According to the Wall Street Journal, ATT, Verizon, Sprint and some others are under investigation by the Department of Justice. It seems the DOJ thinks they may be abusing their power on the cell phone market. How, you ask? One reason that comes to mind is the fact you can only get an i-phone from one carrier, and it cannot be used on any other carrier.
I admit it. I am an early adopter and I love to get the latest gadget, whether it's a phone or a robot vacuum cleaner. But keeping up with and researching the latest and greatest gadget can be time-consuming, to say the least. Enter GDGT What's this, you ask? Pronounced "gadget" it's gdgt.com a website dedicated to all us techophiles.
I ran across an article about differences in cheap laser printers versus more expensive professional versions. As it turns out, for your business, it may just end up costing you more money over time. So the next time you think you might save some money and go on the cheap, you might want to think again. The link is below:
July 1st is the day that the Windows 7 Beta will begin shutting down every two hours. Which is Microsoft's way of telling you to go get the Windows 7 Release Candidate(really, you should have done it quite a while ago).
Microsoft released Windows 7 in beta form last month. Then they closed the beta, then opened it again. For those that don't know, Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest operating system, set to replace Vista.
We all know devices continue to get smaller. And they continue to do more. I, like millions of others, carry a device that is cell phone, computer, instant messenger, and email reader all rolled up in one small package. One of the issues with these devices however, has been the limited amount of storage capacity. Most of these devices utilize SSD, or solid state drives. This type of storage has typically been expensive, and limited in storage capacity. Until now.
I ran across an article from the New York Times regarding the hows and how much of texting via your flavor of mobile carrier. While the article is a little technical, it explains why it costs the carriers virtually nothing to carry your sms messages. It raises the question of why the carriers have doubled the cost of texting over the last 3 years.
Just after I posted regarding the Internet taking over as the preferred medium for news, I ran across a small article about a newspaper company that has continually grown where others have not. It's the TriCityNews of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and it has grown at over 10 % a year since the dot.com bust. You can read all about it here.
For those die-hards that still think the Internet is a passing fad, consider this new report. For the first time, the Internet has passed all other media except TV as a main source for national and international news. All the other media have steadily dropped, while the Internet has, for the most part, continued to climb. This confirms the reports of newspapers continuing to struggle across the country.
Microsoft has extended the cutoff date for PC makers to install XP on new systems yet again. The new date: May 30, 2009. Now, it may seem to you that this is hardly worth blogging about, especially since it's Jan. 9th, 2009 and the new cutoff date is little more than 4 months away. But, before you pass judgement on this particular post, consider this: THE ORIGINAL DATE FOR XP'S DEMISE WAS JANUARY 30TH......OF 2008!
According to Isuppli, world sales of notebooks surpassed those of desktops for the first time in history. In the 3rd quarter of 2008, 38.6 million notebooks were sold. During the same period, desktop sales declined to 386 million. That's an increase in notebook sales of over 40 percent for the same period last year. That's a lot of notebooks!
Just in case you thought the government was taking care of your tax dollars in a fiscally responsible manner, along comes this story.
A scientist looking around on Google Earth discovered 7000 Hectares of forest that was previously undiscovered, in Mozambique. An expedition was quickly put together. In the first two weeks, they discovered new species of butterflies, and a snake that can kill a man with one bite. I've always known Google Earth was exceptional, but who knew it was capable of this?
Just a quick blog to say Happy New Year to everybody who follows my ramblings. I hope 2009 finds you healthy, happy, and profitable in your business. Forget the doom and gloom that the media seems to thrive upon. If your business is down, find a way to bring it up. Adapt, adjust, do what you have to. Find a way to distance yourself from your competition during these times. Invest in your business. Find marketing that works, and use it!
Do you know what Twitter is? If you don't, you may want to google it to find out. Dell announed that Twitter has made it over 1 million dollars in the last year and a half. Sure, that's nothing for Dell, but, every little bit helps, right?
Here's some stats on Internet searches from comScore, a company that "measures" the digital world.
Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all the readers. I hope your Christmas finds everyone safe. Please remember the reason for Christmas. We all know it's certainly not presents!
Rumor has it that Best Buy is having problems, and they are offering 4000 employees a buyout. The plan is voluntary. Benefits of this buyout include ony year of health care benefits, and 7 1/2 months of severance pay. Employees have to signup by Jan. 5th, 2009.
I am proud to announce that I will be hosting a daily Monday through Friday computer radio show starting sometime in late January. We have tentatively named the show the "Geek Free Radio Show".
