OmerTech

New service coming up: InsiderTips

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:06:00 +0000

There's a new service coming up called InsiderTips. This service is ment to be some sort of a tip community where everyone can write tips from their on experience and get tips from other. It is pretty new so there aren't alot of tips, but I see a large potential in this. I recommend you to take a look:

http://insidertips.co.cc/

Gaming videos?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:18:00 +0000

I got tired of posting video tutorials. So this time I'm starting a new video collection of Gaming Videos only. Don't worry, I'll still post tutorials as well.

This video is about massive bot teamkilling via BF2. Get ready to see bots flying in the air...

Enjoy.

P.S: Happy april 1st! If you want to make a good computer prank, google for "vista upgrade prank"

Where should you store your files?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:34:00 +0000

OmerTech is streaming High Definition!

In these days, we are running out of space in our hard drives. As new improvements are on the way, in the meantime we'll find some online FREE solutions. In this video I'll show you where you should store and share your files online.

SkyDrive:

http://www.skydrive.live.com

MegaUpload:

http://www.megaupload.com

RapidShare:

http://www.rapidshare.com

FileFlyer:

http://www.fileflyer.com

MediaFire:

http://www.mediafire.com

OmerTech Site:

http://omertech.uuuq.com

Blog:

http://www.omertech.blogspot.com

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/omertech

Overview: iPhone Operating System - 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Late yesterday, Apple has unveiled its iPhone 3.0 operating system, displaying many of the new features of the smartphone.

Overall, beginning in June, more than one-hundred new features will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users, including cut, copy and paste, MMS, landscape view for mail, text and notes, stereo Bluetooth, syncing Notes to the Mac and PC, and finally parental controls for TV shows.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release also will include a new voice memo app and expanded search for all key iPhone apps.

While many iPhone fans welcome the updates, some rivals in the smartphone OS space were less impressed.

According to Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's mobile product manager, the software giant has had features such as copy and paste and MMS in its platform for years. In some ways, Apple is just catching up... (!)

“We feel real good about our continued investment in the platform,” Sullivan said.

Microsoft continues to improve its platform, with its version 6.5 Windows Mobile release expected on Sep. 30, 2009.

But Microsoft hasn’t offered a mobile applications store that's on the same level with Apple’s.

The Redmond behemoth has worked with third-party apps for years, but it will be integrating the Windows Marketplace into the phone itself so that customers have an easy-to-find link or portal from the device, Sullivan says.

Create a website without technical skills (+ the new OmerTech website)

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:35:00 +0000

I heard many people asking me for a way to build a website without knowing HTML or other languages. So I found some websites that can help you building a website without knowing anything about site building. + THE NEW OMERTECH WEBSITE IS OPEN!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Google Page Creator:

http://www.pages.google.com

Webs:

http://www.webs.com

Weebly:

http://www.weebly.com

SynthaSite:

http://www.synthasite.com

THE NEW OMERTECH WEBSITE:

http://www.omertech.uuuq.com

Blog:

http://www.omertech.blogspot.com

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/omertech

Email:

omertech@aol.com

Ballmer Vs. iPhone: Windows Mobile advances

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:13:00 +0000

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was told today that the appeal of the iPhone and other consumer devices has made it more difficult for chief information officers at large public agencies to continue justifying the use of Windows Mobile phones in their organizations. In response, he acknowledged there are "opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area."

The exchange came during a question-and-answer session at the company's Public Sector CIO Summit in Redmond. Chris Kemp, the CIO at NASA's Ames Research Center, credited Microsoft for its work on security. However, he added,

"With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out, it's really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments. And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn't work in America and an operating system that you haven't released. I'm wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don't have to fight this battle on the ground."

Here's what Ballmer said in response.

"We have a significant release coming this year. Not the full release we wanted to have this year but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5. I think that would look a lot like the phone that I showed that was in the slide, but very good catch, very impressed. (Laughter.) He was right on both scores, very good."

"But I think with Windows Mobile 6.5, there will be phones in market this year. We still don't get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7 next year. Certainly I'm not, um -- there's opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area, and we've done a lot of work to really make sure we have a team that's going to be able to accelerate."

"With that said, we did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones -- just an important factoid to have. Blackberry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I'm sure. But we'll do our best to help you with that challenge."

How to download youtube videos?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:15:00 +0000

In this tutorial, I'll show you a few ways of downloading youtube videos including instant downloading tools, addons and advanced software.

FLV2MP3:
http://www.flv2mp3.com

Youtube Download Helper - Firefox addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire...

Youtube downloader:
http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

Alky Project:
http://www.alkyproject.com/

OmerTech Blogspot:
http://www.omertech.blogspot.com

Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/omertech

My Email:
omertech@aol.com

Google already has your data. Now it knows where you are.

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Now, I'm a big fan of some location-based social networking.

The right application in the right circumstances can be a powerful and fun tool. There are, however, serious privacy and even safety implications, so the wrong app at the wrong time could be downright dangerous.

And that's what makes me more than a little uneasy about Google's new foray into location-based social networking. The company has announced a new product called Google Latitude, which reveals your location to your friends on Google Maps.

From the Official Google Blog:

How often do you find yourself wondering where your friends are and what they're up to? It's a pretty central question to our daily social lives, and it's precisely the question you can now answer using Google Latitude.
Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device. It's also an iGoogle gadget on your computer. Once you've opted in to Latitude, you can see the approximate location of your friends and loved ones who have decided to share their location with you. So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one's flight landed safely, despite bad weather.
And with Latitude, not only can you see your friends' locations on a map, but you can also be in touch directly via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message; you can even upload a new profile photo on the fly. It's a fun way to feel close to the people you care about.

Google says it has built in privacy settings that give you detailed control over who sees what:

. . . Everything about Latitude is opt-in. You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see. For instance, let's say you are in Rome. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere -- perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls . Since you may not want to share the same information with everyone, Latitude lets you change the settings on a friend-by-friend basis. So for each person, you can choose to share your best available location or your city-level location, or you can hide. Everything is under your control and, of course, you can sign out of Latitude at any time. . . .

The company has put together a video tutorial that shows how these settings work.

Google Latitude works by installing components on your desktop or notebook computer, or on a smartphone. Right now, the mobile app is available for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile phones. It's not yet available for the iPhone. It uses GPS and known Wi-Fi hotspots to determine your location.

To use it on your desktop or notebook PC, you add a Google Gadget to your iGoogle page. You can then go through your contacts to add friends you want to track. They'll get an e-mail inviting them to sign up. You can then set a location, either by allowing the system to find you or by manually entering an address. The mobile app works similarly.

You can, indeed, control just how much specific users get to see, letting some friends right where you are, while other see a general city location, or nothing at all.

While these privacy settings are important to have, it strikes me that it's too easy to set-and-forget. There are times when you want people to know where you are, and other times when you don't. The settings, once out of sight, are likely to be out of mind, as well.

The bottom line: It has great potential, but could also pose a danger if misused.

There is a large (and growing) group of people who are quite nervous about the amount of information Google has about its customers. Google is aware of this and goes out of its way to address privacy concerns, even going so far as to host a YouTube channel full of videos specifically about the privacy of its services.

But with the addition of Google Latitude, consider the kinds of information the company might have on a customer who uses all or most of its services. For example, Google:

• Knows where you are.

• Has access to your e-mail.

• Stores your word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents.

• Facilitates chat, voice and video conversations, as well as text messages.

• Tracks what you search for and view on the Web.

• Keeps track of your upcoming appointments.

• Knows your contacts.

• Knows what you read.

• Knows what you buy.

And if Google does end up offering online storage of files, including possible syncing between machines, via its rumored GDrive service, it might have access to the files on your personal computers.

I use and like many of these products, but that's a lot of personal and business information all in one place. I'm not quite ready to put on a tin foil hat and join the Google-is-Big-Brother crowd, because I think Google's misuse of users' data would be far more damaging to the company than any benefit it would gain from doing so.

Still, the addition of Google Latitude to this stable does give me pause.

Review: New 17'' Macbook Pro

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:33:00 +0000

Philip Schiller has been doing a great job so far at his keynote at Macworld, and the best product so far has to be the new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro. As you would expect Apple have worked hard to try and produce something special and an 8 hour battery life is certainly that.

The 17 inch Apple MacBook Pro is the lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook in the world. The notebook has a 1920 x 1200 display and a contrast ratio of 700:1, and there is a $50 anti-glare option, which has to be worth the money.

So what is inside? firstly there is a new generation of C2D CPUs, and support for up to 8GB of RAM. Do not forget the new NVIDIA graphics options and up to 250GB SSD. There are a number of connections on the new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro, such as Mini DisplayPort, FireWire 800, USB and MagSafe.

The new notebook is under shipping already, starts at $2799.

iWork '09: First Look

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Last post I pre/re/whatever viewd Apple's iLife '09. This time, I'll be reviewing iLife sister product: iWork '09.

Apple's senior marketing VP Phil Schiller announced iWork '09, with new templates across the board, support for sharing documents across the Internet via the new iWork.com, and numerous new features for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which make up the suite. Schiller also announced a combo package of iWork and iLife. Keynote has added support for managing presentations from an iPhone or iPod touch.

The new windows have a slightly darker grey toolbar color scheme, adding contrast to the icons, making the details easier to read. Shading on the tabs has been slightly improved and some of the icons have been updated with more detail. A nice touch is the addition of curser-views of pages or slides within the template window, migrated from iPhoto '08. When a user scrolls the curser across the template window, individual pages within the template appear in a quick preview. The previews are available in the templates window of all three of the suite's applications.

Pages '09 now offers 182 templets, up from 67 in the '08 version. It has added a full-screen tab on the toolbar, along with an "add pages" and iWork upload button. Gone from the toolbar is the Track Changes tab. A major new feature is the full-screen view that eliminates everything but the current page, dropping it onto a solid black backdrop. Keynote '09 has gone from 46 templates to 54, added a guides and iWork.com tab, while eliminating the Smart Builds tab. Numbers has a new Reorganize tab, and a Formula List tab which opens up a formula window below the primary window. It also features the new iWork.com link tab.

Uploading documents to iWork.com is a simple process, once signed up using a MobileMe.com account, the process is simple: after clicking the iWork tab, the user inputs an e-mail address to share the document, with a subject and message area for introducing or discussing the work in progress. Users can choose to allow or not allow for leaving comments on the document and allowing for downloads of the document. iWork.com uploads multiple copies of the document, for example, in Numbers it uploads a native Numbers document, a PDF and an Excel version, allowing online users to download their preference. An advanced tab allows users to upload iWork '08 versions as well.

Now, enough blabaring, I'll just show you the screenshots:

Pages:

Pages at full screen:

Keynote:

Numbers:

Sharing at iwork.com:

iLife '09 First Look

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0000

7 January 2009 - Apple has updated its iLife application with a number of new features to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, but will it be enough to make you want to spend £54 on the upgrade? We managed to grab some time with the new software application at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco.

iPhoto 09

The main focus in the application, and the keynote for that matter, is iPhoto. It gets three main new features amongst others - Faces, Places and more connect-ability with services such as Facebook, Flickr, and Apple's own MobileMe.

Faces will allow you to organise your pictures via faces of people that you know. Using face detection technology the software will supposedly automatically work out who people are once you've told the software, and then allow you to find that person in your photos.

Tagging people in photos is easy - merely a case of clicking on a Name Faces button and rather like Facebook you can select a face or multiple faces. Once you've done so you can then group your photos by that person - ideal if you want to find a picture of your wife or kids for example.

Sounds great, in our play it worked a treat on the beautifully taken images that Apple had pre-loaded into the system, but people don't all take beautifully taken pictures all the time. So we downloaded a stack of photos from Flickr of us and friends, imported them into iPhoto to see whether the system would cope with average pictures rather than just great ones.

The results, as you probably guessed, already are disappointing. The new software couldn't recognise one of our pictures, and even went as far as to suggest that we looked like an 8-year-old girl it already had in its iPhoto collection.

Not wanting to give up that easily, we tried it with pictures of a friend. Still no luck. Face detection is, it seems, still very hit and miss.

Luckily it's not the only trick Apple has up its sleeve for iPhoto: it has introduced Places as well.

Taking advantage of the GPS geotag feature on the iPhone 3G, users who geotag images (you can also do it with other devices of course from Nokia, Samsung and Nikon to name a few) will be able to place them on a Google map that has been built into the software.

Importing the images with geotag data automatically locates them on the map for you to see where you were when you took them. For those images already in your collection that aren't geotagged - and there are likely to be a lot - you can manually go back through them and add geo data based on the location (if you can remember it).

It's a nice idea and one that is likely to appeal to the travel set, but if you're not one to wander much further than your home town, this isn’t going to get you excited.

What might is the social networking features. Basically you can now sync your Facebook albums, better still you can use the Faces element in sync with Facebook. It's a nice touch and one that is likely to appeal to the web 2.0 crowd.

Users will also be able to make slideshows with new templates and then transfer them to their iPhone or iPod touch in the same format.

iMovie 09

After having such a radical update in iLife 08, it's understandable that iMovie 09 is more about tweaking the offering rather than yet another drastic overhaul.

Here the key features that users get is the image stabilisation feature that will, post-shoot, stabilise your image so you can actually see what you were filming. It's like a software steadycam fix and will certainly help improve movies for the better.

Elsewhere you get a precision editing tool so you can clearly see what you are doing in more detail and overall there seems to have been a stronger focus on making it easier to do everything - be it edit audio or insert a clip in another one.

Like iPhoto, iMovie has also taken advantage of the world stage and you can set places of where clips were filmed. With this information you can then add graphics of you flying around the world - just like Indiana Jones movies (think Temple of Doom).

We were one of the few to actually like the iMovie changes last year and the tweaks here only help to make it a better product.

GarageBand 09

While we are sure there are new features and updates to the music software, the main focus here and one that will be most interesting to aspiring musicians is the addition of a learning element.

You'll get nine free lessons in the box with the ability to buy further tracks to learn. Each lesson walks you through playing the song via a video tutorial and shows you the notes you've got to play and whether they are on a piano or guitar so you can follow. You'll also be able to plug in a piano or guitar and record your track to see how you're doing.

However where Apple has impressed the most is that instead of getting some boring music teacher to teach you how to play Sting's Roxanne, they've gone to Sting and got him to do it instead.

It means you get the artist teaching you in your home - a pretty compelling offer. Of course it's not just Sting. Although the demos we saw were mostly American singers, there are names you'd recognise - Norah Jones and Fall Out Boy for example - and you just know that Apple will keep adding more and more over time. Imagine learning Sweet Child O' Mine with Axel Rose - awesome.

Currently only available for guitar and piano, Apple will also no doubt add more instruments if it takes off.

First Impressions

So what do we think? Well iLife is one of those packages that at £54 is always good value for money. Apple don't take advantage with a high price - you'll get it free if you buy a new Mac and there is enough to warrant an upgrade.

However the new features aren't going to be for everyone. We struggled with Faces, while if you're not a jetsetter then Places isn't really going to make a difference.

Likewise if you don't edit home movies that much the new additions won't be drastically missed and if learning a guitar or piano isn't on your list for 2009 you won't miss GarageBand 09.

Think refining an already good product rather than an all out show stopper.

That's about it, next post, I'll review iWork 08

How to create an animated video 4 FREE

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:30:00 +0000

In this brief OmerTech tutorial I'll show you how to create your own animated video 4 FREE.

Xtranormal:

http://www.xtranormal.com

Comment, rate & subscribe!

Open Office 3.0 Beta 2 review

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:43:00 +0000

The final version of OpenOffice 3 beta 2 is out, and if you're looking to save yourself plenty of money, download it instead of buying Microsoft Office --- you could save yourself hundreds of dollars, and not lose out on many features.

I put the Windows version through its paces, and am about to download the Linux version as well. The suite has six full-blown applications: the Writer word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentations program, Base database program, Math equation editor, and Draw graphics program.

Given that the full suite is free, this is one of the best deals you'll find in all of computing. It'll do just about anything you expect from an office suite, whether creating documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You'll find solid formatting tools, as well as extras including mail merge, macros, charting capabilities, and more.

OpenOffice works with an extremely wide variety of formats, including the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, as well as documents created in Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2008 for the Mac. You can even export files to PDF.

It won't, however, work with the newest Office 2007 formats such as .docx. At the moment, that's not a significant drawback, because those formats are rarely used. However, in the future this could cause some problems, so I'm hoping Office 2007 formats will soon be handled as well.

One of the suite's most useful features are its wizards, which walk you through creating spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents, as you can see below. They pay a great deal of attention to the task at hand. For example, you're asked for the output medium of a presentation before you begin.

Most people will most likely spend most of their time in Writer, creating word-processing documents. It has all the features you'd expect, but some very nice extras as well. With a single click, for example, you can bring up a gallery of backgrounds, bullets, and other graphical elements, and then embed them in your document, as you can see below. You can even embed sounds.

Writer is also useful for creating HTML documents, and includes tools for creating hyperlinks, as you can see below, and even includes the ability to create targets.

Is the suite perfect? Of course not. The overall interface is just plain dull, and is not nearly as useful as the Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon. It also doesn't have the high-end features of Office 2007, such as QuickParts. You also won't find many templates.

Still, if you're looking for a suite to use at home or a small business -- or if your enteprise hasn't standardized on Office -- you should give this suite a try. It'll save you hundreds of dollars. And in today's economic times, that's a very big deal.

How to make money from writing blog posts?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Through the history of the internet, blogs (as Web Log) were and still are personal journals online. People always wanted to write about their life, about the stuff they love and recently, make their opinion on new products. That what blogs were made for.

After a huge success of the blog trend, the large companies, understood that the best advertising method is blogging. So, as you can see I found services that mediates between the company and the blogger. So, you as a blogger can still blog about what you love, while you get paid for each post.

A really nice service called Paying Post. Basically what you do is to sign up, register your blog and once it's approved, you are able to select "opportunities". Opportunity is a description of what an advertiser want you to blog about. You can easily find opportunities best for you and related to your blog. Once your post is approved by the advertiser, you'll get the money offered through your PayPal account.

I have noticed recently that had done some good changes. For the most part, there is a significant change to the design and layout. It is more user friendly, the content is distributed more efficiently and clearly you can see the aesthetics of the design.

As Paying Post said:

We’ve worked almost one month to design this layout, and we’re proud of the results. The website’s functions weren’t altered, so everything should work fine, no matter what web browser is used.

You can find more features like Live Help and the Paying Post blog.

Also, in the next version of Paying Post, they include new features, like SMS alerts both for bloggers and advertisers.

So if you're a blogger, and interested of make money blogging on the things you love, I'd recommend Paying Post.

The Next iMac: Includes new cooling module?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:57:00 +0000

A new family of iMacs due early next year may include a more sophisticated cooling system, hints the latest reports from sources close to the company's Taiwanese manufacturing facilities.

Backtracking on its report from last week, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News now claims that it's Foxconn, not Quanta, who has secured a contract with the Mac maker to manufacturer its new all-in-one desktops.

In a report published Monday, the paper also identified Foxconn Group's Foxconn Precision Components and Catcher Technology as the duo that will be responsible for stamping out the iMac's new "magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis."

Interestingly, the paper also reported that Foxconn Precision Components and Auras Technology would team to supply "the PC's cooling module." Further details were not provided, and therefore its unclear if the report indicates a change to the iMac's traditional fan-based cooling system.

DigiTimes, another publication situated near Apple's manufacturing facilities, recently cited sources who said Apple and rival PC makers HP, Acer and Dell had each agreed to use a new family of quad-core desktop chips from Intel in systems due early in 2009, though the report did not identify which Apple systems were bound to receive the parts.

The chips -- the Core 2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz/4MB L2), Core 2 Quad Q9400 (2.66GHz/6MB L2), and Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz/12MB L2) -- are low-power desktop chips operating at 65W compared to the 55W of the current iMacs' mobile processors. Therefore, a decision by Apple to employ the chips inside the iMac line could signal a need for modifications to the computer's cooling methods.

In any case, it's believed that quad-core chips are bound to turn up in the iMac line around the same time that Apple begins priming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard for release. The next-generation operating system will ship with Grand Central technology designed to leverage Macs with an increasing number of processor cores.

Last week, DigiTimes' report on the trio of new quad-core chips was partially verified when Engadget revealed that the Voodoo-designed HP Firebird PC 803 iMac-shaped gaming machine would marry a NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI chipset, dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards, and the aforementioned Core 2 Quad Q9550 chip.

Assuming DigiTimes' report plays out in regards to Apple, it would signal either a new desktop class system on its way from the Cupertino-based company or significant architectural change for the iMac line. The family of 20- and 24-inch desktops have long shared an internal makeup similar to the Mac maker's notebook lines, running on the same family of mobile chips.

According to the Economic Daily News, Apple has placed orders for approximately 800,000 new iMacs per quarter starting in mid-January. And while many of the system's specifications remain a bit of a mystery, one certainty appears to be a move towards NVIDIA chipsets.

The basics of FTP - Video Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:32:00 +0000

In this brief tutorial I'll show you how to use FTP to upload your website into a Web Host\Server.

FilleZilla Client + Server:

http://www.filezilla-project.org

Businesses Make the Move to Mac OS

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:29:00 +0000

The Mac OS has long been known as an operating system for graphic artists, creative folks and those who prefer to treat their personal computers as, well, personal. Widespread business use is almost unheard of. But lately there's been a lot of discussion that Apple may be about to make a big push into the enterprise market. Here are four stories about people and companies whose positive thoughts about their Windows-based PCs may be waning.

Web Development firm switched

Glenn Romanelli, owner of Lightaus Designs, Inc., a Web development firm l in Smithtown, NY, says that although there are still a few PCs around the office, they will eventually be weeded out. Making the transition, Romanelli says, was a "no brainer."

"Have software that will only run on a PC? No problem," recounts Romanelli. "There is software for the Mac called VMWare that will run Windows like an application on the Mac." Using VMware, he says, you can install any Windows software you need and work just like you're on a PC. "Plus, there's no need to reboot to do this. As far as Microsoft Office goes, there is free software available for download on the Mac called NeoOffice and it will open and save Word docs and Excel files the same way Microsoft Office does." (For more free Mac software, see Seven Open-Source Mac Apps You Need Right Now.)

Even better: it saved the company money.

"Believe it or not, it was a cost issue. It was actually cheaper to buy iMacs than comparable PCs. A few years ago, this wasn't the case," Romanelli says.

Although cost is a determining factor for some, others' decisions are user-friendly based.

A tale of two medical centers and the OSs they run

For years, John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, MA and CareGroup, located in Boston, MA, which runs the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was a self proclaimed "tried and true" Windows user. But now, Halamka's family has Macs and he uses a MacBook Air.

But these days, says Halamka, "a platform shouldn't matter. Use what you prefer."

According to Halamka, Beth Israel has 8,000 PCs and 4,000 PCs and Harvard Medical has 4,000 Macs. Why the difference between the two places? "For a public access kiosk, a PC is better," Halamka says, referring to Beth Israel's computer system set up. " Apple just isn't there yet," Halamka adds.

At Harvard Medical, employees can choose their own operating system because the entire system is simply run differently than Beth Israel's-no public access kiosk. Macs are great for usability at the consumer level, Halamka says. Though his family found that learning the Mac system was easy, Halamka says that some people might be so used to the complexity of Windows that they treat a Mac the same way.

Artist switches from PC to Mac

Many people have switched to Macs after realizing how much the Apple computer's capabilities have improved over the years.

After using PCs during her college and early career years in the art field, Jenn Hoy, art director at Strategic Insights, Raleigh, NC, will now only use a Mac.

"For personal use, I just find Macs easier to use than PCs, even though I used PCs for years before switching. Especially now that they are becoming more mainstream, have more software options, and even can run Windows, I see no reason to not use a Mac," Hoy says, adding that her transition two years ago was pretty smooth. Yet, having to do website testing for her job meant she couldn't get rid of her PC so easily.

"As part of my job, I can't ignore Windows, since I need to test websites in a wide variety of browsers, including those only available in Windows," Hoy says. "The beauty of Mac is you can just run Parallels to run two operating systems at once-one Windows and one OSX-or run Bootcamp to start up your computer as if it was a Windows machine." Outside of website testing, Hoy's only other reason to choose Windows software is gaming. "Things like Office are just not necessary anymore, when there are free Web-based options available. This year I was introduced to OS 10.5, Parallels and Bootcamp. My PC has become a very large paperweight as a result, and I don't even miss it."

Obviously Hoy isn't alone in the art field with her Mac usage.

"They are standard in my industry," Hoy says. Though some people in her field still use PCs. "What's frightening is I've worked in more than one office that ran all PCs. I say 'frightening' because, as I mentioned before, Mac is the industry standard for graphics. In my current office, we have, I believe, 5 PCs and 10 Macs. PCs are reserved for administrative and sales employees, as well as our programmer."

Software engineer sticks to his PC

While he will continue to use his PC for now, Matt Soloway, a software engineer at IAVO Research & Scientific, says four changes to the Mac operating system could sway him: a lower price, tighter security, more software engineering tools and an OS that is less likely to crash.

Soloway says that around 80 percent of people at his company use PCs as opposed to Macs. He believes that within his industry, PCs outweigh Macs in popularity as well. Soloway says that though Macs have "their foot in the door" of the enterprise, he doubts they will become more widely used than PCs in that market. ( Others disagree.)

Will the tide turn for Macs in the enterprise?

Although many are skeptical about Macs overtaking the enterprise, others feel that big changes to the Mac market may be right around the corner.

According to a Gartner release last January, by 2012, "Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in computers." But considering that some people are still wary of Macs, just who is adding to this share?

Christopher Smulders, managing vice president of client computing at Gartner, says that prediction was made based on brand awareness, compatibility, product design and consumer disappointment with Vista. Smulders also notes that "the share gains are primarily in the home and very small businesses."

"I think most Apple computers will enter enterprises in 2009 as a result of users connecting their own machines, rather than IT departments purchasing them," Smulders says.

Considering that many people do work on personal machines both at home and in the office due to a rise in telecommuting, this seems very likely. And plenty of people are following this trend.

Attorney Rob Fleming of Robert J. Fleming, PC, is a great example of this trend. "I use Mac at home and I think it is by far the better platform," he says, adding that his law firm plans to switch to Mac after its investment in PCs has ended. "We know some other small firms that have switched and they are very happy with Mac," Fleming says.

So, you want to create your own website?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:14:00 +0000

This article may sound a little harsh to some. It's not meant to be as I am just stating the facts from my own personal experiences.

I'm sure there are some good free hosts out there, it's just that my experiences with them have been pretty negative overall.

I don't think many people realize the number of disadvantages that go along with creating free websites. Hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject.

Don't make the same mistake I did. After this nightmare, I vowed to never go the "free route" again. Creating your site from scratch with its own dot com name is affordable and definitely worth the small investment.

Parking your site at a free host is often like building a house on sand. It may be quick and and it may seem easy at first, but I can almost guarantee you it won't last long.

Disadvantages of Free Web Hosts

Limited web page space
Can't add interactive features (chat rooms, message boards, games, online ordering etc.)
Search engines often ignore them A HUGE disadvantage!
Your visitors may doubt your credibility
May have banners and/or pop ads on your homepage and/or all of your pages
Long and hard-to-remember web address (instead of yourdomain.com)
No guarantees of site availability and longevity
No branded emails addresses (you@yourdomain.com)
Poor help and support options (if any)
May not be free forever

Advantages of Owning Your Own Dot Com Name

Easy to remember website address (yourdomain.com)
No banners or popups
Easier to get listed in search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.)
You have more control over the look and feel of your website.
Multiple branded email addresses (you@yourdomain.com)
Plenty of web page space for site expansion
No worries of site being removed unexpectedly
Looks more professional
More flexibility for design and functionality
Help is readily available

Many beginners gravitate toward the free hosters because they feel that registering a domain name is too expensive and/or too difficult.

I realize the website building process may be intimidating for you if you've never created a site before. You may be worried about spending your money on something that is unfamiliar and difficult. I can totally understand that.

Let me assure you that building a dot com site is not expensive at all. The average website costs between $5 and $10 per month to maintain.

I personally use Flux. It's a simple web host that delivers full featured, high quality hosting services at low prices and high value. When you create your account there, you also get Web hosting, domain registration, website templates, applications, and plenty of resources and information for website building. Basically it's all what you need to create a website with besides HTML and other website building languages. Although it doesn't frees you from know HTML and other languages. You always need to know the basics of HTML if not advanced or other languages. It's always good to know that you can edit template with a few lines of code. So, you can find some nice templates at Flux and redesign them or edit them using HTML or CSS.

This site costs me absolutely nothing to maintain because I earn all of my hosting fees back (and then some) by belonging to Google's free Adsense program.

They pay you to display text ads on your web pages and you earn a commission every time one of the ads gets clicked. And if you have a free site, you'll have a hard time getting accepted into this free program.

Second, most of the hosting solutions I will recommend later offer some kind of software or web building tool to create your pages so you don't have to know HTML or any programming to successfully build your site.

Search Engines Will Ignore You!

This is probably the biggest disadvantage - especially if you are trying to make money and attract free traffic to your site. There's no proof that you can never get listed with Google or Yahoo with a free website, but it's evident that the cards are stacked against you.

Search engines are an excellent source of free traffic so you definitely do not want to miss out on the great, targeted traffic you can receive.

Years ago it was super easy to get listed no matter what kind of site you had (free or paid). But now with all the spam techniques going around (particularly with free sites) the search engines have gotten very selective about who they add.

Here are the reasons I believe it's hard to get listed in search engines with a free site:

1. Too small and "unimportant." Most free sites are generally small (under 5 pages) and offer very little information about a focused theme or concept. They also tend to have more links to external sites than they do to their own internal pages.

Search engines are looking for meaty sites that offer information on a particular theme with a good amount of content -- at least 20 pages.

2. No upkeep. A lot of people that build free websites often abandon them within a few weeks or months which causes a lot of broken links, missing images, etc.

The search engines are getting smarter and for all we know they may have red flags in their algorithm (the formula that determines page rankings). So when they see that a site is hosted on a free web host's server, they may rank them lower...if at all.

For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the search engines had a script that says something like: "If site X is hosted at this-free-domain.com then "ignore".

I have no proof of this, but due to the fact so many people email me with this same search engine problem, it can't be a coincidence that people using free web hosts have trouble getting ranked.

Do a search for just about anything on Google now. I bet you'll see very few (if any) sites built with a free web host.

3. No links pointing to the site. Because of reasons 1 and 2, most other webmasters and important web directories won't link to a site built on a free host.

They may not look as professional and people don't want to give a free link to a poorly developed site with pop-ups and banners all over the place.

Plus, they also know that free sites generally have short life spans for various reasons.

Search engines use formulas and can see that no one is linking back to your site so they may ignore it. These days, the kinds of websites linking to you is so very important for achieving a good search engine rank.

The bottom line: Free websites get very little respect out here on the Internet.

Free Websites & Ecommerce Don't Mix

It amazes me how many people tell me that they want to start a business website but don't want to spend any money.

I personally don't know of a single successful website owner that built their business website on AOL or Geocities' website builder.

If you were starting an offline business, you'd plan on investing some money right? Well, doing business on the web is no different despite many beliefs. If you don't plan to invest anything to start a business then I'd have to question your drive.

There are NO SHORTCUTS to success.

You can't expect people to take you or your site seriously if your website address starts with something like is http://myfreesite...

And if the address doesn't tip your visitor's off, the banners and pop-ups you'll be forced to display sure will. Also, the templates (if any!) they provide are generally very basic and lacking a professional appearance.

Think about it. Wouldn't you be a little suspicious if the web address of a business was something like http://members.aol.com/users/myhomepage.html with pop-ups and banners instead of www.companyABC.com?

Web surfers are becoming much more Internet savvy and they can smell a "cheap site" a mile away. You don't want to lose credibility and potential customers because your site looks cheap.

Not to mention, you can only do some much with a free host. So if you want to add shopping carts, order forms and additional interactive features you probably won't be able to do this because most free hosting companies don't offer that kind of functionality.

More Problems Free Website Hosters May Encounter

It is quite expensive for these companies to run a free hosting service because the company has to pay for the space and the bandwidth (traffic) to host thousands of web sites. And since they offering these sites for free, some companies find themselves loosing money very quickly.

They try to keep their service free by slapping banners on the member's pages, hoping that people will click and purchase products...but think about it...how many banners have you clicked on lately?

Exactly.

Then some may try to redeem themselves by charging a "small" fee for their service. And of course, if you aren't willing to pay for your site, you can say "bye bye" to all of your hard work.

Almost all free website providers let you know in their terms and conditions that there are NO GUARANTEES when it comes to keeping your available. Which means they reserve the right to remove your site at anytime, regardless of how much work you've put into it.

Second, which looks more appealing to you?

Having a web site look like this:

http://www.angelfire.com/nh/penguin2 (If you don't have a pop-up blocker then you'll unfortunately be invaded with a couple of pop-ups when you visit this site.)

or...

http://www.delellisdevelopment.com

Can you tell which site was free? ;)

Even if you're just looking to create a personal web site for fun, why not impress your friends and family by sending them to AnyName.com instead of some cheesy web site that will have flashing banners and annoying pop-ups all over the place.

Back in the 90's, there were several places to go and get a free website. Unfortunately as the dot com companies started crashing, the free web page providers either shutdown or began charging fees just to remain alive.

Lots of companies closed down and didn't even give their customers much notice. And what's even worse, hundreds of people found their free websites gone from the Internet with no warning at all.

As you read in my example above, this is something that is still happening with many of the free web hosting companies, and in my opinion, it's not worth the risk unless your site is purely for fun and you're not concerned about keeping it for long.

Only Use Free Hosts If...

The only reason I would ever suggest you create a free site is if you need a temporary website (school, advertise an event, etc.) and you know it won't need to be around for long. Or perhaps you just can't afford to invest in a web site right now. That's completely understandable.

In the end, I really hope you'll decide to come back and learn how to register your domain name. Speaking as someone who has been burned by the free hosting companies, I am confident you won't regret the choice to build your site on a solid foundation.

The Best Way to Build a Website

My recommendation is to register your own domain (dot com) name and build your site from scratch.

The registration process is very easy. You're able to search the Internet's domain name database until you find a name that hasn't been taken. Within seconds you can reserve it and it's yours for as long as you want.

Once you have the name you want, you'll need a place to create your web pages. A web hosting company will provide you with the help you need in this area. You'll be happy to know that the hosting options recommended here provide top notch support.

Just do yourself a favor and try it. You have no obligations to keep your site. Hosting fees are not expensive and you can terminate your plan anytime.

I hope you'll make the smart decision. Good luck!

Resources:

· Me

· Flux (Web Host) Services Inc.

· WhyPark - Domain Names

Yes you can get ALOT of help. Online.

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:03:00 +0000

THIS week, I bought a shiny new BlackBerry. This made me very happy. Then I went home and found that my new BlackBerry was inundating my in-box with copies of my sent e-mail messages. This made me very frustrated.

I headed back to the store, where a well-intentioned “specialist” took my phone, tweaked a few settings and said that my e-mail messages would be duplicate-free. They weren’t.

If you’re like me, odds are that you’ve also found yourself with a tech problem that was made worse by the lack of ready, available — and perhaps most important — useful help. But with the Internet, there’s no need to have to wait on hold.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of other users out there, sharing their experience and wisdom, often free. So instead of getting on the phone, get online and start crowdsourcing your tech support needs.

Here’s how.

General Tips

First, a few general rules. Many of the below sites require you to register a user name and password before you can post a question. Also, it’s a good idea to check how active a site is. Answerbag.com, for example, has more than 750,000 members. The bigger the site, the more likely you are to get an answer.

Sites with moderators are a plus because they will help weed out irrelevant or duplicate answers and keep the discussion on topic. There are also good fee-based sites like Experts Exchange (secure.experts-exchange.com), but I’ve limited the below list to free help.

PCs

One of my favorite tech support sites is FixYa.com ( www.fixya.com). It has a clean design, which makes searching easy. When posing a question, use keywords, hit the search button, and a list of solutions will pop up.

FixYa lets its users rate one another so you can see who has a good solution rating and who doesn’t.

Users can choose among the “post a new problem,” “I can solve this!” and “I have the same problem” tabs. The site also has an alphabetical list of brands so you can search by name.

TechIMO.com (www.techimo.com) is also a good bet, judging by sheer volume of active users.

The site’s PC hardware and tech general discussion board (www.techimo.com/forum/general-tech-discussion) had nearly 240,000 posts when I checked it. Fair warning: the site is geared more toward the tech-savvy than the tech-phobic.

Tech publications PC World (tinyurl.com/3q7xm5) and CNet (tinyurl.com/43be5q) also have good discussion forums.

Macs

Pretty as they may be, Macs have their own special brand of problems. Apple’s own site (www.apple.com/support) has effective forums (discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=731), but sometimes they can turn into complaint centers where everybody acknowledges having the problem, but no one seems to have a solution.

CNet’s MacFixIt.com (www.macfixit.com) gets around this by taking select Apple.com forum questions and answering them on its site. In one post, a Mac user wrote on Apple.com’s forums that he was experiencing problems with Time Machine backups. Most of the thread’s other users chimed in only to say that they had the same problem. MacFixIt then stepped in and offered its solution.

In addition to an active forum, MacFixIt also offers useful tutorials (tinyurl.com/4xw9a) with digestible instructions, and explanations, on everything from sleep problems to reinstalling your system.

Of course, it’s better to find advice for your exact Mac. Everymac.com’s Q.& A. section is broken down by model, so if you’re dealing with MacBook Pro problems, you can go to that section ( www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/index.html).

Smartphones

I solved my BlackBerry problem on Crackberry.com’s forums (forums.crackberry.com). Not only does the site break down problems by model, including Apple’s iPhone 3G, but it also has a section for older BlackBerrys (forums.crackberry.com/f29), which is helpful because not everyone has the money or desire to switch models every year. You can also search by carrier.

Users of the iPhone can turn to the iPhone Blog (www.theiphoneblog.com/iphone-help-and-how-to-guides), which is helpful because it uses screen images and other visual aids instead of dizzying amounts of text. Even better are video tutorials. Instead of wasting time trying to locate your SIM card tray, just mimic the video’s step-by step instructions and pause and replay as needed.

If you’re short on patience, CNet’s video tutorials (cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-28619.html) are better organized and are presented by the site’s editors who, generally speaking, should be qualified to solve your problems. The site’s Quick Tips section is good to browse if you’re looking to better navigate your gadget. In one video, CNet’s editor at large, Brian Cooley, gives some BlackBerry navigation tips, which is infinitely more colorful than reading your phone’s instruction manual.

And if you still insist on speaking to a human being, go to gethuman.com (www.gethuman.com) first — it will tell you the fastest, most direct number to use to reach a living, breathing technician on the line.

See, even when you don’t want its help, the Internet is there for you.

Review: T-Mobile Android G1 (AKA "The Google Phone")

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:01:00 +0000

After hearing Google would create an Open Source mobile platform, we’ve all be waiting for many months to see the first Android-powered handset. With only a week left until the T-Mobile G1 starts arriving at people’s doorsteps, reviews have started popping up overnight.

The G1 has an iPhone-style capacitive touchscreen and a BlackBerry-inspired trackball that compliment each other very well, making navigating the interface a breeze. The G1 packs a full 5-row QWERTY keyboard that is very spaciously laid out, making this device ideal for sending text messages, email and instant messages. Under the hood the G1 has GPS, a compass feature, HSPA, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi.

As I looked the web for more resources for this post, I found the G1 Official Page. In this page, there is a sophisticated emulator of the G1 right on our web browser. Of curse you'll need a flash player(10 recommended) to view the emulator. Here is the link: http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1
Press the "Emulator Button".

The best Macintosh virtual machine: Parallels vs Vmware Fusion

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:54:00 +0000

When it comes to OS virtualization on a Mac, there are two major contenders for the title of virtualizer to end all virtualizers.

Likely Parallels and VMware Fusion need no introduction for TAB readers, but you might not be aware of what the latest incarnations that both programs bring to the table. VMware Fusion 2, released in September, and Parallels Desktop 4.0, just released today, have a few new tricks up their sleeves.

Setup
Setting up both machines on my aluminum iMac was incredibly easy. I used Windows XP Media Center Edition from a physical disc for both, although the programs also offer the choice of using an image instead. For both installations I used the default settings. In Parallels 4.0, this consists of a 32 GB hard drive with 512 MB of RAM and 128 MB of video RAM. VMware’s quickstart configurations sets you up with 40 GB of disk space, 512MB of RAM, and although it doesn’t have a video memory slider like Parallels, 3D acceleration is enabled.

Install times were almost exactly the same for Parallels and VMWare, at 24 and 25 minutes respectively. One nice option that Fusion provides, which isn’t available in the Parallels setup, is the ability to import settings from your Boot Camp installation of Windows.

OS X Integration
Yes, it is wrong to run Windows on your beautiful Leopard desktop. Which is why you may be inclined to hide it. You’re in luck, because both Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion offer the option to run guest OS applications in windowed mode, making it seem like they’re being run in the host system.

VMware’s Unity mode allows Windows applications to behave just like native OS X apps, in windows that can be minimized to and launched from the dock, even without booting the guest OS beforehand.

Parallels’ Coherence mode is similar, though it displays the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen, just above the dock.

Both integration modes are functional, and even maintain beveled application windows and shadow effects, but VMware wins out here, for two reasons. First, the taskbar seems out of place and clumsy above the dock with Parallels. Second, dragging and resizing application windows in VMware’s Unity mode is absolutely smooth, while there is some lag in Parallels’ Coherence mode.

Features and User Interface
Both UIs are clean, simple and great improvements over previous incarnations. The layout of the applications in Windowed mode are incredibly similar, as well. Major functions like Suspend, and Settings are in the upper left hand corner, and view mode toggle buttons are in the upper right. The bottom right area in both has a number of icons, which control drives, display drive access indicators, and control sound, sharing, printing, etc.

VMware shows all the devices connected to your Mac via USB, and allows you to click the icons to switch them into Windows. Parallels gains points here by allowing any storage media (USB, external HDs) to be connected to both Windows and Mac operating systems simultaneously. During initial setup, Parallels also prompted me to select which OS I wanted to mount my girlfriend’s Palm Treo in, which is a nice feature, especially for users new to virtualization.

Both programs offer the ability to take Snapshots, which is great if you’re a developer, reviewer, or IT professional, though VMware has a slight advantage here by having a button right in the application window. I also like Fusion’s ability to display the OS X menu bar when you move your cursor to the top of the screen in full mode. Parallels depends on key combinations to return to windowed mode, which offers more immersion, but feels clunky at times. In terms of pure design, I prefer Parallels, since it looks and feels more like a polished Mac application.

Performance
When it comes to general performance, both pieces of software ran Windows at a very usable pace. Applications opened quickly and were instantly responsive, and even running both Fusion and Parallels at once and doing things in OS X didn’t result in any significant slowdown. I should note here that my iMac has a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM installed, so user experience may vary with different setups.

Both programs are boasting improved video performance, so I downloaded QuickTime to test HD playback. Conveniently, the Transporter 3 trailer was a recent addition to Apple’s hi-def content, so I used that in my test.

First, in 720p, video playback was smooth in Fusion, only showing some not very noticeable horizontal lines during fast action sequences. In Fusion, audio was slightly behind video on my first attempt, although video playback itself was mostly smooth, with no horizontal lines. Rewinding to the beginning and starting play again resolved the audio/visual syncing issue, and numerous attempts to recreate the problem failed, so it may have been an isolated event. Also, I was only using 128MB of video RAM, so assigning more may have made a difference. Oddly, Fusion would play only audio, no video, in fullscreen mode in Quicktime, while Parallels had no trouble switching from full to windowed playback.

At 1080p, playback was noticeably more laggy in Fusion, although there were never any syncing issues. Not, overall, very watchable though, and the Quicktime fullscreen bug persisted. Parallels was even more choppy at 1080p than VMWare. In both cases, I would definitely recommend sticking to 720p for HD playback.

Verdict
In the end, both applications are polished, effective ways of bringing Windows into OS X. There are no deal-breaking flaws in either software, and the choice of which to use will likely come down to what you intend to do with your virtual machine. For me, despite the problems mentioned above and features you gain, like simultaneous device mounting, VMWare Fusion wins out, due largely to its much better OS X integration. If I’m using virtualization software, there’s a good chance I want to be able to use Leopard as well, or else I’d just run Boot Camp. Fusion offers the least obtrusive way to bring Windows into your Mac sanctuary, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

Apple Search Engine?

noreply@blogger.com (OmerTech) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Lately, I heard a lot of rumors going on the web that apple is developing her own search engine based on the all known spotlight engine, which exist in any Macintosh. Isn't it weird? I think that Apple is getting more and more like Microsoft. If the rumors are true, they start to go into areas that they shouldn't be in.

At first glance, the rumors make sense. Apple’s Safari browser has 6-7% market share, and currently uses Google as the search engine for both the standard and iPhone/iPod versions (unlike other browsers, you don’t have a choice). They also have a suite of personal productivity tools through Mobile Me that bring some hard core users to their servers daily. All of that traffic and usage equates to a lot of searches, which can be monetized heavily.
Also, Apple can’t be super pleased with Google’s competition to the iPhone with Android. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who’s also on Apple’s board of directors, sits out of discussions involving Apple’s mobile strategy, and rumor is he may leave the board.

But one important fact that isn’t checking out - if Apple were building a search engine, they’d be hiring search experts and engineers. We’ve talked to a ton of them at all the big companies, and while some of them heard the same rumors, none have lost search employees to Apple, or heard of any specific hirings.
That alone almost certainly rules out a full on search competitor. You can’t do it without people who know what they’re doing.

Apple also loves the fees they receive regularly from Google for search marketing dollars earned from Safari. They obviously aren’t in the advertising business today, so even if they did launch a search engine they’d still heavily rely on Google or its competitors for the advertising piece. So why invest all that capital into search?

The answer is they’re not. But the rumors persist, and we believe they have a nugget of truth. Here’s what we think is really going on: Apple doesn’t like the search experience on its mobile devices, and may be building a radically different user experience which is much more visual than exists today. It will likely still be powered by Google results, but Apple may present it in a very different way that suits mobile users much better.