CNN’s The 10 biggest tech ‘fails’ of 2010

CNN just published their list of the biggest tech failures of 2010.

The 10 biggest tech ‘fails’ of 2010

ReBoot – My Affair with My iPhone Continues

It has been 2 years since I have been having an affair with my phone – my iPhone. I recently upgrade to iPhone 4 and boy I am not disappointed. Why should I be? After all it is an Apple product.

I was using my iPhone 3G and it was working great until I upgrade the iOS recently. Then things slowed down. Even after Apple tried to fix, my iPhone 3G was never the same. It was a causality of its own technology. Regardless, I was always eyeing the 4 from the corner of my eye but felt it was not the right time.

So I made the leap and got the 4. It does everything my old phone did and more. I find my iPhone is faster and better with battery life. A full charge now lasts me more than eight hours before I have to plug in. Also my reception is better. I get good signal strength wherever I go in the NYC metro area and near my home. Previously, I had some signal issues. But we will blame ATT for that. Not my pretty iPhone. I do wish Apple would give more sound options for incoming SMS. I find the default sounds dated and a tad boring. But those are superficial criticisms. Overall I am satisfied once again with my purchase of an Apple product

Don’t tell my wife – but my iPhone and I are going away this weekend. lol

The Cius

It looks like Apple will have a competitor in the tablet arena. Cisco will be releasing their product early next year. The difference is Cisco’s version is aimed towards corporations. Let’s see how this plays out over the next few months.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cisco-to-launch-iPadlike-apf-1501416035.html?x=0

ReBoot – “Why I like my iMac and Why You Should Get One…”

When it comes to computers I am always a bit hard on the technology. I believe that computers are tools and should function as such. When I pick up my hammer I know I will hit a nail perfectly each and every time. That is the whole point of tools. Computers should be no different!

I was always skeptically about transitioning to Apple but my former boss talked me into it. He was a techie and spent his money wisely. So when he moved over to an iMac I knew it was not something he did lightly. So his reasons were sound.  At the time, I had this water-cooled behemoth of a PC geared towards gamers. Mind you I was not a gamer but the power it packed was something I though I needed. I didn’t. In fact I started to have problems with it a year later. My RAID failed and I sprung a leak in my cooling system. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed. I decided this Mac thing was something I should explore.

A year later I bought my Intel based iMac. I never looked back. I have had my iMac for about 3 years now and it is still going strong. During this time, it has only crashed on me twice and it was just a mater of restarting to get it back online. All my apps work without fail. I have the occasional beach ball spin a little longer than normal when opening up Office. But I chalk that up to MS. I spend more time surfing the web now than I did before. Safari is a much better browser than IE. But the biggest advantage of using a Mac is to be able to add an organize pictures and do home movies with it. This is great feature, one my family thoroughly enjoys watching the fruits of my labor.

Over the last few years I have upgraded my OS twice. It had to be the smoothest upgrade I have ever done. No need to reformat my hard drive and download several fixes/service packs afterwards. And my iMac has not lost any performance. That is exactly what and upgrade should be. To me an iMac means ‘user friendly’.

Will I buy an iMac in he future? I most definitely will. But right now I very happy with my 3-year-old iMac. It still operates just as fast – like the first day I got it.

Should You Get Your iPad Now or Wait?

Check out this article in SmartMoney.com by Kelli Grant — Should You Pre-Order an iPad?

Kelli says that most average consumers should wait a few months until the technology matures and prices drop before purchasing. I agree. Like all technology, version one will have its share of problems out of the box. Remember the the first generation iPhone? A perfect example of why waiting will be beneficial.

An Apple A Day…

Today (January 27), Apple will be having its much-hyped media event. Over the last few days the net has been a flurry of gossip, leaked photos, and unofficially Apple executive quotes. What is a fan boy to do with all this info? It just makes me giddy…

I must admit, I always look forward to such events from Apple. It is like watching something being created and you are there to take part in the excitement and oohh and aahh over it.

Today, if rumors are true, Apple will be announcing the much anticipated and secretive “iPad” from Apple’s skunkworks.

Something new to add to my Christmas list this year. If the blogs are true, this device will revolutionize publishing, as we know it. I hope so, this industry needs to have a shot in the arm to revive it. I personally don’t read newspapers anymore but do so online on my iPhone. A device that has a bigger screen will be so helpful.

I am going to wait a few months to see how things shake out similar to how I migrated to the iPhone. I am a second-generation kinda guy. I believe in letting others shake the bugs out before I jump on board. And besides, if this takes off, the second gen model will have vastly better features. Just wait and see.

There is also talk that additional carriers for the iPhone will be announced. I think that is great. I believe in competition. I pay vastly too much for my cell service now and the quality of service is just ok.

So we will see what Apple has up their sleeves.

http://www.macrumors.com

Catching Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6)

This weekend I upgraded my iMac to Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6). I wanted to upgrade my iMac because I just want to keep current with my operating system and also I could not beat the $29 price tag. I have been very happy with my iMac’s operating system, coming from a PC world and experienced in all things Windows, OS X is a far better OS.

Snow Leopard is not evolutionary. It is not chuck full with new features. Apple has spent a great deal of time reworking under the hood. Which is a good thing for any software vendor to undertake.

My installation was pretty painless. Very little input from me. I popped the DVD in and an hour later I was up and running. I was able to recover approximately 5GB of space on my hard drive. In terms of performance, I must admit I don’t see much of a speed increase. My iMac is pretty snappy as it is.

Issues:

• Time Machine was taking a long time to back after the installation. 3 hours before I got tired. I decided to redo my Time Machine and erase my external harddrive. This helped resolved the initial long back up. I run multiple backups on different external drives so erasing my primary Time Machine drive was not a big deal.
• One of my 3rd party apps stopped working; specifically my video conferencing software, Oovoo, failed. Oovoo stated that it would work but I guess they did not test with the final beta versions. Again, video conferencing is not critical so I can wait for a new version to be released. I am sure the folks at Ooovoo are working on it.
• I am quite happy that MSOffice 2008 is working. This is very important to be able to get into my Word and Excel files.

Some New Features I like:

• Being able to activate Exposé from 
the Dock. Being able to open windows in the application you selected will unshuffle is a nice feature.
• My iMac is faster shutting down and restarting and also wakes from sleep faster.
• Time Machine backups are faster to complete.
• Safari crashes less. Since I upgraded it has not crashed at all. This was a frequent daily occurrence.

Overall, I am happy with my upgrade and would recommend it to fellow Apple users. Let’s see what Apple comes out with over the next few months to add or enhance Snow Leopard.

For a complete list of improvements please look at Apple’s website:

Mac OS X – Snow Leopard

A Tablet From Apple?

Why is it that before a product is release there are already critics? Or is it some conspiracy to defame a product so that it can be killed by word of mouth alone before it hits the market.

This week, there have been rumors that Apple is investigating tablets. These rumors suggests evidence that Apple could be considering launching a tablet or netbook form factor in the relatively near future, with 2010 being the most likely timeframe for an introduction.

Tablets and netbooks are not new to the industry. There have been several unsuccessful past attempts that never caught on.

I remember a few years back, when the iPhone was rumored to be in development there were critics that said it would never work and there was no market for such a device. Well look at the iPhone today.

I have an iPhone 3G. And to be honest, I rarely use it as a phone. I use it more as a PDA-if that term is still used, if not I like mobile computing device or MCD. I use my iPhone to check my email, Twitter, read my news, give me directions, play the occasional game and search the net. It is always on and ready for me. I don’t have to think about it. And isn’t that the purpose of any MCD. The end user should not have to worry about it.

If Apple is truly developing a tablet device, I am all for it. To be able to have an “always on” device connected to the Internet 24×7 is great. Knowing Apple, if this rumor is true, it will be revolutionary. So let’s wait and see what the final product will be and how it will function before we pass judgment.

New iPhone 3.0 Operating System

Apple released its new iPhone 3.0 operating system on June 17. The new iPhone 3G S will be released later this week.

While I had some difficulty updating my phone that required a total reset and restore, the new OS seems to be pretty snappy. I am a strong believer in reformatting any device periodically that runs an operating systems. It is just best practices. My phone seems to be faster after the reset and restore. Some good came out of the 2 hours it took to get it back to normal.

Here is a breakout of some the new features.

Cut, Copy & Paste
Finally it is here. It took Apple a long time to implement but now you can quickly and easily cut, copy, and paste text from application to application. You can select entire blocks of web text with a tap. Copy and paste images from the web, too.

Landscape Keyboard
I always had problems typing on the keyboard. Now you can rotate to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes, and Safari. I can now use both thumbs to type almost Blackberry like.

MMS
AT&T is holding out on us on this one.

Spotlight Search
Find what you’re looking for across your phone. Spotlight searches all of your contacts, email, calendars, and notes, as well as everything in your iPod.

Voice Memos
Capture a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording on the go.

Improved Calendar
Create meetings via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and subscribe to calendars with new CalDAV support.

Safari
Safari appears to have faster performance. I would like to see some benchmarking done to see if it really is faster.

Internet Tethering
Again AT&T is holding out on us on this one. Why AT&T are you doing this to your customers?

Stereo Bluetooth
Connect compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones, car kits, or other accessories.

Automatic Wi-Fi Login
Log in to a Wi-Fi hotspot and iPhone automatically logs you in when you connect again.

Sync Notes
Now you can sync all the notes you write back to your Mac or PC.

Parental Controls
Decide what music, videos, and apps your kids can access.

iTunes Store Account
Create and log in to one or more iTunes Store accounts directly from your phone.

YouTube Login
Log in to your YouTube account to save and sync bookmarks and rate favorites.

Shake to Shuffle
Shake your phone and it shuffles to a different song in your music library.

MobileMe Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe
Find your iPhone if you lose it and protect your privacy with Remote Wipe.

I was tempted to purchase the new iPhone 3G S but decided against because the new hardware really had no new features that was revolutionary to me. I am sure this time next year, Apple will have something new in its goody bag that will tempt me to upgrade. For now I am happy with my iPhone 3G and new os.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update

I just updated my iMac with the new update 10.5.7. So far no issues.

Like previous updates, this updates the general OS. Enhances the stability, compatibility and security of the OS. There is no added functionality or new features.

It is rumored that this is the last update before Snow Leopard is released later this year. So far this is the most stable OS I have worked with. I am not naming names but you can figure out whom I am speaking about.

I am looking forward to the Iphone update later this summer.

Apple just keeps on improving on something that is already perfection…