company, address, phone, fax, web site and e-mail fields. The data is automatically entered into the included organizer software. You can then verify that it has obtained the correct data by looking at it and the image of the card on the screen. From experience, I can say that it is over 90% accurate. It sometimes gets confused with elaborate logos that are placed on cards in lieu of the spelled out company name.

Once the data is in the organizer software you can have it synchronize with Outlook manually or automatically. This is a great feature and a time saver. I have it set up to automatically sync with

Outlook. Since I have my iPhone automatically synchronizing with my Outlook contacts, all it takes a simple and quick scan of a card to get all its data into my iPhone. This is how gadgets should work.

I am very happy with the scanner and with the results. I am even happier with the customer service that the company provides. Dymo is the company that sells the CardScan. My unit would not work after an upgrade to Windows 7 on my machine. I am not sure what happened to it, but after suggesting I try a new driver, reinstalling the USB cable and other things that I had already tried (I am a computer consultant.), the customer service representative thought that it might be a hardware failure. He sent me an RMA number so that I could return it to the company. Being without the unit for a few days and having to pack it up and send it were not an exciting prospect for me. However, the next day I was pleasantly surprised to receive a box from the company with a replacement unit and a prepaid Fedex slip to use for sending the defective one back. I unpacked the new unit, plugged it in and it has been working perfectly. I sent the other one back in the new unit’s box. That is what I call excellent service. I will buy products from Dymo before I ever buy from a competitor based on this excellent experience. Kudos to Dymo!

I wholeheartedly recommend this product.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Bing, chose to place some Christmas imagery on their home page, but chose to minimize the religious aspect of Christmas as well. By comparison, I must commend them on not ignoring a billion plus believers worldwide. They also included several linked areas of he images that include references to interesting facts about the decorations seen in Rockefeller Center. What I found the most heartwarming is that one of them uses the word Christmas. Bravo Microsoft! I think that I will advertise with your search engine and not Google’s.

The only way to stop large companies like Google from ignoring the beliefs, hopes and feelings of a large majority of the world is to vote with our pocketbooks. I, for one, do not intend on supporting Google. I will also limit any future positive blog entries about them. (If you look through the older entries here, you will see quite a few positive entries on various Google products or services.) Google ads have been removed from this blog and I will be removing them from my other web sites as time permits. It is only fair that their lack of respect be met with my indifference and total lack of support for their corporate empire building.

Merry Christmas world. Much love to every one on earth.

You would think that the United States military would be smarter than sending live video streams from multi-million dollar aircraft without encryption. Unfortunately, they are not. You can see the unencrypted, live feeds using this inexpensive software.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Once Windows 7 is released, Microsoft will try to never talk about Windows Vista again and will instead tout the great new improvements in Windows 7. This is not without precedent. The same thing happened with Windows Millennium Edition (Me). Most people have forgotten about Windows Me but it was the worst operating system that Microsoft has ever sold—far worse than Vista. It followed the successful Windows 95 and 98 and preceded Windows XP which was arguably the most hardy PC operating system produced by Microsoft so far. Maybe magic will strike twice and Windows 7 will be a huge success and, more importantly, be a solid replacement for Vista.

If you are a reader of this blog, then you know that I have been testing Windows 7 for some time. I have also been reporting about features that I find useful or interesting. I have found one that makes Windows 7 worthwhile to me. That is the “BitLocker To Go” feature. This is an extension of the BitLocker functionality that Microsoft released with Windows Vista Ultimate. BitLocker is still only available on the Ultimate version, but now comes with this additional feature that enables the complete encryption of external hard drives or USB thumb drives. I find this extremely useful because I am always worried about losing a USB drive with important documents or pictures that I would not want a stranger to have. With BitLocker To Go, I can live in peace knowing that my data is secured.

You enable it by inserting the removable device into the computer and then starting the BitLocker application. Once it is started, you tell it to encrypt the USB drive and give it a password. It takes care of the rest. The next time that you insert that USB drive into the computer it prompts you for the password before you can access the data on it. If you provide the password and check off an option on the screen, the PC will recognize that drive and make the files available each time that you plug it into that specific machine without you having to retype the password.

If you are wondering if that USB drive will then work on an XP machine, you are in luck. It does. When you insert the USB drive into the XP machine, it prompts you for the password and loads an application that lets you copy the data off the device and use it. However, one of these encrypted drives will not work on Apple Macintosh computers.

If you are like me and are worried about your laptop being stolen or lost, you can use BitLocker to encrypt the entire drive of your machine. The process is straightforward and works automatically. It takes a long time to process initially, but once completed, you have peace of mind. That hard drive’s data will be inaccessible without your password. This is the case even if the drive is removed and put into another machine.

To me, these two related data security features are enough of a justification for upgrading to Windows 7.

I have a data center in my office and power consumption is now my third largest expense after payroll and rent. It has become such a large expense that I have been looking at ways to trim it. My efforts have been concentrated on replacing older servers that were less efficient with newer ones and also consolidating wherever possible. With this news, I now have another avenue to explore.

MySpace’s move is smart. It is economics coupled with ecological responsibility. Bravo!

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

The user interface gives you tips on how to use the software. Once you are familiar with it, you can turn off the tips. I loved this feature and it is an excellent example of how good software should be written. Another feature that I think is fantastic is the undo feature. You can make as many changes as you want and then undo them if you think you have made a mistake or do not like the result. The “save” function will save the image in your “Camera Roll” and does not overwrite the original photo. I was unsure about this and was quite nervous to save my creation because I did not want to overwrite the original. I should have known that this would not be a problem.

The program will also allow you to upload to photoshop.com. I have not tested this feature yet, but you can sign up from within the program. I recommend this iPhone app wholeheartedly. Get your copy now!

I was very young when man first landed on the Moon, but I was fortunate enough to see it live on a small black and white television. It was one to those amazing and never-to-be-forgotten moments of my youth. I am hoping to witness a new landing on the Moon or perhaps Mars in my lifetime. If it happens, I will be able to watch it in high definition on a huge flat screen television set. I will be able to record it to Blue-Ray disks for future review and will also be able to direct my friends to watch specific moments of the landing on YouTube.com or Hulu. I don’t know about you, but to me this is all amazing progress. My hat is off to the engineers of this world—especially the ones who brought us the transistor and integrated circuit.

Google Fast Flip includes, among many others, The New York Times, Esquire, US, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and The Atlantic in its index. You can search for a topic or just peruse what Google displays for you. If an article grabs your attention, you can click on it to view it in its entirety on the publisher’s web site. This is a more visual way of looking at the news and improves on Google News—something that I have been happily using for over a year. Most of the magazines, publications and web sites that are included are liberal so this may not be a good choice for conservative-leaning readers. The image to the left shows a sample of what you will see on the site. (Please click on it to see a bigger version.)

When you click on one of the displayed news items, you are presented with the flip interface and Google ads. These are  now being displayed to the right of the articles that you are reading. Google has agreed to share ad revenues with the publishers that have partnered with them. This is a big difference between Google News and Google Fast Flip. The Google News product does not share (and perhaps does not generate either) any revenues with publishers. I suspect that Google Fast Flip will be more popular with content creators and publishers. The image to the right shows what you will see when you click on an article. Note that other articles are displayed on the left in a scrollable region. I recommend you give this web site a try. Let me know if you like it.

Beatles: Rock Band video game hit stores shelves yesterday and is on its way to becoming a major hit. Even my eleven year old sons want it and they had never even heard of the Beatles prior to this video game. They are more familiar with the new rock bands like Linkin Park. (Is that pronounced like Lincoln? I think I am too old to know for sure.) What I do know for sure is that Linkin Park is a real rock band. They do not put out pansy little songs like the Beatles did. I know I can expect a lot of vicious comments over this, but when think about it the Beatles’ biggest hits were silly love songs that Paul McCartney composed. I happen to like those songs, but my point is that they are not real rock.

News reports indicate that this video game is a huge success. Best Buy in NJ has reported that there were people lined up outside stores for a chance at being first to buy the video game. The game is available for the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The official web site is here.

I also wrote that I was upgrading some Mac Minis to the new 10.6 (known as Snow Leopard) version of the Mac OS. The good news is that the upgrade was inexpensive and relatively painless. It took slightly over an hour to upgrade each Mac. I had no glitches or problems and can report that the Macs are working fine and appear slightly faster. I cannot quantify this for you, but it is the feeling I get from using them. One thing that I am disappointed in is that I have yet to get the Exchange synchronization to work. It does not recognize my server in the office using a direct LAN connection and it does not recognize it from home using a fast Internet connection on both ends. I have not given up on making it work. It is the reason I upgraded. I suspect that there is a filter or firewall in the way that is not allowing the Mac Mail traffic to reach the server. I have one of Alonso Consulting’s best techs working on it.

One thing that I have not written about that much is Windows 7. I think the reason for this is that Windows Vista has been such a disappointment. Vista was and is beautiful and also graceful in the way it works, but it is a resource pig that is unacceptably slow. I have used Vista on two Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600 machines running at 2.4 Ghz with four cores and it sometimes took nearly half a minute to right click on a file to move or copy it. This is just the right click, never mind the copy and/or move which often did not work for inexplicable reasons. I found that a small Aspire netbook running Windows XP Home on a low powered Intel Atom processor often outperformed the faster machine running Vista. That is really pathetic performance for Vista.

Well, I am happy to report that I have upgraded three Vista machines to the Windows 7 and the performance has improved noticeably. The user interface for Windows 7 is still beautiful and elegant, but I found Vista’s more so. Maybe Window 7’s user interface will grow on me over time. I have found that devices work very well with the new operating system and that it was able to correctly identify everything connected to my machine. It shows even external hard drives by the name of the drive. For example, a My Book, shows up named as such in the “Devices and Printers” application. Other devices that are correctly identified are an Apple iPhone, various HP printers, the type of mouse, fingerprint reader and the monitor that I use. The version of Windows 7 that I installed is the Ultimate version and it is the final release that will be on sale in late October. I was able to download it from Microsoft because of Alonso Consulting’s  partner status with Microsoft.

Here is the bad news, it took over two hours for the upgrade from Windows Vista Ultimate. There were a few Dell applications on my system that the upgrade advised me to uninstall. It also did not like the version of Adobe Encore, iTunes and Norton Ghost that I had on my system. This is unfortunate since I use, Norton Ghost for my automated backup every week. When it advised me to uninstall all these apps, I removed the Dell apps and left the others. I also took out a few others that I knew I did not use. I needed a restart after the uninstalls and forgot about it. After going through the system check for about 20 minutes, I was told that the upgrade could not be performed until I rebooted. I rebooted and ran through the same system check for a third time before experiencing over two hours of the upgrade process including a few automated reboots. The Mac upgrade also took over an hour, but it was a little smoother.

On a Toshiba laptop that I upgraded, I was informed that the upgrade could not continue because the Vista that was installed was not Service Pack 1. I had to download that, install it and wait over an hour during that process and then upgrade to Windows 7. That really made me angry. I think the upgrade should work with any version of Vista and with any service pack level. I was also not pleased that I could not upgrade from the 32 bit version of Vista to the 64 bit version of Windows 7. To make that move requires a complete reinstall. Both of the Q6600 machines will support the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and Vista, but were sold to me with the 32 bit version.

That is all the news for now. I will update this blog as I discover more about the Mac Snow Leopard and Windows 7 upgrades.

If you go to Bing.com, the first thing you notice is that the search engine is the anti-Google. It has a beautiful home page with images that change with each visit. These background images load quickly, are not obstructive and can help you learn facts. For example, in a recent Bing visit, I was presented with an image of the Bastei bridge in Saxon Switzerland. By moving my cursor over a small square in the image, I was told that the bridge was constructed of sandstone in 1851. I was also given an option to learn more. Clicking on the link, brought up search results for the bridge and included a Wikipedia entry as the top result. This distracted me from my main search, “Robert Alonso,” (just kidding) but I can assure you that it was far more instructive. It gave me the feeling I would get scanning through microfiche of old newspapers and discovering something new that I did not know before.

You perform your search just like you would on Google. For example, the image below shows the results for a search for “Democrats fishy activities program.” If you look at the image, you will also notice that under the “Bing” logo and orange colored band on the left, there is a “SEARCH HISTORY” listing. I have removed mine for this image, but that comes in handy if you need to go back to a previous search. You also have the option of turning that feature off completely.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that you can move your mouse over any of the results and see a popup blurb of the content to be found on the site. This is very helpful for finding out if a result is what you are looking for without having to click through to the site. The third image below shows the popup blurb feature in action. To get it to appear, I placed the mouse over the second result and waited a few seconds. In some of these blurbs, you are also shown other links and prominent items that are found on the page. This gives you a very clear idea on whether to proceed or not.

These neat features aside, what really matters is finding what you are looking for. Bing compares very well with Google on relevance of results. In many tests that I have run, it actually does better. You can test this for yourself using this site: bing-vs-google.com. The site will give you a split view of the results from both engines side by side. This allows you to be the judge yourself.

Another feature that you are sure to like is that the left panel of the Bing results will show you meaningful links. The next image shows the results for a search on “Elisha Cuthbert,” an actress from the television drama “24” and from various films including, “The Gil Next Door.” You will notice that the results are very good and feature several images and the most likely sources of information including Wikipedia and IMDB. The left hand panel shows links to, “Images, Biography, Wallpaper, Posters, Fan Club, Interview and Videos.” These are the most typical results that people searching for her might want.

The next image shows what a search for “Bill Gates” delivers.

You will notice that the left hand panel is different and offers, “Images, Biography, Quotes, Books, Blog and Interview.” It is this kind of subject knowledge that makes Bing far superior and cooler. If you try entering a product name, like “Nikon D90” you are presented with a chart summarizing the camera, images and meaningful result listings. The left hand panel will give you relevant links that include the manual. This is very cool. There are many other features related to image and video searches, but I will recommend that you try them for yourself and let me know what you think in my comments section.

(I must also include a shameless plug. If you are needing help with search engine optimization (SEO), please contact Alonso Consulting. We will create a comprehensive plan for making your site appear higher in search results.)

Amazon has said that they mistakenly sold copies of the digital books without having the right to sell them. This may be true, but it still does not give them the right to delete them from personally owned devices. If this were allowed to stand as something that is acceptable corporate behavior, it would enable other companies to delete items from your computer, iPod or iPhone if they deem it to be pirated or objectionable for whatever reason. Now imagine a future where there are no paper copies of books, just electronic ones on devices like the Kindle. The government is taken over by, lets say left wingers, who want to eliminate all copies of Bill O’Reilly’s conservative books. They remotely delete them and all other conservative authors that they abhor. In that scenario, what can the regular guy do to get a balanced view of the world?

Amazon’s ill advised deletion should be the catalyst for congressional action. We need a Digital Rights Amendment that specifically details the rights of purchasers of digital content. It is outrageous to allow a corporation to go into our property and delete or take back something that you have paid for. It is also dangerous to a democratic society.

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon has apologized for his company’s action. Here is a quote from his apology:

Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

I accept his apology, but I do not accept his promise that Amazon will not delete books from end user devices going forward. I believe that the time is right for a law that prevents this type of abuse from occurring again in any form and from any source. What do you think?

I have grown accustomed to several open source applications on the PC. Three of these are TrueCrypt, FileZilla and VirtualBox. These are for encrypting volumes of files, using the FTP protocol for file transfers and creating virtual machines on the PC, respectively. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there were Mac versions of these available. I installed them and a few other very useful applications including Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac and am at the point where I could do all my work on the Macs and ignore the PC completely.

I am quite pleased with the way the Mac OS X works. It is pleasant and fast. I find the performance on a 2 GHz, dual core Intel processor with 1 GB of memory to be superior to the 2.4 GHz Intel quad core processor with 3GB of memory on my Vista PC. The only thing that I can’t stand is the crappy Mac keyboard that is flat and missing tactile feedback. I found a way of using an old IBM Model M keyboard with a Belkin USB to PS/2 Keyboard adapter and now feel more comfortable typing on the Mac.

Apple has a good thing going for itself requiring a Mac to develop apps for the iPhone. As we make progress on some applications, I will keep you posted on the progress. If you are looking for iPhone development, please consider my company; Alonso Consulting. We will deliver excellent results at a very reasonable cost.

To get this functionality now, in Vista you have to go to Start, Computer, select Map Network Drive and then click on the link that says: “Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures.” You are then taken to a wizard that walks you through a series of steps to connect to the WebDAV folder. This is not what I consider progress. Microsoft, how about a patch that fixes this downgrade to a real upgrade?

New functionality in the iPhone 3.0 software eliminates this hassle, albeit not perfectly. It now synchronizes the notes application on the phone with notes on your Outlook client, but only when the phone is physically connected to the machine with the Outlook software. It does not synchronize over the air like it does with email and contacts. This is an unfortunate limitation, but one that I will live with. To me, this was one of the most pleasant surprises of the new 3.0 software.

One improvement which is not getting a lot of attention is the built in Stocks application. This application allows you to track a portfolio of stocks. You simply look up the symbols and save it to the interface of the application. Figure 1 shows a sample portfolio with Ford Motors (F) highlighted. The upper part of the interface shows the stocks in your portfolio and their current prices (delayed 20 minutes.) You can press your finger on the colored area that shows the change in price and it will show you the percent change. This has always been the case, but the new software gives you an additional level of information. If you press a second time, you get the market capitalization of the stock.

Fig1. Stocks Base	Fig 2. Stocks News	Fig 3. Stocks Summary

The bottom portion of the screen shows a graph of the selected stock’s progress. You can select various time periods by pressing on “1d,” for today, “1w” for a week and continue increasing the time period as necessary by pressing the appropriate time period button. The new software adds the ability to scroll the entire graph region with your finger to obtain news on the selected stock. Figure 2 shows news for Ford.

Another scroll  to the right will display a summary screen on the stock. The summary screen shows the opening price, high, low,  volume, highs and market capitalization of the company. This is a very handy addition since getting this information in the past  required going to Yahoo! Finance. Figure 3 shows the summary screen.

Perhaps the most interesting improvement is the new landscape mode of the application. If you flip your iPhone (or Touch) on its side, you will see an enhanced graph of the price of the stock over time. You can then press your finger down on the display and move it to the left  or right on the display to get the price at any given point in the graph. The image to the left shows the graph with a vertical line through it showing the price at that point. That vertical line represents where my finger was on the screen when the screen was captured. If you use two fingers and spread them in opposite directions, you can  get the change in price for any period of time. The image below and to the right shows a range with a drop in value of 3.13% for Ford’s stock.

You can see the other stocks in your portfolio and stock indexes, by moving your finger along the top of the graph (where the symbol and date is displayed) to the right or left and the graph will change to the next or previous stock or index in your portfolio.

The functionality that this little application offers is just incredible. Just about the only improvement that you could ask for is real-time quotes. If that happens, then the iPhone will become and indispensible tool for anyone trading stocks seriously. My congratulations go to the developers of this handy tool. Bravo!

For the many who were probably caught unprepared for this, the FCC has established a hotline staffed by 4,000 operators to help you, You can call: 1-888-CALL-FCC. Alternatively, you can visit this government website: http://www.dtv.gov/

Does anyone remember analog cell phones, Betamax, VHS, LP record players, tape players, or heaven forbid, 8-Track players? If you do, you probably own a Sony Walkman tape player and need to upgrade to an iPod Touch. Get with it.

“Biography of the Dollar” by Craig Karmin is an excellent book that explains how the dollar rose to become the preeminent currency worldwide and why it is now under pressure from other currencies. The book was written and published prior to the current economic malaise, but I consider it indispensable reading for the meaningful insight that it will provide you. Through it, you will gain some understanding as to why all the economies of the world are hurting now that the United States is suffering.

The first chapter in the book deals with foreign exchange trading and the billions that are at stake. The author does this by going behind the scenes at FX Concepts; one of the leading currency trading firms in the U.S. The chapter is so well written that you feel that you are working at the company during some of the most stressful moments of trading. The second chapter covers the Bureau of Engraving and Printing which is the organization in charge of printing all the money in circulation. This chapter is fascinating and offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at how the dollar is made, distributed and tracked. The money ultimately makes its way back to the bureau where it is destroyed after it is too used to circulate. I also found the stories about crooks that have attempted to steal bills directly from the bureau riveting.

The third chapter is a history lesson on the rise of the dollar and the establishment of the Federal Reserve System. I found this chapter interesting and informative. In fact, it should be required reading for history and economics majors in college or maybe even in advanced high school history courses. The fourth chapter goes into great details into the economies of South American countries with an emphasis on Ecuador and its adoption of the dollar as its official currency. The dollarization of Ecuador led to economic stability in the country, but with some unforeseen costs. Chapter five gives us great detail about how Asian economies are now tied to the United States economy by way of their massive reserves of dollars. It also includes sobering information on how dangerous this is for both the Asian countries and the U.S.

The last chapter discusses a bank that allows United States citizens to save with the value stored in a foreign currency. The thinking behind these accounts is that the dollar is headed for a fall and having some of your assets in Euros or Yen might be a good idea. In general, the chapter deals with the potential fall of the dollar and the potential for other currencies to surpass the dollars preeminence. The current thinking is that the Yuan from China or even the Euro from the European Union may have a chance at displacing the dollar.

It will take much time for the dollar to lose its omnipotent position in the global economy, but it is not inconceivable that it could happen within a lifetime. If it does, it will have a huge impact on the country’s ability to borrow money, fund deficits and maintain trade imbalances. This is the book you should read if you want to understand economics at the global level—especially now with the global banking crises. It is thorough and informative, but does not require an advanced degree to understand. I give this book my highest recommendation and hope that new, updated versions are released regularly.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Sun acquired MySQL AB, a company distributing an open-source database server, for $1 billion about a year ago. Why Sun would have purchased a free database server for so much always eluded me. It did not make sense fiscally and did not appear to be a strategic fit–that is, unless the goal was to subvert the popular database and pass it along to Oracle.

The fact that Sun acquired MySQL may be the real reason Oracle acquired the company. If you take it a step further, maybe Sun acquired MySQL as a favor to Oracle or as a precondition for a deal. Oracle acquiring MySQL directly would not have passed the smell test with me or possibly with regulators.

This acquisition should be an indicator to the open source community that it is time to fork the MySQL development and come up with a new database server that Oracle does not control. What do you think?

Early reports are that the user interface is superb and resembles the user interface in the Zune. Unfortunately, the user interface will lack the multi-touch features found on the iPhone.  This will have the anti-PC crowd snickering.  Even Microsoft supporters, like myself, think that the omission of multi-touch is a serious deficiency. After owning and using over half a dozen Windows Mobile phones, I am an iPhone convert. It would take an amazing improvement to Microsoft’s software and its partners’ hardware for me to even consider switching back.

Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s MobileMe service is currently being tested. It is a free service that they are calling “My Phone.” The company has an opportunity to beat Apple with this service. It is supposed to offer backups of contacts and photos onto Microsoft servers.

In other related news, Microsoft announced that LG Electronics will be putting the new Windows Phone software on 50 of its smartphones. This should help Microsoft establish this new version (6.5) of Windows Mobile. Microsoft currently trails Symbian and Research in Motion, but is ahead of Apple’s iPhone in terms of smartphone market share.

Although these moves may make Microsoft more competitive and help it maintain or gain market share, it really needs a new game changing user interface and hardware combination. Playing catch-up  is not the way Apple rocketed from no market share to fourth place. Apple’s game changing iPhone is arguably in first place in terms of “cool” factor, ease of use and momentum.

We’ll see soon enough what effect the new software and relationship with LG will have, but I believe that Microsoft needs to stop designing software in number increments. It needs to set up mini-Microsofts with creative designers and programmers to create new, innovative products outside of the myopic vision of the parent behemoth.

Apple is the new Sony when it comes to portable music devices. Sony lost its dominance by allowing Apple to be hipper and to deliver a better music experience. It is doubtful that Sony can dethrone Apple any time soon. Apple appears to have learned from Sony’s folly and competes with itself by introducing new more exciting products each year–something that Sony did not do.

When Sony achieved some attention in the computer business, it sold expensive desktops and notebooks called VAIOs. This acronym stood for Video Audio Integrated Operation. I thought it was an excellent idea. Sony was going to make the PC an exciting platform for audio and video. This acronym was introduced in 1998, years ahead of the PC becoming a multimedia platform. Here, Sony would have had the lead and perhaps dominance if it were not for the fact that the machines were and continue to be prohibitively expensive. You can get a PC or notebook with equivalent specifications for a third to a half what Sony charges.

It seems that Sony is abandoning the original meaning of VAIO. They are now saying that it means, Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer. This new meaning will be applied to a new level of software and product integration. Who knows, maybe there is hope for Sony still? It will undoubtedly be difficult for them to catch up to Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer in terms of products and market penetration. They have also expressed their unwillingness to compete in the netbook area where Asus and Acer are now dominating.

The Sony record on video is also haphazard. It lost the Betamax vs VHS format war in the mid 80s. This in spite of the fact that Betamax was introduced one year before VHS and was a superior format. The HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray format war has been won by Sony, but the format has not caught on. The high price and market dominance of DVDs have stalled Sony’s efforts in this market. The fact that you can purchase a DVD player with technology that scales the video to high definition levels for under $50 has certainly had an impact on Blu-Ray sales.

Likewise, Sony failed to anticipate the popularity of flat-screen televisions. It was so dominant with the Sony Trinitron TVs, that it ignored the demand for the newer technologies. It entered the market late and was forced to repackage Samsung LCDs with the Sony logo on it. When they did this, the market was dominated by Sharp–a company that was always known in the past as a tiny, low-quality competitor. Now, Sony is faced with many competitors that have better or equal products for half the cost of an equivalent Sony product.

The last consumer oriented segment that Sony is losing is the game machine market. Sony got into this market late, but managed to beat out many very successful competitors with its PlayStation (1994) and PlayStation 2 product lines. These game machines were the first to exceed sales of 100 million units. Unfortunately for Sony, it now has two very significant competitors in this market. Microsoft has entered the market with its Xbox and Xbox 360 product and Nintendo has entered the market with a low cost game machine called the Wii. Sony is getting squeezed from the bottom by the Wii and is getting pressured by Microsoft to lower the price of the PlayStation 3. Sony is in a very difficult position. The inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PlayStation 3 helped it win the format war with HD-DVD, but makes it difficult for the game machine to be competitive with Microsoft and Nintendo. We will see how this works itself out in the next year.

So I go back to the title of this post, Sony, what happened to you? How could you be dominant in so many consumer electronics product categories and lose on almost all counts? What will you do to regain your greatness? Maybe you should merge with Apple and have Steve Jobs direct your efforts.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Acer was, until recently, barely known in the United States. Those that knew of the company thought of its products as second rate and cheap. It appears that Acer is about to change that perception. The introduction of the Acer Aspire One has made me excited about notebooks for the first time in years. This tiny ultra-portable machine has all the power you need and weighs only 2.19 pounds.

I recommend this notebook to anyone who travels frequently. It is small, light and fully functional. What more can you ask for?

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

The Internet has changed that. Children today want information instantly. They do not use card catalogs, but instead they "Google." Because of this reality, it is increasingly difficult to get children to walk in through the door of a library. Being a father of five, I know that today’s younger generation relies heavily on the Internet for its research and information. They do not even use encyclopedias like the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Instead, they look things up in the free and user generated Wikipedia.

How can libraries thrive in such an environment? They must be seen by children as exciting destinations that are linked to the Internet and that can provide a rich multimedia experience including books, DVDs, magazines and Internet access. Many libraries have already transformed themselves into rich information centers. This is a winning strategy that must be coupled with a strong marketing message. Children and other visitors must know what they will be getting if they visit the library. That is where an excellent web site makes the difference; it is the ultimate public relations tool.

My firm, Alonso Consulting, has been designing web sites for libraries for over two years. We designed a site for the West Milford Public Library that won the New Jersey Library Association’s Public Relations award for 2007. We have also designed web sites for Palisades Park and Butler Library in New Jersey. The Palisades Park site not only showcases the library as an exciting community resource, but also presents some information in Spanish and Korean–two significant audiences in the area. Our involvement in the project included visiting the library several times to plan the site, taking photographs, creating multiple designs and developing the selected design complete with pictures, text and bright colors that would attract people. The goals of the library director, Susan Kumar, were met with the design. She wanted a site that was colorful, informative and modern in every way.

Libraries with an unattractive web site, or that look outdated, will not get the same attention as a bright, friendly site. When I search the Internet for libraries,I frequently find sites that are created by volunteers that have minimal experience with designing usable web sites, or with picking colors and pictures that work on the web. In fact, many library sites were created with a Microsoft Office FrontPage page generator several years ago. Although libraries are fortunate to have volunteers willing to help them with their efforts, they are better served by a professional effort. A web site designed by professional services firm can expand the reach of the site through the use of design principles and expertise that will draw in more viewers. A professional effort can also help the site get a higher rank in search engines like Google which will also draw in some of the younger audiences that the libraries need.

Libraries of all sizes need to present what they offer in a way that makes local "customers" want to come in and browse. If this is done, libraries will continue to be important disseminators of information and knowledge. I’m rooting for their success. I really want my children to experience the joys of reading and learning that are uniquely available in a library.

The next step was to check PayPal to make sure funds were there. I logged in and saw that there were two pending eCost transactions in my account. I called eCost and told a customer service representative about the problem. She volunteered to call PayPal with me to have the pending charges removed since there were no orders in the eCost system. The PayPal representative had no idea how to handle the problem and kept insisting on getting an order number to be able to help. It was like listening to a broken record that keeps skipping back to the same line, "Sir, I need an order number." (I know I’m dating myself with this reference to "record." You can substitute "scratched CD" if you are under 30.)

Both the eCost representative and I requested a manager. We were put through to someone claiming to be a supervisor. This "customer service" representative from PayPal was even worse than the first one. Furthermore, she was unfriendly and would not help under any circumstance. She also would not transfer me to someone with more authority. I ended the call in complete frustration and requested that eCost handle the matter since their system caused the problem.

That was two and a half weeks ago and I still have the two pending charges on my PayPal account and the eCost representative has been avoiding contact with me. This is frustrating and should never happen. I am ready to close my PayPal account–an account that I have had in good standing since 2000. I also ordered the camera from Amazon.com. I have never had any customer service issue with them.

If you think this is an isolated problem, think again. There is a web site you can visit called, PayPalSucks.com. There you will see examples of other issues. In frustration, I contacted Sridhar Nagarajan, Head of Service Quality, Global Consumer and Merchant Services at PayPal through my LinkedIn.com account and received no reply. I guess service quality is not important at PayPal.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Each chapter is dedicated to one form of irrational behavior. This keeps things simple and makes the book easier to read and digest. The authors are two brothers; Ori and Rom Brafman. Their writing style is enjoyable and full of examples from real life studies that are easy to relate to. One of these involves first round NBA picks and how they are likely to perform versus other players with identical skills who are not first round picks. The answers are quite revealing and will teach you that it is important to be a better judge of skills and character.

Other examples in the books show how compensating people with bonuses can sometimes be detrimental to achieving the desired results. It turns out that we are more willing to help someone for free than we are to help if we are offered a token of appreciation that we do not value much. The authors and the studies that they cite contend that the brain processes altruistic responses in a distinct part of the brain that is often at odds with the part of the brain that wants compensation or pleasure. They maintain that these two areas of the brain compete when something is perceived as both altruistic and rewarding.

I recommend the book. You can get your copy at Amazon or other book stores everywhere.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

As you might expect, all is not perfect–it never is. Apple has demonstrated remarkable greed with the release of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. One example of this is that many of the cables that worked with previous iPods do not work with the new iPod Touch or iPhone. These include car chargers and USB docking stations not sold or licensed by Apple. The iPod Touch and iPhone do not have a way of outputting video to a TV set without an Apple purchased cabled that plugs into the flat connector at the bottom of the unit. The standard AV mini plug only outputs audio. Previous iPod generations sent audio and video out through the jack. The cables were swapped around to encourage people to pay extra for the Apple branded cable. The new setup apparently checks for some Apple chip or signal and requires the Apple part. This is just greedy on Apple’s part.

The cable situation made a video cable that I owned, a car charger and travel charger obsolete. Needless to say, I am not happy about this. Since I have owned several iPods over the years, I also own a Bose SoundDock for listening to music in my kitchen and dining area. It also has served as a charger for the kids iPods and my wife’s iPod. Unfortunately, the new iPhone will not charge on the Bose device. It says that it is not a compatible device. This is one of the premier third party products for the iPod line and Apple has now made it less useful to me. It can play music from my iPhone, but will not charge. Again, this is Apple greed.

One would think that Apple would not have made the Bose SoundDock user base experience any problems, since they now resell the dock on their web site. Perhaps newer models do not experience the issues that I am experiencing. These signs of Apple greed will make me think twice about further purchases from the company.

Other issues that I have experienced with the iPhone include poor data connectivity and no signal for calling. At seemingly random times, I cannot access web sites or my e-mail through the device. It often seems that it is not the connections, but instead some sort of DNS resolution issue. DNS resolution is when a server is called upon to convert a web site address like alonso.com to the numeric address for the server on which it resides. The “no signal” issue has plagued the iPhone from the very first day that I had it. I will get a message that there is no signal and will need to restart the device for it to find a signal. This is reminiscent of restarting a Windows PC that is running a bit slowly.

Although every issue I’ve mentioned so far takes away from what could otherwise be a perfect product, the one issue that really rankles me the most is that you cannot buy applications from anyone other than Apple. This was presumably done to guarantee the quality of the applications. I can tell you that having downloaded dozens of applications (some of which I have removed now) most of them are full of bugs and crash all the time. I use the New York Times application to read articles from the paper on-line and have to load it at least four times to get through a lengthy article. It continually crashes without any error message. Apple is not delivering a quality experience with the third party software. Unlike music which you can buy from Apple or from any third party and then install on your iPod with the iTunes software, the applications have to purchased and downloaded from Apple. This give Apple the ability to prohibit certain types of applications. One application that was released on the Apple store–presumably by mistake–called Netshare was removed and has not been seen since. It enables an iPhone 3G owner to share the 3G connection using WiFi so that a laptop can connect to the Internet through the iPhone. I managed to get a copy while it was listed, but now have no way up getting upgrades. This is horrible market control and should be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Now it is up to you to decide whether you can live with Apple’s greed and ridiculous control.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

One thing can be conclusively said about the book; it is brilliant. It shows that a brilliant person can mix good writing, historical context, scientific fact and inspirational advice in one very readable text. Mr. Mlodinow is not a novice at the enterprise of writing. He has written books with Stephen Hawkings (“A Briefer History of Time”) and has written books about Feynman and Euclid–both notable scientist in different fields.

The Drunkard’s Walkeffectively discusses the hidden role of chance in everyday situations. It also discusses the history of the study of probability and the stories of the people that moved it forward. Some of the names are well known and others not at all. I was personally amused by the story of Gerolamo Cardano who was born by accident and who was so frail that no one believed he would survive. He faced the Black Death plague and though his nurse and brothers died, he survived with some facial disfigurements. Against his father’s wishes he decided to study medicine. He had to support himself and chose to so with games of chance. This decision led to his writing, “Book on Games of Chance” which Mlodinow says covers card games, dice, backgammon and astragali. According to him, this book represented a beachhead on “the human quest to understand the nature of uncertainty.” Without repeating all of Cardano’s accomplishments or the significance of these here, I can tell you that the most amusing part of the story is that Cardano did not want his book published lest his competition in games of chance learn his many secrets.

Mlodinow teaches you probability and statistics and many other scientific facts and theories through stories that present a human dimension to the facts. It is this that makes the book fun to read and easy to recommend. What made the book extremely worthwhile to me as someone who runs a small business is a quote from the last chapter in the book: “What I’ve learned, above all, is to keep marching forward because the best news is that since chance does play a role, one important factor to success is under our control: the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the number of opportunities seized. For even a coin weighted toward failure will sometimes land on success.”

You can get your copy at Amazonor other book stores everywhere.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

The name of this service almost says it all. It is a web-based service that enables you to easily synchronize files from one computer to another and to store copies on the Syncplicity servers. This service is free for now, but will have a fee structure associated with it soon.

You use the service by downloading and installing a small application that integrates with Explorer. During the setup of the application, you tell it which folders you want to keep synchronized and it begins to upload the content of those folders to the Syncplicity site. Once the process is completed, you can view your documents from the site, you can download them, you can share them with others or you can synchronize them with another PC. The service is so versatile that it even has an iPhone interface at http://m.simplicity.com.

I have uploaded some pictures that I took on a recent trip. These are now available for me to share with others or to synchronize with my other computers. This is my way of testing the system. I am still not comfortable placing confidential data on their servers. You may not be either. Synchronizing encrypted documents, however, should be alright.  You can read more about it or even watch a video of how it works at http://www.syncplicity.com.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

The Airport Express takes this a step further. This inexpensive device lets you stream music from any iTunes installation to a distant location in your home wirelessly. You can set these up in your living room and family room and iTunes will recognize them and allow you to send music to one or more of the devices. But the best part is that you can control the music from Remote on your iPod or iPhone.

I purchased two of these after I saw how useful the Remote application was. I did not have high expectations for the devices since I know how imperfect a wireless connection can be. I was pleasantly surprised. The devices are incredibly easy to set up. You plug one into the wall and you see that an LED flashes yellow. You insert the Apple CD into your wireless notebook and it automatically finds the device. You then tell the software wether you are setting up a new wireless network or integrating the device into an existing one. If it is an existing one, it allows you to pick which one from a list and to then enter the password for it. After this step is completed, you name the device. In my case, I called one, "Living Room" and the other one, "Family Room." The configuration is saved to the device and the LED begins to flash green. That’s it. You are done. You can now unplug it and put in the desired location and plug an audio cable from it to your stereo. iTunes will find the Airport Express and display it as a viable speaker set. You can also see it from Remote.

I wish all software and hardware combinations were this easy. It is truly remarkable.You can buy one hereat Amazon.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

I have only used it for a day, so there will be more detailed posts in the future. My testing so far has revealed that the software synchronizes with an Exchange Server remarkably well. It can use the push or fetch method for getting your information. When you get e-mails, the mail icon on the home page of your device tells you how many messages you have received. You click on the icon with your finger and start reading your e-mails by clicking on a mail item with your finger and navigating through the message with finger motions. All e-mail messages are displayed in their full HTML. You can magnify a message if it looks too small by using two fingers to expand away from a center point. The converse motion, shrinks the message. It is easy, beautiful and intuitive–the way software should work. (Are you listening Microsoft?)

Your calendar is also synchronized and displays pending appointments on the startup screen you see when you turn on your iPod. You can also browse through your calendar by using finger motions. For example, if you want to see tomorrow’s appointments, you simply drag your finger across the screen towards the right and they are displayed.

You can browse through contacts from multiple contact folders in your Exchange Server and also from contacts that are discovered and not necessarily entered into a contacts folder. I am not sure how this works yet, but it appears to scan e-mail addresses of people that you have communicated with. You can select which group of contacts to display or you can select to see them all at once.

Another interesting feature in the new software is that you can now save images that you see on web pages in Safari. These images can then be synchronized to your desktop when you connect the iPod. They appear as an imager folder would when you are using a camera. I love how this works.

The App Store is a feature that Apple likes to talk about. The reason is obvious–they will make money off the purchases made. I have tried the App Store directly from the iPod and can tell you that it is elegant. You can browse by category of applications and download and install them with two clicks and your iTunes password. I installed a few free applications. These were the New York Times, Paypal, Bank of America, Facebook and Remote applications. The names are self explanatory, except for the Remote application. It allows you to use your iPod as remote control application for your iTunes library. You can access all of your music and pick songs to play on your computer from anywhere that you have a wireless connection. If you have your computer connected to stereo equipment you have the makings of an unbelievable jukebox. The Remote software is free.

So far, my experience has been so magical that I am considering getting an iPhone so that I can use all the functionality while out of range of my WiFi signal.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

The author chides the reader into thinking counterintuitively and into moving forward with action. He believes that today’s business environment requires that you do things Fast, Good, Cheap and then Add Something Extra. He warns readers of the dangers of complacency in the new global economy and also explains the dangers that the Internet has created for businesses that do not perform well. For example, if you did not satisfy a customer in the past, you could suffer from bad word of mouth that could affect ten or more people. With the Internet, the same dissatisfied customer could post information about his experience on a blog and affect the opinion of hundreds or thousands of people. I believe what Mr. Sheahan writes completely because I have posted comments on this blog about unsatisfactory experiences with preferredphoto.com and with the Maestro 4250 GPS and know that dozens of Google searches bring dozens of readers to those experiences every week.

Like most business books, some of the advice is obvious. For example, the book has a chapter on the fact that business is personal. This is obvious to anyone who has owned or managed a business. People do business with people they know and trust. Mr. Sheahan makes the point that one way to compete with the threat of cheaper global labor is to stress the fact that you are local and trustworthy. He uses as an example a laser eye surgery that he underwent. He had the choice of having it done for a fraction of the cost overseas, but chose a local doctor after the doctor explained to him that Sheahan’s condition meant something to the doctor and would affect him if he did not do it right. He told him that in a foreign country, the doctor would not be worried about his reputation or about any malpractice.

I recommend “FL!P” because it is a good and entertaining read, because it inspired me to action and because it is well researched. Buy a copy and read it, you won’t regret it.

You can get FL!P here.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Downloading and Installation

The first thing I did was search for "Skype" on Google and found that the first listing is the web site for Skype. The Google listing is very well organized and has links to all the areas of the Skype web site that you might want to visit. I went right to the download page, but then decided to do some reading before actually downloading and installing the software. After a few page reads, I decided that it was alright to download this software. It took a few minutes to download. I chose to run it directly after the download. The install process was smooth and took only a few minutes.

Configuring Skype

After the install completed, the Skype software requires that you choose a user name and give it an e-mail account and password. This took me a little longer than is probably usual because I am very picky about user names and do not like names like "robertalonso56897." Since every variation of my name was taken, I settled for "alonso.consulting." (Now, readers of this blog have another way to reach me…)

Test Call and Contacts

Skype automatically loaded my contacts from my Outlook. This was something that I found a little disconcerting. I still don’t know if this information resides on my local machine only or if they uploaded it somewhere. I am very leery of cloud computing when it comes to my contacts and financial data. I then tried a test call to an automated system that Skype provides and discovered that my microphone was not working properly. Once that problem was fixed I was ready to call people.

Calling People

You can call people on Skype by finding their listing in the directory. You can search by name, Skype name or e-mail address. Once you have found someone you know, you add them to your contacts and that person is notified that you are attempting to add them. They can accept or decline you. Once they accept you, you can click on that person’s name in the Contacts tab and the Skype software literally rings on their end. When they answer, you can talk as if your were on a phone, you can watch each other if you have a web cam and you can also text message and send files to each other. If you become a big user of the service, you can buy a Skype certified headset that includes a microphone for about $29.

After my initial calls from my PC, I downloaded the software for my Smartphone and was pleasantly surprised to see it work through my phone’s data plan. That is what I call very cool.

Although I did not try it, you can also call contacts that are not on Skype. You need to pay to call land or cell lines, but the fee is very reasonable at $.021 per minute.

Final Thoughts

I recommend this service because it is unobtrusive, works reasonably well and is mostly free. I do have a warning for you if you decide to use it: Skype’s terms of use allows them to monitor your conversations, web video and text messages as well as your contact relationships for the purposes of improving the service and providing you with goods and services that you might want to purchase. I found that more than a little creepy–so think about it before using the service. You should also note that the service is owned by eBay.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

There are so many things wrong with it that I could write a very lengthy entry on all the items. Rather than bore you with every problem, I will concentrate on the two that really bother me. The reason that I have purchased Windows Mobile phones is to read e-mail and do light Internet browsing. Other than synchronizing with Exchange, the e-mail client and Internet Explorer version in Windows Mobile are absolute garbage. I am especially disappointed in the Windows Mobile 6 version because I expected so much more.

I purchased a new phone to “upgrade” from Windows Mobile 5. The reason I made this purchase was to get the extra functionality that I believed was in Windows Mobile 6. I naively believed the marketing hype that I could read my e-mail in HTML and that attachments that were in the newer Office 2007 format could be read with it. Neither one of these is really true out of the box. When you start using a Windows Mobile 6 phone you immediately realize that you need to have Exchange 2007 as the back-end server for your e-mail in order to see HTML e-mails. Otherwise, “HTML” is not available as a message format. I was using the previous Exchange version. Other features like searching through your messages on the server or marking them for follow up also require that you have Exchange 2007 server. I used a workaround to get my HTML messages. I created a separate e-mail account on the phone and used IMAP as the protocol. I set it to download a few times a day and was able to read messages in HTML this way. This proves that there was no real need for Exchange 2007, except for Microsoft’s desire to force you to purchase the server upgrade as well.

The reason I call Windows Mobile 6 lame is that any software that forces you to use a workaround to get something done is obviously seriously flawed. The magnitude of lameness is incredible. Once I upgraded to Exchange 2007, I could stop downloading my e-mail twice–once through the ActiveSynch method and once through IMAP to get HTML messages. After using HTML extensively, I realized that Windows Mobile does a horrible job of rendering the messages and also has problems with scrolling horizontally through a message. You first have to tell the program that you want to scroll horizontally rather than being taken to the next message in your inbox.

Windows Mobile 6 also does not support Office 2007 file formats. You first have to download a free upgrade to get this functionality. This takes up more memory on your device and is a feature that I was expecting to have the moment I turned on my device. The Office 2007 reader programs are part of what Microsoft calls Windows Mobile 6.1. You can download this upgrade here. The only positive thing I can say about this upgrade is that it is free. Apple would have probably charged $20–like they did with the iPod Touch recently.

Internet Explorer is also very weak on Windows Mobile 6. It is better than in previous versions, but it offers a tiny window into the web. In fact, when I first purchased my phone, my bank did not support my phone and I was not able to do on-line banking with my “upgrade”  to Windows Mobile 6–something that I was able to do with my Windows Mobile 5 phone.

The Safari browser on the Apple iPhone and Touch makes Microsoft’s attempt look feeble. I have both and can tell you that the Windows Mobile 6 browser feels like riding a tricycle–you can get there, but you better pedal like hell and hope for some down hills. Safari makes you feel like you are using a fast titanium-built racing bike. The Apple browser works exceptionally well and is ultra-fast. The marvelous touch based interface just makes it an exhilarating experience. Are you listening Microsoft?

It is time for Microsoft to give up on Windows Mobile altogether. It is too tied to other Microsoft products and the development mindset appears to be to create a mini-Windows. To really innovate, Microsoft needs to stop thinking about the “Start” menu and program menus and all other things that are Windows-like. Start fresh. Use inspiration. Hire new people and do extensive usability research. Otherwise, Microsoft’s mobile platform will become irrelevant.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

It turns out that it was a big mistake on my part. I received an e-mail from preferredphoto.com asking me to call them to clarify something in my order. I called repeatedly and got a voice mail box that was full for the extension that I was supposed to call. I also go a full mailbox for their main extension. Three days later, a representative called me and offered to sell me add on products. When I declined, I was offered an extended warranty since "the manufacturer hardly covers the product at all." I told the caller, I had certain expectations when placing an order and one of them was not to be called with additional offers. The rep told me not to get preachy with him and that the total would come to $129 and some change including the "handling fee." I promptly told him to cancel my order because I did not want to do business with a sleazy company. He, of course, said I would not find the product at that price anywhere. Even if that is true, this kind of behavior cannot be encouraged. I would rather go without the product.

Here is my recommendation: Steer clear of preferredphoto.com and give your money to a company that will deliver what they say they will at the agreed upon price.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

The newest Tivo’s allow you to use features from the Internet. Mine is connected to the Internet using a high-speed cable connection. With it, I can access Yahoo! functionality, I can purchase or rent Amazon movies from Unbox, or even transfer video to and from my PC. This latter feature is accessed using a piece of software called Tivo Desktop.

The latest version of Tivo Desktop allows you to send Podcasts to your Tivo for watching on your TV. I have subscriptions to a few technology Podcasts trough iTunes that my Tivo Desktop software transfers to my Tivo. It is a winning combination. The software comes in two versions–a free version and one that is priced at around $25. The paid one let’s you convert movies that you record on your Tivo to your portable devices–including your iPod. This makes it an excellent tool for two way use of your media.

As if these features were not enough to make me love my Tivo, there are two more features that you should know about. You can watch your pictures and listen to digital music files that are on your PC or home network on your TV. These features make the Tivo/Tivo Desktop 2.6 combination the ultimate (legal*) home entertainment system.

*The reason I say legal is that you can get many of these features in a more refined form from XBOX Media Center. This software runs on modified XBOXs and is free open source software. Additional versions of the software are being worked on by volunteers now.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

You can buy Apple’s cable and pay $19.99 or you can use a standard 3.5 mm A/V cable with a three plug RCA output. Contrary to what Apple would want you to believe, a standard cable will work. It is just a matter of deciphering what Apple did to make it look like it wouldn’t.

Apple changed the order of the signals sent out from its jack so that the video signal would not come out of the standard yellow RCA plug. Instead it comes out of the red one. If you have a standard A/V cable (You can buy one for about $5.97 at Amazon.com.) you simply plug the cables in as follows:

Red RCA to Yellow jack
Yellow RCA to White jack
White RCA to Red jack

A more recent example of this nickel and dime attitude is evident with the iPod Touch–a device that costs several hundred dollars. To watch video on a TV, it requires an expensive cable that connects to the special Apple port on the bottom of the device. It costs $49 and was designed so that people like me would not circumvent the Apple tax on an already expensive device. To force you to buy the cable, Apple crippled the 3.5 mm A/V port on the Touch so that it would only output audio. As silly as it may sound, I refused to buy this cable and decided to forego using the iPod touch with a TV. It wasn’t the $49 so much as Apple’s price gouging. Fortunately for me (and Apple), a person who knows how stubborn I can be, decided to buy it for me as a gift. (I still have not opened the box and have considered returning it.)

The most egregious gouging that Apple is guilty of is charging $20 extra for five applications that were shipped with the iPhone, but not on the iPod Touch. These applications are stocks, weather, notes, mail, and maps. These are small widget-like applications and not extensive tools. Thousands of Touch owners have complained about this extra charge and signed an on-line petition, but Apple has not budged on this extra fee. It is particularly galling since these new applications are now included in the 32 GB iPod Touch at no extra cost. Those of us that supported Apple from the start and purchased the 8 GB and 16 GB versions are basically told “too bad.”

There is a rumor that the 2.0 version of the iPod Touch and iPhone system software will be free for iPhone users, but cost another $20 (maybe more) to current iPod Touch users. This update will include Microsoft ActiveSync technology for synchronizing with an Exchange Server. Many users will want this upgrade. Apple is counting on this so that it can once again nickel and dime another $20.

Don’t get me wrong, charging for upgrades is fine. I have no problem with a business making money. I just get the feeling that Apple tries to get ancillary revenue on many small and often ridiculous items. I think that it should clearly announce its intent to charge for all minor upgrades and to admit that it treats iPod Touch customers as inferior to iPhone customers. We can then decide to go along with the program or select a competing product like the Microsoft Zune.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Without getting into every detail of the device I will tell you the good, the bad and the ugly and let you decide whether you want one or not.

The Good

The Maestro does and excellent job of guiding you from one location to another. It synchronizes with GPS satellites almost instantly and works well even inside a building that has notoriously bad reception of all other radio signals. I love that it chimes at the exact spot that you have to make a turn and warns you in advance verbally when you need to make an upcoming turn. The voice it uses is pleasant. It also understands voice commands and has an excellent user interface for entering destinations. You can start with a Zip Code, enter the first few letters of the street name, select the right one from a list and then enter the numerical address and you are on your way.

It has so many excellent features that it is impossible to describe them all without turning this into a user’s manual.

The Bad

Unfortunately, like all good things, there is a bad side to this GPS device–it sucks as a speaker phone. Please note the strong use of the word, “sucks!” The speaker is tiny. The volume is inaudible and the device never reconnects with your phone when you leave and reenter your vehicle. You have to go through the menus and find your phone and reconnect manually. This renders it completely unusable and makes it a gimmick rather than a feature. It is perplexing that the sound is such a problem since the sound for the street directions is crystal clear and adjustable. I read in on-line postings that this would probably be fixed in the next firmware. The current one is 2.24.

The Ugly

After reading that a firmware update would fix the problem, I searched the Magellan web site to find an update and could not find one. I then searched for a customer service number and called it. Their customer service sucks more than the speaker phone issue. Apparently, the customer service department is outsourced to a foreign country and the people there are complete idiots. The woman who spoke with me was more interested in getting information about who I was and where I was calling from than solving my problem. This little fact is particularly annoying since she did not use this information to call me back as she said she would at the end of the call. The support agent’s idea of customer service was looking up what I was asking about on the web site. I told her that I had already searched the web site and needed to know when a new firmware release would be forthcoming. All she could say is that one was coming, but that she did not know anything about the timeframe. I then asked her what the current version of the firmware was to see if I had the most recent and she could not answer this question. When pressed, she agreed to call me back with the information. It has been a week and no call back yet. This is pathetic and should not be called “customer service.”

I have some advice for consumer goods companies; bring customer service departments back to the United States and give them real information so that they can help customers. This is not the first time that I have experienced horrible support from off-shore call centers.

If you are interested in finding out more about the device, reading other reviews or buying it, go here.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

OpenDNS provides a free service that allows you to send all your DNS requests to them. When you use OpenDNS, they can provide you with a foolproof way of locking out sites that you do not want your children exposed to or that you do not want employees visiting. I have been using OpenDNS for both my office network and home network for months and can attest to the excellence of the service.

Signing up is easy. Just visit http://www.opendns.com and click on “Get Started.” You will be able to block content by categories, like adult sites, gambling, webmail and many other categories. You will also be able to block specific sites and to exclude sites that fall within a blocked category, but you find acceptable. In addition to this, you get phishing protection against malicious web sites that mimic real sites for the purpose of stealing your passwords.

One of the usability enhancements that OpenDNS provides is typo correction. that will attempt to take you to the site you intended to visit even if you typed a couple of transposed letters. It also gives you another time saver–shortcuts. You can use this to set up words that you type into the browser address bar  like “mail” to automatically take you to any page you want. “Mail,” for example, can be set to take you to your web-based e-mail. I had some fun with this feature by setting up “handsome” to take family members to a picture of myself on the Internet. Your imagination can guide you to the many uses for this feature.

I recommend this service wholeheartedly. Alonso Consulting can help you set it up should you have any difficulties. Please call us at (973) 575-1414.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting