Music Row Tech

Apple Needs TIVO More Than Ever!

2012-08-16T09:14:00.001-05:00

Apple Patent Application Design

Back in early June, I wrote a piece advocating the merit of Apple acquiring TIVO (please refer to Why Apple Needs To Buy TIVO Today). Recent stories in traditional media only makes my conviction greater! MacRumors reported yesterday that Apple is in talks to build a set top box. It has also been widely reported that Apple has been recently awarded several key patents allowing "DVR like" controls to be incorporated onto a device which looks very similar to your friendly iPhone or iPod Touch.

Then today, the Wall Street Journal has run a front page article, "Apple's New Front In Battle for TV." This article is sure to fuel renewed speculation on Apple's technological and tactical actions intended to advance its presence in the world's livingrooms beyond the innovative "hobby" which is Apple TV.

Of course all of this renewed speculation about the mythic product which Steve Jobs famously told his biographer Isaacson, "We've finally got it figured out!" has its share of supporters and detractors. Notably, the cable companies, which are also financially hopelessly intertwined with the content creators, have reportedly not reached any agreement with Infinity Circle to allow Apple to act as an intermediary between them and "their customers," the cable consuming masses! Apple's ability to successfully intermediate in the entertainment consumption process (and profit handsomely in the arbitrage) has been put on stage for all to see as iTunes has consumed the music industry.....

Cable companies aren't likely to "give" Apple the keys to the cable box freely. Still, more and more content is being consumed via alternative sources-- Hulu Plus; Netflix; YouTube and more. All of this content which "cable cutters" are relying upon rather than traditional, expensive, packages of cable channels, must still run through a "pipe." Cable companies actually realize a much higher profit margin supplying the "dumb data pipes" to our front doors than thinner margins garnered from assorted channel packages....

Interestingly, Apple has recently and quietly added Hulu Plus to its Apple TV lineup! Techcrunch and others have reported on this event in recent weeks. Apple's expanding integration of Air Play which allows seamless and wireless mirroring of content between Apple products makes using services like Hulu Plus on an iPad or new MacBook along with your high end HDTV ridiculously simplistic. The ability to sign up for Hulu Plus through your Apple TV using your Apple Account removes another barrier to the process. This appears to be another foreshadowing of what Apple can accomplish without the direct support of Hollywood and the cable companies!

For Apple there is the complexity of dealing with multiple vendors each controlling a given region. There is also the non insignificant matter of getting consumers to pay for a premium set top box rather than lease a set top box for a few dollars a month. It may not be lost on astute followers of the Apple/Google wars, that Motorola (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Google!) is a major manufacturer of cable set top boxes! (This good be a real scoop of sweet posthumous revenge for Jobs whose disdain for Google is legendary.)

So why TIVO!? As I wrote in part my earlier post:

What would make this perfect for me is the addition of true DVR functionality. Imagine having access to all of your TIVO content (which would still be sourced through your cable or satellite provider) with a beautiful Apple interface..... Add Slingbox like capability allowing Airplay to work synchronously. iPad content to the HDTV.... "TIVO" content to the iPad anytime, anywhere...... Wow! Give Siri the smarts to do things like "Record the next Titans Game" or "Get me a Season Pass for Modern Family but skip reruns" and you have "cracked it" for sure.

TIVO is still a household name. Like Kleenex and Google, it has become ingrained in our society as a "verb." I always say I will TIVO that.... I never hear anyone say I will DVR that show..... The TIVO interface is superior, if dated, to virtually every generic DVR I have seen. The problem is DVR's are now bundled with cable and satellite packages. You pay for them in the form of inexpensive leases buried in your monthly bill (and often forgotten about). Essentially, DVRs have been commoditized. However, for the most part the interface and experience is inferior to TIVOs (and in fact many of these DVR's utilize TIVO technology in a "dumbed down" form). Still "almost free is almost free" and TIVOs are decidedly not free.

I wrote in an earlier post about the economics of TIVO versus the recently introduced Joey and Hopper DVR combo developed by Dish that the tides had turned..... In fact, I advocated dropping TIVO (of which I currently own four) for this new technology. Financially, it still is very much a justifiable migration for most.

Speaking of finances, TIVO currently has a 1.1 billion market cap. Apple could buy the company at a 100% premium! for $2 billion and it wouldn't even be a rounding error. (Apple currently has about $100 BILLION in CASH in the bank!) I am sure TIVO even has a war chest of patents which could partially justify the acquisition without any further analysis.

If you wish to read my entire earlier piece on this subject, click here. TIVO also has the manufacturing expertise to build boxes which are compatible with virtually all cable networks using an industry standard (if still somewhat flawed) Cable Card interface. No need to rely on Motorola (or provide Google with any profit potential building boxes for Apple) to produce modified cable boxes. And let's not forget those TIVO patents which are always now part of any tech takeover math!

I still believe TIVO and Siri would make a great match! More importantly, Apple's design and interface expertise coupled with TIVO's DVR power would be a powerhouse product which would get me to line up at my "corner" Apple store! If the cable companies don't allow Apple a seat at the table, TIVO could change the channel on its own with this acquisition and the company's piggybank wouldn't even lose 2% of its value....

What are your thoughts on Apple's possible entry into this market? Please share your thoughts and comments below. If you enjoy this article, please share this on Google Plus, Twitter, and FaceBook!

I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, We appreciate your support.

Companies: Apple, TIVO

This commentary is not meant as an endorsement of any company or to provide financial advice. If the author has any financial interest in any company mentioned at the time of this article’s posting, it will be explicitly noted. I welcome feedback and comments.

Xfinity is Closing The Door on Unlimited Broadband.... This Is A Troubling Sign For You and The Country!

2012-07-12T11:26:00.001-05:00

Xfinity (aka Comcast) dropped a service announcement in my inbox a few days ago. The announcement isn't news in so far as the death of "unlimited" broadband has been the subject of chatter for several months. The "roll out" of this evolution to my geography (and Xfinity account) is new.

I find many aspects of our current economy, political system, and morality disheartening and truly hazardous to this country's longstanding promise of innovation and prosperity through self-driven hard work. I could easily list a dozen events and trends spanning local, national, and international theaters which bring real concern not only for myself, but (immediate) future generations. Some of the issues I take umbrage with span "hot button" topics.

Sadly, some of my most profound concerns serve as flash-points for often derisive political diatribes amongst my friends and family. This site is devoted to technology and more broadly how technology impacts business and personal lives for better and at times, worse. I shall continue to try and refrain from using this "dais" as a sounding board for broader economic and political circumstances which don't have a direct impact on technology, business, and/or marketing.

Click to Enlarge- Chart from The Next Web

Xfinity's decision to formally cap broadband access is a harbinger of a trend which can cripple our fragile economy more than many other forces today! Let me provide a bit of a macro perspective before opining about the impact of this change on society at large, my clients, and business. As the nearby chart details (you can see the original chart here), the USA lags fourteen (14) other industrialized countries on every important broadband metric! The United States has far slower access (4.8 mbps versus globe leading Japan's 61 mbps); broadband penetration (around 75% versus nearly 90% in Iceland and the Netherlands) and cost per month per 1 mbps ($3.33 versus 27 cents in Japan; 45 cents in Korea and others).

These statistics are shameful! If the United States is going to have any hope of leading the world in innovation this century, we must also provide a twenty-first century infrastructure to allow a free, ubiquitous, flow of ideas, thoughts and information. Not only have we willfully allowed ourselves to fall to the middle of the international pack on all these metrics (and this is a kind analysis), this "highway to the future" isn't getting any meaningful discussion outside of tech circles.

Our politicians, lost in election year posturing, infighting, and a seemingly limitless ability on both sides of the aisle to spend vast sums of newly minted dollars on pet projects while arguing about "shovel ready jobs" and "rebuilding our country's roads and highways," don't ever bring up the most important highway project of the coming twenty-five years, the "information highway!" Rapidly, the USA is becoming akin to a one lane, unpaved, road in a backwater third world, whistle stop! This isn't a "sexy" topic, or something which is likely to incite "swing voters" to go to the polls next November, but is a terribly important component of our ability to compete (or not) in an unarguably global marketplace.

And this situation is getting worse.... Xfinity is taking the "slippery slope" approach to ending unlimited broadband in exactly the same fashion the country's mobile providers have shoved the same capped restrictions down consumers' throats in recent months-- arguing this change will only impact the top "one percent" of users who take up a "disproportionate amount of resources." And by the way, for the rest of you, "don't worry" you aren't going to see anything change! Hell, Xfinity tries to make this sound like a "win:"

The vast majority of XFINITY customers use far less than 300 GB of data in a month. Based upon your
recent usage history, it appears this new data plan will have no impact upon
you, and you won't need to do anything, or change your Internet usage. If you are
not sure about your monthly data usage, please refer to the Track and Manage Your Usage
section below.

We want our customers to use the Internet for everything they want and your
service will not be limited to the 300 GB monthly data allowance we provide as
part of XFINITY Internet. While we believe that 300 GB is more than enough to
meet the Internet usage needs of most customers, you can always buy more data
in additional blocks of 50 GB for $10 each.

In other words, "Don't worry, be happy!" this will only impact the "elite" users, you are going to be just fine..... If you believe this propaganda, I have a bridge (to nowhere) I can't wait to sell you! Once capped and tiered plans are introduced, all bets are off. If 300 Gigabytes doesn't effect "enough" users for the company to make its bottom line quarterly profit targets, the cap will simply be lowered. If your behavior doesn't change as the company desires (e.g. You Netflix and YouTube cable cutters who are no longer paying for those 200 channel HDTV cable packages any more in favor of a Roku box or Apple TV and a "dumb" internet pipe better "come back" and watch traditional cable television again!) the company will literally make you pay! (Since it is "illegal" and downright insensitive to throttle traffic based on competitive considerations-- there is already vocal concern that carriers such as Comcast are discriminating against competitors such as Netflix in terms of bandwidth-- the alternative is to classify heavy internet video customers as among the "elite one percent of users" and get their pocketbook and attention in this manner.....

This is just the literal tip of the iceberg. Your local coffee shop, restaurant, or watering hole which offers free wi-fi today may well change their policy after receiving their next xFinity bill. Hotels in this country will routinely charge for wi-fi access or face yet another uncapped fee eating into already slim profit margins. You may start telling your kids to stop using Facetime (Apple's marginally popular video phone service which until now has been relegated to wi-fi only use in part to keep users from burning through capped wireless data plans) when talking with their friends at home.

The changes will be far reaching and in many regards black swan events (inherently unknowable). No matter how individuals and companies modify their behavior and pricing, it will make us less competitive in the global marketplace and the changes will stifle the free flow of information and thought. This isn't about that Nerd down the street locked up in his room running a Bit Torrent Stream downloading dozens of illegal movies a month!, it is about capturing incremental revenue for the companies who have been given a de facto geographic monopoly to provide broadband access across our fruited plains!

And monopolies require regulation.... One can argue that wired broadband spectrum is fundamentally different than wireless data. There exist technical differences between moving data across federally regulated airwaves and landlines which have very different technical bandwidth constraints. There are some pundits who argue that wireless data should be treated more like a traditional metered utility (i.e. water; gas). This argument is far harder to credibly make for wired broadband. xFinity has ample "pipe" to provide a seemingly endless number of HDTV channels (as long as they can find willing lemmings to buy this "content"). The same lines that feed you seven or more HBO channels can also bring you NetFlix, YouTube and more..... Follow the money, it always works!

Further, every major metropolitan area in the country has four or more wireless carriers vying for your business. In Nashville, as in all other markets in which Sprint competes, you still have at least one mobile carrier differentiating itself with unlimited wireless data plans. (In point of fact, AT&T has continued to get my cellular patronage solely because they have "grandfathered" my iPhone and iPad accounts with unlimited data plans.) I would LOVE to have the option of switching to Verizon's wonderful FIOS product but it appears the company has severely curtailed, perhaps capped, expansion plans! The reality is, the majority of Americans have far less choice in broadband providers than wireless carriers! As far as I can discern, the only constituency which might be proactive about this trend toward capped data plans are Comcast/TimeWarner/Charter/et. al. shareholders who believe their stock appreciation from this change will outweigh whatever individual costs they may incur from the announced data tiers....

Sadly, I predict the company's will successfully mollify the clueless politicos by granting unlimited access to public schools (for the kids), public libraries, and government buildings (for the gatekeepers). Once again, the losers will be the small business owner and working middle class who will pay more even as we watch our country fall further behind the world we helped create.

Sadly, the "usage meter" applet xFinity is so kindly providing may become your "best friend" if you pay the bills in your house! Add "Internet Usage Police" to your roles in the family, if you have teenagers, they are sure to love you all the more! A few months ago, I argued that the big mobile providers should provide rollover data in addition to rollover minutes. By the end of September, I will extend this rant to include my broadband provider, what a shame and we are letting this happen in front of our eyes.....

If this development troubles you, please forward this post! Share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below). The complete xFinity/Comcast Change of Service Notification is included below for those of you wishing to read the company's response unedited and in full.

Companies: Comcast

Dear XFINITY Internet Customer:
At Comcast, we recognize the ways our customers are using the Internet are
evolving, and that our services should evolve as well. Starting on August 1, 2012,
Comcast will introduce a new Internet data usage management plan in Nashville
that increases the data usage allowance for all XFINITY Internet customers from
250 GB to 300 GB and provides more options for usage.
What This Means for You
The vast majority of XFINITY customers use far less than 300 GB of data in a
month. Based upon your recent usage history, it appears this new data plan will
have no impact upon you, and you won't need to do anything, or change your
Internet usage. If you are not sure about your monthly data usage, please refer
to the Track and Manage
Your Usage section below.
We want our customers to use the Internet for everything they want and your
service will not be limited to the 300 GB monthly data allowance we provide as
part of XFINITY Internet. While we believe that 300 GB is more than enough to
meet the Internet usage needs of most customers, you can always buy more data
in additional blocks of 50 GB for $10 each.
In order for our customers to get accustomed to this new data usage management
plan, we are implementing a three-month courtesy period. That means you will
not be billed for the first three times you exceed the monthly 300 GB allowance
during a 12 month period. Should your usage exceed the monthly allowance after
the courtesy period expires, you will automatically be provisioned for
additional $10 blocks of data each time you exceed the 300 GB allowance.
For more information on the data usage plan, please visit
www.xfinity.com/datausageplan/nash
Track and Manage Your
Usage
Comcast provides you with several tools to easily track and manage your data
usage:

Usage Meter
- See how much data you have used with our usage meter, available in the Users and Settings
tab at www.xfinity.com/usagemeter.

Data Usage Calculator - Estimate your data usage with this tool available at
www.xfinity.com/datacalculator.
Simply input the quantity of your typical Internet activities and the
calculator will estimate your monthly data usage.

In Browser Notices and Emails - We will send you courtesy "in-browser"
notices and emails to your Comcast.net e-mail account letting you know
when you reach 90% and 100% of your monthly data usage allowance.

If you have any additional questions about the
new data usage plan, please visit
www.xfinity.com/datausageplan/nash.
Thank you for being an XFINITY Internet Customer.
Sincerely,
Comcast

LastPass 2.0 Still King Of Password Managers....

2012-07-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, I examined the two heavyweights in the field of password creation and management-- LastPass and Roboform. In the article, Roboform Is No Longer King of Password Managers.... LastPass Is A Tool You Need Today! I found LastPass to offer superior value and flexibility to Siber System's, Roboform. My opinion hasn't changed, but since my post in late April LastPass has introduced a significant upgrade. Version 2 of this product further separates LastPass from the competition and many of the enhancements are worthy of mention.

It should be noted that Roboform has also released a few incremental upgrades since my last review. However, these "dot releases" to their Version 7 platform primarily fix and enhance existing features across various operating systems and browsers. This link provides a complete listing of these incremental fixes to Roboform's platform.

The current version of Roboform (7.7.8) also falls under Siber System's new licensing scheme which was put in place with the introduction of version 7.4. While the company has made efforts to simplify various licensing options which I have found overly complex, and potentially expensive, in my earlier review. The revised pricing and versioning still falls short of the simplified LastPass model. Siber also requires accredited users of Version 6.XX to pay an upgrade fee when moving to 7.XX. While many companies impose upgrade pricing on past subscribers for significant version changes, it is worth noting this stipulation given LastPass's introduction of Version 2 at no charge for their existing customer base.

In a nutshell, LastPass offers two versions-- totally free and a $12/year Premium version which allows password synchronization across mobile devices, no ads, priority support, and more. With these caveats out of the way, here are a few of the LastPass Version 2's new features which warrant your consideration (unless specifically noted, all new features below are available in the FREE version):

LastPass Wallet

Documents, including PDFs, can be added to Secure Notes (which are Password Protected files). Secure Notes allow you to securely store information for later retrieval.

A related, free, iOS, feature, LastPass Wallet, builds on Secure Notes. Wallet allows you to keep secure digital copies of various items typically found in your physical wallet- credit cards; government identification, and more. It has been widely reported that Apple intends to offer a similar product, Passbook, as part of its upcoming iOS 6 rollout. I do not review beta products unavailable to the general public and which may undergo revisions before public release. I can recommend current and new LastPass users who also rely on iPhones and/or iPads to review and download this free LastPass extension (unlike LastPass core features, LastPass Wallet is only available on iOS at the time of this writing). (Download the iPhone App here. Download the iPad App here.) When iOS 6 is formally released, I will cover new features, including Passbook.
FREE credit monitoring alerts. This feature is limited to United States users (but does not require purchase of the Premium version). Somewhat confusingly, LastPass offers a premium credit monitoring service (which is separate from LastPass Premium) for $9.95/month which offers more robust credit and identity resolution solutions. At a minimum, I hope the company renames this service to better differentiate it from the global $12/year premium upgrade.

This free feature relies on TransUnion reporting data. You are provided a notification and email if negative inquiry(s) are detected. This isn't a substitute for more robust credit/identity theft services, but may serve as a useful (and free), first line of defense. It should be noted that some current LastPass users have expressed concern about the addition of this new feature from a standpoint of product focus and over release of sensitive data. (LastPass stores and encrypts your login data on your local computer keeping you in complete control of your data vault; only you are able to unlock the underlying authentication information. The free credit monitoring feature requires you provide additional data "outside" your local computer's hard drive, including Social Security Number, which is an understandable concern particularly among security conscious users. No breaches have been identified and I am currently using this additional free service without incident. Still, you should be made aware of the concern.)
A faster, more uniform, user experience across various desktop and mobile browser plugins. It should be noted, LastPass offers plugins for many mobile platforms beyond Android and iOS including Symbian, Dolphin, Blackberry, WebOS and Windows Phone. LastPass is especially well suited for those of you looking for mobile password security on "secondary" mobile platforms which may have little or no support in alternative products.

For a complete list of LastPass features, both free and premium versions, click here.

Regardless which password manager you elect to use, the general advise from my past post remains valid. (The excerpt below was part of an earlier post on this subject and can be read in full by following this link.):

Online security experts often offer a number of authentication recommendations. Most of the advice is sage and will go a very long way towards ensuring you aren't a victim of identity theft. Following these steps also minimizes any potential damage (and liability) which may occur should one of your accounts happen to be compromised. Among the most important rules:

Use strong passwords. So called dictionary attacks makes it increasingly trivial to hack into an account secured by a user password, or even minor variant, which can be found in a modern dictionary. So if your idea of a "good password" is using the word, "simple" or "simple123" even a rookie hacker is likely to be reading your email or checking your bank balance in a matter of minutes if they are so inclined.
A close corollary to the first point, use pass phrases if at all possible! It is orders of magnitude more difficult to divine a pass phrase such as "simple solutions to 123 cake recipes" than "simple123."
Far better than a dictionary prone phrase, is a truly strong, twenty (or greater) character password such as, "Uq7ZT2D8YeNIS9lO2tbz." This character string contains UPPER case, lower case and numeric characters. The odds of such a password being discovered using even today's sophisticated hacking tools and powerful hardware are extremely slim.
Again, the value of such a strong password is greatly enhanced if you generate UNIQUE passwords for each of your various online accounts. If someone discovers the password for your old Hotmail account you haven't even reviewed for a month, the damage is very containable IF this same password isn't also the key to unlocking your online bank account or ROTH IRA!
This is almost a given, but using easily discovered personal data in your authentication scheme is an extremely bad idea. In today's electronic universe of social networks and search engines, it doesn't require a rocket scientist in most cases to unearth your mother's maiden name or the fact your cute lovable pet's, moniker.
Which brings me to one more security point worth mentioning. Even if you follow my advice and practice good password policy, if you answer those security questions with easy (or in fact true) responses, you still leave a rather big security hole in your online fortress. Especially for highly sensitive sites such as your bank and/or investment accounts, consider answering, or resetting, the security questions to information that is not available anywhere. In this case, telling a white lie or two is the better part of valor. There is nothing that requires you to answer these questions with the truth! It is really only necessary that you know the answers! So if one question is, "What street did you grow up on?" Avoid telling the truth. If you lived on "Eastside Avenue," respond instead with, "Westside Street." (Just remember what subterfuge you employed so if the worst happens and you truly do need to reset one of these sensitive accounts, you don't outsmart yourself! See Safe Notes, below.)

The nearby advice is all sound. There are additional nuggets of online protection which are well worth your consideration, but one thing all of these rules have in common is they are virtually impossible to follow if you are relying on traditional ways of generating and recalling your authentication information. Unless you truly have an eidetic memory, you need help! This is where Roboform, LastPass and other utilities fill a very real need.

Sadly, online and offline security issues remain very real. LastPass offers a great frontline defense for free (or a $1/month if you also rely on mobile devices). The question isn't "should you use one of the programs" but which program should I use....? For the moment, Version 2.XX of LastPass seems to offer a better mousetrap than RoboForm version 7.XX. Most importantly, begin using something before the bad guys get the jump on you! Using one of these tools doesn't immunize you from disaster. If you are interested in reading about a recent issue I experienced, you might want to check out, Ironic Identity Theft.... Is There Such A Thing?

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Syber, LastPass, Transunion

Are Local Newspapers Finally Facing The Proverbial Tar Pit?

2012-07-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

Apparently, the Times-Piciyune in Louisana, one of the state's premiere newspapers, is moving to a three day a week publication schedule. In print for a staggering 175 years, the paper has acknowledged the necessity of change. This move is driven by economics and the politics are against it. As part of the the rollback, the paper's ownership is promising that they will enhance their online presence (clearly in an effort to placate those that feel an important "voice" in the region is being muted, while attending to the hemmoraging logistic cost of producing and disseminating a "daily" in today's marketplace).

The squeeze play is on! Even if Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffet believe newspapers are an (undervalued) asset worth saving, the marketplace seems to beg to differ. How we as consumers are driving this crossroad is something worth contemplation and discussion. In fact, the reality got me to give serious thought towards my consumption and subscription habits. My analysis leads me to have sympathy towards the publishing community; while applauding the democrazation, and globalization of news.....

Ubiquitous internet access, coupled with an abundance of social network feeds, Apps, and easy to use blogging tools, has redirected many people's information access. Across flyover country, fewer and fewer neighbors begin their day coffee cup in hand strolling out the front yard in search of the local daily which the neighborhood "paperboy" has deposited (hopefully on or near your doorstep).

A couple of months ago, I gave my impressions regarding magazine distribution changes taking place in, "A Tale of Two Magazines. Magazines Take Different Approaches to Digital Publication." National print magazines are typically consumed differently than local dailies, but the challenging economics of publication and distribution are more imposing for local papers. Daily delivery and twenty-four hour news cycles create more challenge. Local newspaper consumers rightly demand unique local content....

Increasingly, my local paper provides less meaningful local insight while feeding off the Reuters, AP, and select national paper storylines to fill pages (often a day after these national stories break). In many ways Craigslist began the descent of local papers by redefining lucrative classified advertising. This "overnight" transformation should have served as the clarion call for papers to reimagine themselves. It seems to me the loss of the low hanging advertising fruit only added to denial.....

How do you consume news today? Increasingly, I rely upon aggregation services such as Zite, Pulse and FlipBoard. All of these companies rely upon RSS feeds (or other means of providing streams of information). A number of these the feeds I regularly consume are derived from information sources I may have explicitly paid for just a few years ago. (For a more complete discussion of these applications, please refer to this earlier post.)

The WSJ shields online content unless you
pay (potentially multiple times!).

Many newspapers, including one notable "offender" in my mind, a Murdoch holding, the Wall Street Journal, has elected to paywall its information,with only passing success. In the case of the WSJ, even paying subscribers of print content are asked to pay substantial incremental fees for online access to identical content. By creating a gauntlet requiring "law abiding" readers to pay for their content multiple times across multiple platforms, they are alienating some users and not focusing all of their energies on adding value to non-print information streams.

In my mind, there is a very real need for quality local reporting across our country. I rely on national online and conventional sources, including the Wall Street Journal, for the bulk of my news but there are times when local events are so compelling I want to learn more. At these moments I am "forced" to rely on the sole remaining daily in this marketplace, The Tennessean. Candidly, I don't think this publication is particularly great in terms of coverage, fairness, or layout, but it is the sole remaining daily "voice" in this region. (There exists a good free alternative The Nashville Scene, but it isn't published as regularly and isn't as widely distributed at this point.)

I actually find it more than a little ironic that the homeless in this area seem to distribute their $1.00 publication (printed monthly but available seemingly 24/7 at nearly every streetcorner) with greater efficiency than the venerable Tennessean. Perhaps they should incentify this "sales force" to disseminate daily papers and forgo continued direct home delivery....

In all seriousness, I don't know what the answer is but the Piciyune is another canary in the mine! More local papers are going to succomb unless they embrace a new business model. A model based on online distribution, new advertising (and subscription) realities and a real concentrated focus on balanced reporting of important local events. Leave the national guys to report global stories, feel good pieces, and the crossword. We all still need and want local coverage and local issues still present themselves seven days a week.

Do you still subscribe to your local paper? Is it an important news source in your world or would the demise of your city's paper go all but unnoticed? If you do believe a local paper performs some services of value, what do you think they need to do to survive? Do you know of a local/regional paper with a truly good online delivery model? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Fox News

Are You Offended Or Pleased That Your Computer Preference Impacts Hotel Offers?

2012-06-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

What Hotel Are You Staying In Tonight??

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Orbitz is tailoring their hotel offers to consumers in part based on the type of computer they use. Extensive data mining has determined that Mac owners (which still comprises just a little under ten percent of all PC users) are far more likely to select higher end hotel properties than Windows users. In fact, the story indicates that Mac owners are prone to spend up to 30% more!

As a Tech Consultant who has spent over half my career integrating technology solutions with retail marketing endeavors, I found this revelation profoundly interesting. I am also involved with a family managed, independent hotel, property which would be considered a "value" focused destination at this point in time.
A larger and larger percentage of the hotel's bookings have increasingly been driven through direct web site reservations and third party reservations from various consolidators such as Orbitz over the past decade.

Given my various business and professional interests, I find myself considering the revelation of Orbitz latest algorithmic tweak intensely interesting on several levels..... It is important to understand Mac users are not being targeted to pay more, rather the data suggests Mac users are 40% more likely to view and ultimately book higher value (four and five star properties) than Windows users. To use an old carny phrase, "You gotta give'm what they want!" The 40% increase in booking rates is a staggering statistic; you don't need an upper level degree in probability to understand that this differential is statistically significant. From Orbitz vantage, providing the kind of hotel someone is more likely looking for early in the search process only improves the odds of a conversion (i.e. actual booking) and ultimately a satisfied customer. (This is true for the PC user as well who might see more value driven properties on their initial search page. I suppose someone like me who straddles Windows and Macs, value hotels and higher end hotel chains from time to time, may be well served to book business trips on my Dell and luxury vacations on my Mac!)

Orbitz, like its brethren in the travel industry and beyond, captures an incredible amount of data,

Company CEO Barney Harford discussed the company’s customer data mining further in a May guest post on USA Today’s Travel site.

“We're trying to capture more information about travel planning behavior than any other company in the world,” he wrote. “To give you a sense of how much data we're talking about, last year we processed approximately 750 terabytes of log file information about user sessions. Just one terabyte can store the information in 285 million pages of text.”

(The emphasis added above is mine. The nearby quote was obtained from Digital Life Today. You can click here to see the full article.) This is a mind boggling amount of data. That 750 terabytes represents just one year of data. The very act of collecting, organizing, and analyzing this amount of information would have been practically impossible for all but a few government agencies ten years ago. Today a private company such as Orbitz can and does collect and sift through this data to improve its profitability and by extension one assumes its customer experience.

Privacy advocates no doubt cringe at this revelation, but the fact of the matter is life in contemporary America (as well as other parts of the world) is built on a feedback loop. Your actions, be it the purchase of a box of new cereal at your local grocery store or the decision to stay at an Intercontenental Hotel or Homewood Suite instead of a Holiday Inn which may be right down the road, says something about yourself, your needs at the moment, and your economic "power." These decisions are in turn fed back to the "sausage machine" we all recall from early algebra class, only to provide marketers the opportunity to provide you a more focused future message (be it a coupon for a competitive box of cereal or a refined reward program for one of those hotels several of which may actually be owned by the same parent company!).

We all want "free" services, entertainment, and goods (when possible). Most of what we consume for free, especially via the internet, is ad driven. Google, Orbitz and countless others, strive to collect data on you so that they can "feed you" more targeted advertisements and offers which you in turn are more likely to "want" and act upon. This blog has ads included which candidly generate a pathetically small amount of revenue for my company, but with each additional post and viewing, the hope is these ads provide greater relevance and in turn value to you, my reader. Perhaps someday, other types of ads on blogs such as this will be served up based on Mac vs. Windows or tablet versus desktop. After all, if I am reading a blog on an iPad perhaps I am a different ad demographic than when I am sitting behind my desk at my home office..... As I reflected briefly in an earlier post, iPhone users are known to consume vastly larger quantities of data than Android users. Wouldn't it be interesting if Orbitz or some other company concludes that iPhone users are more likely to rent more expensive cars or Android users are more avid coffee drinkers and market accordingly..... One cannot get caught up in cause versus effect.....

And what about the hotel owner? Our family hotel may not make the first page of a Mac user looking for a stay in downtown Cincinnati using Orbitz's current algorithm. Could this "hurt" my hotel's occupancy rate and overall profitability? Possibly, especially if there is validity to the observation beyond hotel reservations. In other words, if Mac users as a class of customer are more willing to purchase higher end goods in general (and the aggregate household income figures suggest Mac buyers have more discretionary cash than Windows owners), that may mean a Mac toting guest at the hotel may buy a more expensive meal, drinks with call liquor rather than well, or use valet parking rather than self-serve. In other words, losing a Mac owner's reservation may be "more costly" than a Windows owner when looking at total spending habits in which case reducing the mix of Mac versus Windows owners for my hotel could be "bad" even if we get the exact same number of total reservations from Orbitz under the "old" and "new" algorithm. (I have no empirical data to suggest the above hypothesis is true, or false, I only mention this as an interesting framework with which to consider the bigger picture of more highly tuned, targeted, online marketing efforts.)

All of us with TIVOS, the (in)famously touted Dish Hopper and other devices realize how compelling it can be to skip commercials entirely and focus exclusively on content. This is anathma to marketers and advertisers who have built empires on that magic trade off of content for ads. The online world has the power to keep this balance of quality, low cost, content and services paid for by ad revenue in part because the ads themselves can potentially be more relevant to you and the the marketer.... As a technologist focused on marketing trends for myself and my customers, I find Orbitz ability to provide a more targeted experience to its users based on observational facts (including device type) compelling. As a hotelier, I suppose I worry a little that these types of refinements may make it more challenging down the proverbial road for some to experience a property which might actually be a very good "fit" but not fall squarely in a traditional category.... But there is no denying the world is moving to try and minimize the number of clicks between you and fulfilling your perceived "need" of the moment......

So the next time you click on one of those ads on a page like this, remember it helps pay for the content you enjoy. You may also ask yourself if that ad was put there for some reason you might not immediately suspect....Maybe we should explore the spending habits based on browsers.... Do you think Firefox users are more likely to eat at Italian restaurants than Internet Explorer aficianados? If you pull out your iPad at a Panera to check in with FourSquare, are you signaling the restaurant chain that you are more likely to order a Smoothie than the Android customer checking in to Foursquare on their Zoom tablet? If so, perhaps the iPad owner will get an instant coupon for a new flavored Smoothie while the Zoom tablet owner sees a Moca Frappacino offer. And would this really be a bad thing??

How do you feel about this targeting of groups for marketing purposes? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Earlier Posts Related to Travel:

Lessons From The Road (Part 1); Let TripIt Be Your Guide....
Lessons From The Road.... Online Deals Are Not Always Such A Deal.....
Expedia And The Rental Car....
What Apps Are In Your Travel Folder?

Companies: Orbitz

Ironic Identity Theft.... Is There Such A Thing?

2012-06-22T15:26:00.001-05:00

I truly believe karma plays a role in one's life and the universe at large. There is no real doubt in my mind that there is real truth to the "what goes around, comes around" mantra. To the degree that you also subscribe to this notional idea, you may also think there is a special corner of the ever after, a particularly degrading reincarnation, or other heinous penalty for those leaches in the world whose goal in life is to steal your identity (and by extension your hard earned assets).

Identity theft is a multi-billion dollar racket we all pay for every day. Like so many things in life technology has proven an enabler of the "cops," "robbers," and victims.... Your inbox is a potential minefield filled with well designed missives intended to cajole you into willingly supplying the bad buys with personal details you may be loathe to share with all but your immediate family. Sadly, the "success rate" of these contemporary SPAM agents is (more than) high enough to make it a thriving industry across the globe.
Everyone knows that losing control of online financial credentials can be catastrophic. Loss of log ins can, and sadly does, happen with regularity. The loss can be triggered by key loggers or other malware entering your system surreptitiously or by more mundane channels with equally devastating outcomes.

Of course old school identity loss can ensnare you through more traditional illicit activities such as credit card hijacking. I have long argued it is far more dangerous to hand over your credit or debit card to an unknown.clerk or waitress who walks into the back room to complete a transaction than it is to make online purchases from a secure site such as Amazon. I stand behind this claim.

So what has me on this soapbox? A recurring $19.95 debit in my business checking account! I noticed the charge while reconciling last month. A little digging identified the credit agency Equifax as the company placing the charge to my account. I had no memory of even checking my personal or company credit rating back in April (much less agreeing to pay $20 for the privilege!) A red flag sounded.... (This isn't my first experience with identity theft, thankfully it is by far the least costly, but I am VERY vigilant and you should be too! Perhaps I will share other past encounters in future articles.)

I asked my normally superb bank, Charles Schwab (and yes they are a bank as well as an investment house and I can highly recommend their services in this area) to provide transactional details. The bank promptly reversed the charge and informed me they would make an inquiry. Candidly, I forgot about it until a follow up envelope arrived via snail mail about two weeks later.

The correspondence contained a cover letter stating the charge I question was valid per the attached agreement. What followed was four dense pages of legal jargon from ConsumerInfo.com (aka a front for Experian....). The gist of the message was the declaration that I checked my credit rating and also agreed to a monthly credit a reporting service for $19.95/month which was in force until I cancelled the service..... I still could not recall making the credit check which was concerning on several levels. I was also mad at myself for not reading carefully enough and "agreeing" to a revolving service (which I dislike on principal) and which I don't need..... The entire mess found its way to my desk only to be buried by more pressing matters for several days.

When the paperwork resurfaced, I went to the Experian site and couldn't sign in! (No LastPass log in credentials was a great indicator I don't have an active account!) Immediately, I navigated to ConsumerInfo.Com, the domain prominently featured on the chargeback dispute letter supplied by my bank. Again, I couldn't log in and found no authentication information in my LastPass Vault.....)

Listed on the ConsumerInfo.com home page is a 800 Customer Service Number. I gave them a call and a friendly, helpful, Representative listened to my situation. After carefully verifying my identification information, she too was unable to find an account tied to my name..... I provided specifics included within the the ConsumerInfo.Com Chargeback Dispute Notice-- Reference Number; Case Number and Credit Card Number. Finally, the Representative was able to cross reference my issue by the Credit Card Number I provided. Then there was a moment of silence.....

"I cannot provide you with all the details, but do you know someone who would be identified as 'Roberto R?'" Without hesitation I said, "No, I do not." As we were chatting I unsuccessfully tried to find a credit card tied to this number in my money clip. Knowing the bank account being charged. I went further and looked at a few odd cards and other information I typically do not carry every day and leave on a shelf in my office. Lo and behold, I found the card as a bank debit card for my business account!

It appears that at some past date, this card was hijacked as I used it to pay for some incidental purchase. (Since I haven't regularly carried this card on a daily basis for at least six months, the theft took place at some now indeterminate time and place.) In a twist of fate and karma, it appears this card was used to check and monitor the credit report of the thief!!! You have to love it!

ConsumerInfo.Com (aka Experian) has assured me that I will be refunded the $60 or so dollars in recurring fees which has previously been charged to my account. Immediately after having this conversation, I called my bank, explained the recent discoveries and had the debit card cancelled despite having the current card in my possession (which is likely a replacement from an earlier card with a new expiration date). I did express concern that this theft didn't surface in the course of the bank's examination of the contested charge. It appears that the credit reporting agency's providing proof of contract and credit card was sufficient to "verify" the transaction. It apparently never occurred to my bank or the billing party, which in this case was a credit reporting agency!, to verify WHO was using this debit card!

Thankfully, this misfortune had very minor, and reversible, financial consequences. It also serves as an at least slightly humorous learning lesson, but identity theft is far from a trivial issue! How you protect yourself is the subject of many articles and controversy abounds about the best and most effective solutions. I am not going to delve into all of the techniques and tools which can minimize your risk of identity theft and cybercrime in this specific post. However, I will provide you with some takeaways and resources I have recently implemented to further lock down my physical and virtual identities.

For the record, I have not subscribed to any paid service such LifeLock. Many swear by this and other services. One reason I haven't pursued a comprehensive service such as LifeLock is I have been provided similar services as a result of certain companies having been hacked which has forced these entities to provide identity theft protection as part of court settlements. I was victim to the (in)famous Sony Playstation hack(s) of recent years. My own less than beloved local governement Davidson County (Nashville) managed to lose a laptop filled with tens of thousands of individual personal data. This incompetence provided another year of "free" identity theft protection. There have been other issues. However, even if you elect to use one of these paid services, I do NOT want you to believe this is "one stop shopping" and you no longer have anything to worry about! There is no substitute for taking personal action and active preventative measures with or without the aid of one of these companies.

Here are a few steps you may not have considered which are easy to implement, free, and from trusted sources:

Those of you who have read my recent prior review on the battle between the two big names in password management, LastPass and Roboform, know that I am an advocate of these tools. Having truly randomized, long, unique, passwords is one of the best steps you can take in your quest to preserve your online identity. Unless you have a truly eidetic memory, the only way to implement this step effectively is through a safe and secure software tool such as LastPass or Roboform.

I believe LastPass is currently the superior "hammer" in this toolbox. Not only is the free version sufficient for many, but the $12/year pro version provides a great cross platform solution across Macs, Windows, Linux and mobile devices. Version 2.00 was released last week Numerous enhancements were announced and I will provide a comprehensive follow up post on these in the coming week. One notable new feature is FREE Credit Report Monitoring. This is truly a free service which utilizes one of the big three reporting agencies, TransUnion. If you are a LastPass user I recommend turning this feature on immediately.
Most of the free credit report web sites you hear and read about are actually thinly disguised come on offerings intended to get you to spend money to get an actually useful report and/or entrap you in an ongoing monthly monitoring service such as the one Roberto R managed to sign up for through ConsumerInfo.com with my debit card.

There is one service which is both bonafide and truly a free source of credit reporting (on a monthly basis). CreditKarma.com provides an actual TransUnion FICA Score along with supporting documentation at no charge. You also receive FREE credit card monitoring so sign up! The company appears to make its money by offering superior credit card alternatives, and other deals, based on your information. Some of these deals appear very attractive if you carry a balance on one or more accounts. I can recommend creditkarma.com.
You need to exercise more awareness than ever in what email you elect to open and respond to! It is all too easy to be maneuvered into unwittingly providing critical personal information or downloading a malicious tool designed to capture your key login details without your knowledge. As a rule, if you receive any unsolicited correspondence from a financial institution, utility or other service (even if you are a current customer). Do NOT open it. Either open a browser window and go directly to the company site and respond in that way or pick up the 'phone and contact a Customer Service Representative.

Always use a browser which is completely up to date. I recommend Google's Chrome Browser. Chrome keeps itself continually updated, sandboxes individual tabs (which adds security and stability), and can protect you in other ways. Other modern browsers are also perfectly fine but you should not ever ignore updates which you may have to manually install.
Also, consider using a browser safety plug in to help ensure you are going to trusted sites. AVG's Linkscanner can help protect you from infected sites.

There are many more steps you should take in the real and virtual world. If there is an interest, I will detail further steps and services you should consider in your quest. If you have a particular hint or tool you have found helpful, please share it using the comments section below. Because you never know, the guy or gal who gets hold of your identity or credit card may not be as nice as Roberto R who left traceable breadcrumbs to the door of a credit reporting bureau!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: charles schwab, creditkarma, experian, transunion

Map This! Apple's Move Into This Arena Creating Immediate Winners And Losers.....

2012-06-12T18:14:00.001-05:00

MacRumor has confirmed what listeners to Apple's presentations suspected, even Apple needs a "little help from their friends" when undertaking a massive effort such as this! It appears that Tom Tom is a key player in the development of Apple's announced iOS6 turn by turn, 3D, interactive mapping service.

As of this writing, TomTom stock is up 53 Cents and is trading at $3.80/share. This is a 16.2% increase on the day. Even with the deal's details undefined, clearly the market sees potential significant upside for the company which has a negative EPS (earnings per share) at this time.

Conversely, Garmin's stock has plummeted. Garminn is actually trading at $39.51 which is up nominally ($1.31 +3.4%) on the day. However, the stock's value has been drastically trimmed over the past several months and is trading well below its $50.67 52 week high. Please see nearby chart.

No matter how this war develops, one thing is sure, the days of $50 TomTom and Garmin GPS Apps being downloaded are history!

Of course Google is the most obvious loser in this transition. Mobile ads are increasingly important as users abandon desktops and laptops in favor of smartphones and tablets. There have been a number of reports suggesting half of all Google's map inquiries are derived through Apple iOS devices (this despite Android's currently superior international hardware marketshare. As the nearby graph suggests (source: Nielson), iPhone is gaining traction against Android but still has not overtaken the freely distributed Google operating system.

For whatever reasons (and one could write a column speculating on the various factors involved), iPhone users are greater consumers of data, than Android users. I have read past studies claiming iPhone users consume up to 50% more data than Android owners. The loss of the iPhone map application will not topple Google, but it does present the first truly significant "loss" on Apple's platform. Apple's distain for Google extends to Steve Jobs's obsession. He vehemently felt that Google had copied iPhone features within Android and he vowed to destroy Android prior to his death. The announcement of Apple's in-house map application is clearly intended as one nail in the proverbial coffin.....

But Apple could be a loser too! Users expect Apple to provide polished, beautiful, seamless, experiences. While Siri has failed to live up to some expectations, the uneven user experience can be "excused" allowing for Siri's beta status. (Some argue that Siri had to be released in this unfinished format in order to collect enough data-- speech across context and language-- in order to improve its results.) Maps are a different story! If Apple were to deliver a product which fails to faithfully and accurately get customers from A to B the first time, and every time, there will be severe backlash. You cannot offer the world a "beta" map product.

It is no secret that Apple inhibited Google maps. Voice enabled turn by turn instructions have been available on Android devices for some time. Apple refused to allow Google to implement this key feature, and others, over the past several iterations. The war has been on for some time.....

Tim Cook and Apple must deliver out of the box. If you caught the related announcement concerning key automobile manufacturers buying into the Apple Kool Aid (see my updated post on this subject re-published yesterday) you can begin to grasp the scope of Apple's ambitions for mapping (and a continually evolving Siri assistant).

Developers must see the benefits to this tightly integrated iOS feature. (Beyond just making it (much) easier to integrate Apple maps via API hooks.) Google maps is integral to many Apps which promote location based services. There is no doubt that Apple wants its product to supplant Google in providing this data and advertising rich information in such products as FourSquare and Camera+.

Like many, I have grown accustomed to, and dependent upon, interactive maps to get me from A to B to C..... I have had Garmin portable units; SmartPhone Apps and built in, dedicated, GPS car systems. My father who was not a technologic early adopter, purchased an early Garmin car unit, christened her "Gertrude" and had a long term first name "relationship" with this device. He would have probably reluctantly traded "her" in for a new, improved, Siri focused travel companion, but only if "she" can reliably get from any given point to another. After all, it doesn't matter how nice and calm a voice is coming over the car's speakers if you are driving in circles around Boston.... Who cares whether Gertrude says, "Please turn around" or Siri smartly comments, "I think you may have just missed your restaurant. Please turn around when you get a chance..." Ouhhh.....

The stakes are high. This may be Tim Cook's first acid test. Siri is a novelty, getting to grandma's house for Thanksgiving is a necessity. Here's to TomTom shareholders, congrats! Garmin devotees I see more rough roads ahead.... Apple shareholders, the jury is out at the moment on this announcement.

Google, well Google, my advice to you is take back Android! Stop letting third parties add layers and layers of crapware on your devices. Force manufacturers to stay current with operating system updates (which will thrill your developer community! Open source may be conceptually great, but Apple's "walled garden" has made it easier for developers to deploy great Apps quickly and monetize them (even forgoing 30% for the privalege of doing so). You can't make Apple promote your mapping software, but you can make the Android experience superior and promote your innovations in this way. If Google maps can more reliably get me from a foreign airport to a new resort in a country I have never set foot in, that is what I will turn to. In the end, I don't need a 3D rendering, I need to park the car and get on with the adventure of life.

Interesting times for developers, investors, and those simply trying to find the nearest ATM in an unfamiliar city. Here's to getting wherever you want to go safely!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently hold a Long Position in $APPL; $GOOG

Companies: Apple; Google

What Apps Are In Your Mobile Travel Folder...?

2012-06-08T15:08:00.002-05:00

SmartPhones, tablets, and near constant access to the vast knowledge stored on the Internet has changed our lives in countless ways over the past several years. Every aspect of travel-- discovery; planning; logistics; communication-- has been profoundly touched by the emergence of Apps and online resources.

Everyone who owns an Android or iOS device and travels no doubt has several Apps at their beckon call. My iOS travel folder has about a dozen apps stashed away ranging from great planning and deal tools to the best way I know to communicate in a foreign language when all else fails.

As a wrap up to my recent series of posts regarding my recent escape, I thought I would share the Apps on my iPhone and iPad. I would really enjoy hearing about your must have Android and/or iOS Apps in this article's comment section.

Planning: My long term "go to" airline and hotel App is Kayak (Kayak Pro iPhone; Kayak Pro iPad). This App still returns some of the best, most comprehensive, results I have ever found. Once I have a destination in mind, Kayak is normally my first stop.

Still lately a dorky little "Hipmunk" has captured my traveler's imagination (iPhone; iPad). Offering many of the same search services as Kayak, Hipmunk adds a different kind of user interface and at least one notable twist on the traditional search experience. Hipmunk attempts to algorithmically determine an "Agony Index," combining cost, flight time, layovers, time of day, and other factors to rank flights from "least to most agonizing." I find this to be a useful metric and the grid like results graph is a wonderful way to visualize your upcoming trip.

There are of course easy means of reviewing results using more traditional metrics such as cost, departure time and length, but the Agony Index puts the "hip" in Hipmonk. (Besides watching the animation while the service does its search is cheesy but surprisingly captivating. Hotel searches display on a user friendly map and are color coded with TripAdvisor ratings, very slick. The Apps are free and I highly recommend you add this tool to your travel folder.

If you are looking at hotels and more, no travel planning portfolio is complete without TripAdvisor (iPhone; iPad). This iconic name in internet travel offers a wealth of information and review data spanning a wide range of services and countries. Like all internet review sites, you will find some commentary on a property to be overly zealous (both irrationally positive and negative). If you throw out the third standard deviations on the review bell curve and concentrate on the mean and read a good cross section of commentary you will be better positioned to make a good travel decision.

On The Road: I have extolled the value of TripIt in an earlier post. There is a free (ad driven) version as well as ad free offerings for both the iPhone and iPad iPad (Free); iPad (No Ads); iPhone (Free); iPhone (No Ads)). It is hard to imagine a better organization tool, but if you have found something which rivals TripIt's functionality, please sure your thoughts in the Comment Section located nearby!

If you travel specific airlines frequently, or Southwest even occasionally since this airline doesn't allow its flight and cost information to be aggregated through third party services such as Orbitz, Expedia, or data driven sites such as Hipmunk and Kayak, you should download the airline specific App(s) if they exist. In addition to Southwest Airlines, I fly American and Delta with enough frequency to add their specific apps to my iOS travel folder.

Mobile map wars are a very hot topic these days. It is widely speculated that Apple is going to announce it own map service in the next few weeks. This would be a quantum shift from Apple's reliance on Google Maps. Google in turn has provided a peremptory "glimpse" into its future mobile mapping agenda in the past few days. Today, Google Maps is a much better experience on Android devices. Included are turn by turn voice functionality and a more intuitive overall interface.

At this writing, I find a good mapping service very valuable especially when traveling internationally. This is precisely where built in iOS Apps (and yes, Google Maps on Android in many cases), fall short. Ideally, I want voice turn by turn so I can concentrate on driving/traveling while away and the ability to download maps using inexpensive wi-fi at a hotel or public location and not spend what can be large sums of international data roaming downloading tiles from Google Maps on my mobile platform. (These issues either aren't material while in the US or are already resolved using built in Apps.)

While traveling internationally, I rely on GlobalNav. This App isn't free, but at $3.99 it may save you from making a wrong turn (or two) in a country where making a mistake can prove frustrating and perhaps costly. The current version does allow pre-downloading of map data and voice turn by turn guides. The software and maps aren't nearly as good as Google's offering, but they do have map data in international areas that surprisingly Google doesn't offer (in addition to the two key features mentioned).

I am hopeful that Apple and Google continue to push each other in the online mapping arena. There are too many eyeballs and advertising dollars at stake for this slug fest not to continue. (Not to mention Apple's open hostility towards Google and what they consider professional betrayal of iOS in Android.) For the time being, it pays to have some International "friendly" map in your travel arsenal unless you planning on leaving the country for a direct visit to an all inclusive resort and have no plans on venturing further.

In Country: Speaking of venturing away, if you are heading to a location where your language skills may be wanting, be sure to add Google Translate to your mobile travel folder! This free app offers two way translation in more than sixty (60) languages. If you believe as I do that attempting to communicate in the native language is appreciated by locals and adds to the adventure, you will find this App indispensable. Foreign language isn't my strong suit and even after years of high school and college Spanish (and a few years of French in the distant past), I am far from fluent and I find myself reaching for this tool often. If I were to travel to other areas, Google Translate would be my best bet. Highly recommended.

We truly live in a connected world. When traveling in your home country most of us have generous, if no longer, "unlimited," data plans. All bets are off when roaming abroad! In fact, nothing can ruin your day more than returning home to a heart attack inducing bill for out of country data usage! There are many ways to minimize this issue. The first step is to be sure that you turn data roaming OFF while traveling. (iOS users can find this setting under General | Network. Android has a similar setting.) Resisting the urge to snap ten quick pics and send them to grandma upon landing also helps. You should also turn OFF location services and any automatic update feeds you may have running in the background. I will make a comprehensive list of ways to manage this travel challenge but for this post, the best means of staying connected without breaking the bank is to use free wi fi while on the road. Depending on where your travels take you, finding free wi fi may be nearly as easy as turning the next corner or as elusive as discovering a four leaf clover under a double rainbow. Well not surprisingly, there are Apps to help out! This Free Wi-Fi App by JiWire allows you to search for wi fi spots around the world. Add it to your Travel Folder today and you can stay in touch with your virtual world without racking up megabytes of expensive roaming data.

Observant readers will notice there is an empty slot in my Travel Folder. I am interested to hear what your "must have" travel apps are and add something new for my next adventure. Please sure your travel app treasures in the Comment Section below. Together we can help each other have better, more stress free, adventures which open the mind and soul to the world around us.....

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Earlier Posts In This Series on Travel:

Lessons From The Road (Part 1); Let TripIt Be Your Guide....
Lessons From The Road.... Online Deals Are Not Always Such A Deal.....
Expedia And The Rental Car....

I currently hold a Long Position in $APPL; $GOOG

Companies: Apple; Google; Hipmunk; Kayak; TripAdvisor; Delta Airlines; Southwest Airlines; American Airlines;

Why Apple Needs To Buy TIVO..... Today!

2012-06-05T11:02:00.002-05:00

Almost every tech pundit on the planet seems to have weighed in on the oft rumored Apple TV. I have abstained from playing the "What's Apple Going to Do" parlor game until now.....

While not commenting, I have read with interest, and more than a small dose of amusement, others' thoughts on the matter. Candidly, even after reading Walter Issacson's biography in which Steve famously states, "We've finally cracked the code." in reference to the televisions, I haven't been able to make sense of it....

Some prognosticators have speculated on an iTV of around 40" which will be aesthetically pleasing and serve as the communal hub for all things iOS. Others have opined about Siri like voice functionality. A universal remote with a voice, a mammoth database, and even a touch of common sense.....

Still others speculate the revolutionary Apple iTV will really be a major overhaul of Apple TV, the "hockey puck" add on which provides access to select content and more importantly in my mind, Airplay support for iPhones and iPads running on the same network. To date, this product has been little more than a project or "experiment" in the Apple iVerse.....

Overriding all of these possibilities is the cold reality that TV is about access to content. Specifically, network content controlled through studios and major pipeline players such as Comcast, Time Warner, and satellite providers such as Dish. These folks have little interest, or incentive, to effectively subjugate themselves to Apple as they "Appify" content and resell it on a channel by channel (gasp) or series basis! Even a company as iconic and financially sound as Apple will be hard pressed to wrest the creative "clicker" from Hollywood.....

Couple this problem with the cut throat current HDTV marketplace which runs on razor thin (read nonexistent) margins and relatively long replacement life cycles. People simply aren't going to trade in their televisions every year or two as they do iPhones and iPads. Apple is not in the business of selling hardware in an arena where margins are notoriously low or where they cannot contribute a quantum change in the total experience.... I don't see how traditional TVs simply make sense in the Apple universe.

Then I read this piece by Jeremy Allaire, "Apple Television, Airplay, and Why the iPad Is The Next TV Apps Platform" This article which is a by-product of the respected "All Things D" Conference lays out a compelling argument which makes technological and financial sense to me in many respects. However, there is a missing piece in my mind and I have what i think is an interesting solution.....

If you haven't experienced AirPlay and AirMirroring (where you can mirror your iPad or iPhone onto your HDTV with the swipe and the press of a button using an Apple TV as an intermediary, you owe it to yourself to go "harass" a techy friend to let them demo this great feature (which Apple has really not promoted heavily to date). If you have an iPad or iPhone, just click here, shell out $95 for your very own Apple TV (new version) and experiment with this technology yourself!

Many Apps, including Netflix, MLB and other TV centric content providers have already embraced the Airplay KoolAid and there will no doubt be many others. What is perhaps even more interesting is the release of APIs which makes the iPhone/iPad a second screen device. A device with (very good) built in cameras, microphones and gyroscopes. The possibilities are staggering...... Interactive TV done right.....

What's more, there is a potential universe of 500,000 Apps which could run on Apple TV through the combination of an iPad and Apple TV. Angry Birds on a 60" HDTV..... You and your significant other researching a trip using TripAdvisor, a web browser, perhaps Kayak or HipMunk. Each of you can take turns showing information on the family HDTV while controlling the experience on your individual iPads from the couch..... Almost limitless possibilities..... Almost....

What would make this perfect for me is the addition of true DVR functionality. Imagine having access to all of your TIVO content (which would still be sourced through your cable or satellite provider) with a beautiful Apple interface..... Add Slingbox like capability allowing Airplay to work synchronously. iPad content to the HDTV.... "TIVO" content to the iPad anytime, anywhere...... Wow! Give Siri the smarts to do things like "Record the next Titans Game" or "Get me a Season Pass for Modern Family but skip reruns" and you have "cracked it" for sure.

TIVO is still a household name. Like Kleenex and Google, it has become ingrained in our society as a "verb." I always say I will TIVO that.... I never hear anyone say I will DVR that show..... The TIVO interface is superior, if dated, to virtually every generic DVR I have seen. The problem is DVR's are now bundled with cable and satellite packages. You pay for them in the form of inexpensive leases buried in your monthly bill (and often forgotten about). Essentially, DVRs have been commoditized. However, for the most part the interface and experience is inferior to TIVOs (and in fact many of these DVR's utilize TIVO technology in a "dumbed down" form). Still "almost free, is almost free" and TIVOs are decidedly not free.

I wrote in an earlier post about the economics of TIVO versus the recently introduced Joey and Hopper DVR combo developed by Dish that the tides had turned..... In fact, I advocated dropping TIVO (of which I currently own four) for this new technology. Financially, it still is very much a justifiable migration for most.
Speaking of finances, TIVO currently has a 1.1 billion market cap. Apple could buy the company at a 100% premium! for $2 billion and it wouldn't even be a rounding error. (Apple currently has about $100 BILLION in CASH in the bank!) I am sure TIVO even has a war chest of patents which could partially justify the acquisition without any further analysis.

Apple could then integrate Apple TV with a TIVO DVR. A DVR which uses existing CableCard technology to "talk" to the cable and satellite networks. This would effectively serve as an "end run" around the content issues which seem legally and contractually insurmountable at this time.Taking the best of the TIVO interface and Apple TV interface would be something Apple's talented engineers could accomplish with more aplomb than any other group. (And TIVO has failed to make significant improvements in this area despite repeated efforts.)

Effectively, your iPad and myriad Apps would become the focal point of your TV experience. When away from home, you could watch any content seamlessly and of course use Siri or a more traditional App to manage your Season Passes and other recording needs. At home, the iPad can become your "second screen" allowing instantaneous stat information on the big game; real time voting for "The Voice;" and much more.....

Current content providers and Hollywood keep their "walled garden" of content and advertising. (At least for now.) Apple focuses on beautiful hardware and elegant user interfaces which people want so badly they line up to pay premium pricing for the privilege of being first to own the experience. As part of the bargain, Apple effectively markets the ultimate cable set top box and holds patents in this area as a result of the TIVO acquisition. (Google's recent acquisition of Motorola puts them in the cable set top business in a big way! Apple's much publicized disdain for the Big G would only make this coup that much sweeter!)

This scenario would be bad news for Logitech. Their universal remotes, while not perfect, are the best widely distributed technology in this field. Oh yeah, the name options would be fun too, iTIVO... iDVR.... iNewUNeededIt... iExperienceLife

I know I would be among the first in line to buy one of these toys. And I would be very excited indeed to discuss my future iTIVO needs with Siri and throw out a boxful of remotes! By the way, this serendipity wouldn't be a good day for Slingbox either which currently makes a very good, if misunderstood by most service. iNewIt. (If anyone from Infinity Loop is reading, please feel free to provide me a percent or two before you subsume TIVO and begin your next empire..... You heard it here first.....)

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently hold a Long Position in $APPL

I have no plans to acquire new, or additional share in any company mentioned in the next 72 hours.

Companies: Apple, TIVO

Expedia And The Rental Car....

2012-05-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

Travel today is filled with vastly more challenges than what those of us who recall the pre-911 Vagabond days. As I have detailed in two prior posts, technology can play a positive role in the planning and execution of business and personal journeys. (If you missed the first two installments and want to catch up, here is a direct link to my TripIt review. I discuss some of my favorite travel discovery and planning tools in a second "On The Road" post which serves as a direct prelude to this post's discussion.)

One compelling reason for using what I consider primary tier online travel services such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, is the expectation that your agreement with the air carrier, hotel, or rental company is fully backed by the weight of these travel Goliaths.....

This fact certainly played a role in my use of these sites for certain aspects of trips past. I relied upon Expedia for one specific aspect of my recent travel abroad. Candidly, I wasn't focused on, or overly concerned, about securing a lower price, I simply wanted a "signed, sealed, and delivered" car rental agreement at a pre-defined price.

To that end, I searched for "full size" rental cars for the appropriate time period using Expedia. In the end I selected a boring but functional four door through Dollar Rental Car (a US corporation with a decent, if not spectacular, reputation). Through Expedia, I agreed to what I thought to be a very competitive weekly rate and noted the additional day charges bringing my total to about $200 US. Expedia dutifully provided an e-confirmation of the agreement including a Contract Number. TripIt found the email and added it to my itinerary! "That's that" I proudly announced to my dog as I ticked yet another "to do" off of my Travel Planning list on Remember The Milk!

Expedia's pricing guarantee is filled with caveats but the prevailing promise is, "If you find a lower price within 24 hours of booking, we'll rebate the difference." Again, I wasn't about to spend another minute hunting for a way of shaving a few bucks off this bill after making the commitment; I just wanted to "book it, Dano" and continue packing.

To be fair, here's the direct price guarantee taken from the Expedia site at the time of this writing:

We're so confident you’ll find the best price for your trip here on Expedia that we guarantee it. Find a cheaper trip within 24 hours of booking and we'll refund the difference-and give you a travel coupon worth $50.

Expedia's Best Price Guarantee covers virtually every part of your trip: flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, rental cars, and activities. Here's how to tell if your Expedia reservation qualifies:Are travel dates the same?

Is the hotel, room type and rate plan and cancellation policy the same?

Is the airline, class, fare and cancellation policy the same?

Is the car class and cancellation policy the same?

Is the cruise line, cabin, class, fare, and cancellation policy the same?

Does each part of your package match?

Is the other fare from a U.S.-based website and quoted in dollars?

If everything matches, here’s how to take advantage of the Best Price Guarantee.

I will premise the next events with a personal observation. Travel is tough, international travel has gotten down right brutal. In addition to US TSA security which is far from a model of efficiency, fairness, or frankly effectiveness (they have yet to "save us" from a single terrorist event), the Customs and Immigration Processes here and abroad add a multitude of tedious lines, checkpoints, and frustrations, to the travel process. There is no going back to the relative freedom of travel in the pre-911 era. Travelers, including myself, willingly resign ourselves to these added "hoops" in order to reach our destination.

This preceding paragraph is easier to write than live. If you have never had the "joy" of being part of the mayhem brought about by five (possibly more) international flights landing within a thirty minute period in Mexico, all of which amazingly used the same baggage carousel (leaving five others dead and unmoving as if they had been sucked into a Stephen King novel) only to then wait two hours!!! to get through the first immigration station, you haven't truly enjoyed the thrill of international travel lately! (The return through our very own US Customs in Atlanta frankly wasn't a heck of a lot better, but that's a tale I will spare you at this point.)

Which leads me back to Expedia/Dollar Rental and a new travel hell. Toting luggage, backpack, jet lag, and a passport into a van leading to Cancun Airport's Rental Car Row, the day of taxis, planes, airports, security and hours of waiting to get from baggage claim to rental agency to continue the next leg of the trip were taking a toll.....

A friendly, attractive, Dollar Rep was outside the door to greet arriving Touristas. She spoke excellent English and I had hopes of signing some paperwork, swiping my AMEX, and finding my hotel and a cold alcoholic beverage to help wash away the stress of getting "to paradise." No deal, senior! (A bit later I learned that this greeter wearing a Dollar Uniform didn't even work for the company and was in fact a shill.)

I met Fernando (I am not making up the name) who seemed assigned to me (likely because his English was also quite good and my college Spanish was decidedly rusty.) We exchanged pleasantries and I showed him my Contract Number and other details on my trusty iPad. He looked at it briefly, typed some data into his computer while conducting a conversation with someone on his cell phone (my Spanish is good enough to know it was a girlfriend, or chica, and they weren't discussing rental rates!). After hanging up, he looked at me and said here is what I am going to do. He said, I will have this car for you in a few minutes. I said, "Great!, Mucho Gracias!" (I could envision the stress leaving as I was just "minutes" from sitting at the pool side bar with a glass of something with a parasol and LOTS of rum!)

He slid the paperwork toward me, clearly expecting that I fill out the majority of the form. I skimmed down and said, I don't need supplemental insurance. I use American Express. (If you aren't aware, many AMEX Memberships include "free" travel premiums. One of the best is the promise that American Express will cover any insurance costs incurred on car rentals which are not covered by your primary insurance as long as you use your card to pay for the rental. I have never had to make a claim but have used this umbrella policy to deny supplemental rental insurance coverage all over the world for twenty-five years.

Fernando looked at me with a blank expression. I thought we may be having a communication problem and was reaching for my iPhone and Google Translate (LINK), when he slid a small piece of paper across the desk to me with only one number, $462. I instantly realized it wasn't a communication "problem" it was a contract "problem....."

Calmly, I explained I booked through Expedia (showed him the confirmation again, contract number, total cost of $202, etc.) and that is what I intended to pay. I also explained I didn't want, or need, any "supplemental" insurance. Fernando looked at me and said, "This is the price. Also senior, you are no longer in the United States; you are in Mexico. American Express insurance doesn't work here.'" There I stood, tired, non-plussed, feeling like a Pavlovian Dog who had heard a bell (in my case, one more "hoop" to jump before a cool down lounge chair and cocktail).

I slid the paper back to him and said, a deal is a deal. He said call Expedia, call American Express, the car will cost you $462 US. He added insult by saying I would be paying in Pesos and quoting an exchange rate of 10 to 1 against the prevailing 12.5 to 1 rate at the time. Could I, or should I, have said "screw it," paid the additional $250 and hit the road? Possibly, but I was raised to respect the value of a dollar and the sanctity of a contract. Both were falling victim. I called Fernando's bluff. Pulling out my iPhone and knowing I was about to go on a 49 Cent a Minute marathon (and that is the pre-agreed price with AT&T if you buy a package of minutes prior to heading south) I was ready to find someone at Expedia to put an end to this and get me back on track.

Call it coincidence, perhaps karma, allow for the possibility that cell towers around a major, international airport, are terrible (yeah, right), but after an HOUR of trying various national numbers (using Google Voice) and International Numbers using my direct minutes via the local carrier, I was unable to ever even here an Expedia call center recording in English..... Perhaps there was another possibility, rental companies block out cell towers around their offices to discourage mad touristas such as yours truly....

Mad and tired, I told Fernando and his greeter, "Hasta Luego." Unhappy, the entire caravan of luggage and tired souls re-entered the Dollar van for the return trek to the airport departure area and transfer to a cab.
Those of you who have followed along this far realize that the issue rapidly was devolving from one of finance to pure principal. A fifty dollar cab ride later, I waded through the Westin check in procedure only to be told that the room wasn't ready (Check In time is 3 PM; local time was 5 PM). I probably looked and acted every bit the hagered tourist that I felt which yielded several free drinks at the pool bar while the room was readied.

After my first cocktail I was re-energized and ready to try and resolve the car issue once again. Firing up Google Voice on the hotel's wi-fi yielded a gratifying immediate connection to Expedia Customer Support! About fifteen minutes (at 49 cents/minute) later, I was finally speaking to a bonafide, English speaking, customer service rep!

I explained my situation and provided contract numbers and all relevant information. After an additional fifteen minutes "on hold" while the rep called the actual Dollar Rental Office at the local airport, she returned. Conciliatory, the rep stated, "The situation isn't good. The car you want actually costs $725 for ten days!" I may have dropped my iPhone. Involving Expedia ADDED over $300 to the $200 overage "offered" when I was at the desk a couple of hours earlier (and one expensive cab ride and equally expensive international call later I was decidedly not getting my issue resolved).

I asked to escalate the matter. Twenty minutes later a supervisor had some grasp of my situation and frustration. Ultimately, his solution.... Expedia would pay the taxes (about $30 US) and the rest of this problem wasn't going to get addressed. You may notice, he didn't even offer me the "$50 Gift Certificate so proudly part of the company's guarantee (this wouldn't have mollified me, but it is another point worth noting). He asked what would "satisfy me." Exasperated, I said for the sake of my sanity and trip, I would accept a rental car for $350 including all taxes, insurance, everything (and I would pay via AMEX). Silence. More 49 Cent a minute silence...... Final answer..... "No can do!"

I proceeded to get a Case #, name, etc., and assured him I would draft a comment/complaint upon returning to the States. My next call was to American Express Customer Service. I asked if the car supplemental insurance benefit had been cancelled, or was no longer enforce while in Mexico. After a few minutes on hold while the agent consulted with a company car rental expert, she explained that AMEX does indeed still honor this benefit and it IS honored while in Mexico. (She did say there were a handful of international countries including Israel where the benefit was not currently available.) No matter how else you may feel about American Express, this company has consistently been far superior to other credit card companies whenever and wherever I have been in need of answers or assistance. This fact alone will keep me a cardholder for the rest of my life.

After finally getting settled in a room and relaxing for an evening, I tackled the car rental problem the old fashioned way, up close and personal. Directly across the street from the Westin was a high end mall filled with Gucci, an Apple Store, too many sun glass stores, high end clothing boutiques, and restaurants, to count. Most importantly for my needs, some newly minted rental car offices were lined up on one of the outer edges of the mall. Taking the offensive, I bartered with a couple agencies (not Dollar). Avis "tried harder" and offered a similar vehicle (four door Jetta) for $320 for nine days "all inclusive." A portion of this fee went to $0 Insurance and I simply was too tired to argue. I still used AMEX and figured even if the Jetta and I parted ways in the middle of Mayan ruins someone would pay for the debacle before December 22, 2012 (and it wouldn't be me!).

To safeguard against any potential misunderstanding, I had the Avis Agent write in English, "$320 US All Inclusive" atop my contract form. Ironically, when I finally deposited the vehicle with the Avis Airport Office, we handed the kid who checked in the car "the paperwork." I walked into the office to settle up and was greeted with a bill for $450 US. (billed in Pesos making the billing error more challenging to spot). You may not be surprised to hear that when I explained my price and that it was clearly stated on the contract, the amigo out front who reviewed the car, took the paperwork and drove around back, shook his head and said, Sin papeleo." (No paperwork.)

I said, "Bullshit." (No additional translation was necessary.) Her boss called the office where I negotiated the deal and they faxed a copy of the rental agreement over. (The price was indeed clearly stated in multiple locations.) Thirty minutes later I got an apology and properly billed charge.)

International travel is fraught with more "opportunities" than domestic getaways. I am sure this is true for companies like Expedia too. Still, for these first tier travel companies to have credibility, their contracts must be enforceable. This seems especially important between a service and another US incorporated entity such as Dollar Car Rental. The result may be very different even in another area of Mexico (but I doubt it). I cannot ever recommend Expedia again; their unwillingness to stand behind their deal (and their customer! me), especially where I am more vulnerable, in a foreign country with limited recourse is at least troubling. Picking up the tab on taxes isn't even worthy of my first five minutes on hold. I certainly expected more; the phone call alone cost me $20 more than the company's "solution."

If you're anxious to head to Akumal, skip the beach side flea markets and prepare to use your negotiating skills for a car rental. You are far more likely to get a fair deal looking face-to-face with an agent and bartering than relying on Expedia or its brethren. As the first guy so quickly pointed out, "Amigo, you aren't in the US. You are in Mexico now....." Technology isn't always the solution; good old honest, face to face negotiation certainly still has a place in this age of SmartPhones and touristas....

Hola....... And safe travels.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: American Express; American Express; Kayak; Expedia; Orbitz; Travelocity

Lessons From The Road.... Online Deals Are Not Always Such A Deal.....

2012-05-24T11:09:00.000-05:00

Travel has been one of the premiere categories for online information and commerce since the Internet's nascent introduction to the public.... Those with long tech memories will recall utilizing the Sabre database (founded by American Airlines) through Compuserve back in the 1980s. Back then flights were almost always on time, O.J. (and myself) could sprint through an airport from car to cabin seat less than twenty minutes prior to departure and be cheered on by airline employees. (Today such antics will only land you in a TSA holding cell and you better have your attorney's number on speed dial! Of course OJ's legal problems extend far beyond "forgetting" to empty his pockets before surrendering to a full body scan.)

Travel Agents have survived and still provide valuable services for many. However, this is a classic industry which faced potential extinction or radically reinvent itself to coexist in today's connected world. Even an occasional, recreational, traveler, has a plethora of tools at their disposal to plan and design an itinerary. (In the first article of this series, I wrote about a great planning tool, TripIt. You may want to review this post if you missed it.)

It only seems fair that consumers can easily comparison shop. After all, airlines and hotels utilize all the technological resources they can muster to maximize the return of their inventory. Today it is rare indeed to fly any national airline, anywhere, which is under ninety-five percent (95%) of capacity. These seats have been sold to customers at a staggering number of retails over the months leading up to the travel date. It isn't uncommon for the price of a given seat to oscillate multiple times in an hour as a result of numerous factors. The rules governing this quixotic mix of pricing and demand are as closely guarded as the formula for Coca Cola and Google's ranking algorithms in many cases.

Hotels are generally less sophisticated than the airlines in their pricing models in most instances. This is a topic particularly near to my heart (myself and my family are invested and manage an independent hotel) and is a worthy discussion for a dedicated future post. Still, hotel inventory is every bit as static (each hotel has only so many rooms each night to "sell") and perishable (an empty room "tonight" can never be resold. Every hotel only has a finite number of room nights each year to sell). Like airlines, there is a marginal rate which is $1.00 more than the fixed and variable costs associated with caring for the room which economically justifies selling a room, rather than letting it go unused. The trick of course is accurately identifying this "magic number" and then finding outlets to sell inventory in an optimal mix of seats or occupancy and price. Clearly, getting the proper inputs requires a great deal of human effort, analyzing these factors in real time is a job uniquely suited to modern day computers.

Enter the mega players. Nearly everyone is familiar with the Juggernauts of this field-- Expedia; Orbitz; Hotels.com; and a handful of others have done much to develop and define the field. These primary tier intermediaries often have their founding (and ongoing ownership) in historic players (i.e. American Airlines; Delta). Each of these mega sites offer a wide range of travel booking but revenues are driven by the inventory cost made available from suppliers, "side deals," and site driven ad revenues. Ultimately, this tier of companies steer you towards offerings intended to maximize their profits (and there is nothing wrong with good old capitalism!). As long as you understand the dynamics and don't rely on these companies to put your needs first, they can be very useful. Your experience may differ completely from mine, but I have had only marginal success using these services directly. Later I will share a very bad experience on my recent trip with a rental car booking through Expedia....

Then there are aggregation services such as Kayak (iPhone Pro Version; iPad Pro Version ) which aren't owned or based on legacy service providers but rely on the miracle of data mining to provide access to a wealth of pricing and availability options spanning most, but not all, primary providers. (As an example, Southwest Airlines routinely prohibits access to their pricing and data to these companies forcing you to visit their site to identify competitive flight information.) There are numerous competitors to Kayak, most providing some subtle twist to how they manipulate and present the results. I have found some great deals using this service. As a bonus, Kayak will optionally also search Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz, and several other sites streamlining the quest for the "best deal" further. My history with Kayak has been very positive.

Uncertainty lingers even after finding what you think is a "fair deal" on a fare. Often airlines offer to provide a rebate if your ticket's price declines between the date of purchase and travel. There are of course often strings attached such as the fare must drop $XX or your reservation must fall into some specific class or category to qualify. But typically the biggest "gotcha" is the follow up. Airlines and hotels aren't known for timely notifiction of such declines; it is up to you dear traveler to unearth the price change and apply for a refund. Enter Yapta and a relatively new arrival Tingo (which is a subsidiary of well known Travelocity). These services "take the worry" out of booking by tracking your information and notifying you if you are eligible for any refunds. Tingo claims to go another step and actually provide any rebate to you without you lifting a finger! (Here is a link to the company's "How It Works" page.) Yapta is focused on airline reservations but offers services beyond this industry while Tingo is clearly targeted towards hotels at this juncture. I have used Yapta with good results (in one instance netting me a couple hundred dollars on a reservation which otherwise would have gone unnoticed by all but Delta Airlines shareholders). I haven't personally tried Tingo's service (the company is a rather new addition to the TripAdvisor "family"), but plan on booking my next out of town room through the site.

A third category of companies focus strictly on provider deals. These sites rely on hotels, airlines and rental companies to "sell" their open inventory to them for resale. Effectively, Priceline, Hotwire, and others serve as eBay-like auction houses of the internet travel services. Some of these companies require that you bid blind, knowing only general details about a property such as its "star rating," general location, and amenities. This can be rewarding, if you are slightly adventurous.

Newer companies focused on hotel and resort offerings such as Sniqueaway and Vacationist don't ask you to bid blind and often sell inventory from higher end, but lesser known, resorts at terrific discounts. These companies typically don't explicitly offer low price guarantees, but the heavily discounted pricing virtually guarantee you are buying into a terrific rate. I have used both of the above-mentioned services and generally have been pleased with the properties I have stayed in and the overall "value proposition." Most of these services require you to "join" (which is free for the majority of travel discounters including Sniqueaway and Vacationist) and you will have to endure periodic (even daily) email notices. These package deals are offered for a very specific window of time, fueling the need to purchase (and making it all the more important to curb impulsive behavior). The trade off is discovering spots in locations which you almost certainly wouldn't find any other way (at least at the offered discounted rates).

If you haven't explored some of these sites, I encourage you to do so. Some combination of these services are sure to make your next stay away from home a bit more interesting and affordable..... And don't forget to download and use TripIt to keep track of all your well researched decisions! You won't regret it!

On my recent getaway, I used TripAdvisor to do some research, Kayak to determine optimal airfare and routing. (I would have purchased using links from Kayak-- typically you are directed to the carrier's actual site-- but I elected to call the airline directly so I could use frequent flyer miles in the most effective manner possible. While it is possible to secure seating using frequent flyer points online, this is one transaction I have always found is improved by calling the airline's membership arm directly.) Had I paid cash for airfare, I would have certainly once again used Yapta to monitor rate changes!

Sniqueaway offered a great package which I purchased for a portion of the time spent away (which was something of a mixed bag). My previous use of this site was a true home run. So I still recommend it, but this offering didn't quite live up to the billing, which I will elaborate on in the next post of this series. Oh yes, I also used Expedia to secure a rental car via Dollar and this is where technology first failed me on the journey..... If you are interested in the details, stay tuned for the next installment....! Until then, safe and happy trails!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: American Express; Kayak; Expedia; Orbitz; Travelocity

Lessons From The Road (Part 1); Let TripIt Be Your Guide....

2012-05-22T12:44:00.001-05:00

Over the last ten days or so I took some much needed, self-enforced, R&R. Being self-employed, the very idea of a real vacation is something of an oxymoron. Those of you also involved in the entrepreneurial treadmill no doubt appreciate the challenges involved in planning and committing to time away....

About once a year I try to plan a trip which forces me to take a step back, reflect, and with any kind of luck, recharge. Typically, this means taking some combination of planes, trains, automobiles, taxis and boats to a venue south of the border (and possibly a series of locales). The goal isn't to completely unplug; candidly, I think a complete disconnect from my business and personal worlds would actually be more stressful than skipping the adventure entirely. (There are those around me who could well argue that throwing the iPhone, iPad and the hassles out the window for a couple of weeks is exactly what the doctor ordered, but they haven't been around me on a desert island and probably wouldn't enjoy the experience if they were.) Still, I focus on fun, sun, sailing, and living the "don't worry, be happy" mantra of the islands during this annual sojourn.

As they say, getting there is half the "fun." What these same folks fail to highlight is getting there can be stressful as Hell and can add untold "pain and suffering" to what should be a time of karmic peace and relaxation. So what lessons might you learn from my recent experiences and how does technology play roles in the creation, and elimination, of the adventure....? Read on.....

First a positive lesson. Trip preparation is key. I am fortunate that my professional life is filled with far fewer actual business trips than ever. Thanks to life decisions and the power of affordable and increasingly functional online tools, there is less and less need to trek across the fruited plains for face to face meetings. (Here's a quick tip which may help you avoid your next out of town business meeting: The creator of Google Voice has introduced a radically different Conference Call Application, UberConference. I recommend taking a quick video tour through the nearby link. If you are willing to test a platform still officially in beta, sign up! Look for an in depth review here in a week or so. My initial impression is very positive!) I still frequently go to visit a couple long distance clients but these trips are almost always "roadies" involving my car and some quality time on I-65 with an iPhone and Audible book as company.

The annual trip or two south require far more advance planning. The first and best line of defense is a fantastic app, TripIt! Tripit is a mobile app which runs equally well on iOS devices (with dedicated iPhone and retina display ready iPad Apps), Android, Blackberry (yes, Blackberry!) and Windows Mobile. There is also a web browser interface so you can easily view and manage your trip information from your laptop or desktop should it be more convenient.

The basic App is fully functional and free to download. (You can find the App in various platform App stores. For iOS users, here is a direct link to the download. iPad (Free); iPad (No Ads); iPhone (Free); iPhone (No Ads)) TripIt also offers a Pro version which enhances and extends some functionality found in the free app. If your travel is limited to a few trips a year, the free App should prove more than adequate. So what does TripIt actually do? A lot!

At its core, the service aggregates your travel plans. All of your plans-- airline flight and boarding information; hotel reservations; rental car commitments; and more. Once you have an account, the TripIt service automates the vast majority of this activity by intelligently seeking and importing all of this critical information from your email account! Make a reservation on an airline, TripIt "sees" the email confirmation and adds it to your trip travel agenda. Book a hotel through Starwood, all your reservation information will be a tap away; want to add a reservation for a great restaurant your Uncle says you can't miss the next time you visit Playa Del Sol, you can manually add the plan to your itinerary if the company doesn't offer email confirmation. In no time, your entire trip is at your fingertips.
Something changes.... Your flight is delayed, TripIt notifies you. Need that e-ticket boarding pass, no need to wander through your Gmail Account, open TripIt and click it.

Are you the kind of person who wants, or needs, all of this minutia in your Outlook or Gmail calendar? Tap an export option on TripIt will add all the details to your calendar! The service allows you to manage multiple trips and itineraries. You can also add other family members or associates included in your trip and easily share important trip details with them. This is a must have organizer app for anyone braving modern day travel.

I have not used the TripIt Pro version largely because the free version has served my needs given my infrequent recreational travel these days and because I utilize other Apps such as Award Wallet (iPhone; iPad) to monitor and track my various award points from credit cards, airlines, and companies (which is one of the primary additional features found in TripIt Pro. Many more frequent travelers will discover the $49 annual fee a bargain. Here's what the company web site states are the key additions to the Pro service:

Everything awesome that TripIt has to offer, including instant access to a master itinerary of all your travel plans, plus extra powerful features to keep you in the know, on the go.

Know before you go Instant alerts about flight delays, cancellations, and gate changes sent right to your phone.

Find alternate flights fast We'll help you when you need to find another way there, including flight status and open seats.

Track all your points At last, all your frequent travel account information, balances, and expirations in one place.

Get flight refunds If your airfare is eligible for a refund, you'll be the first to know.

Share automatically Automatically share all your travel plans with the people who need to knowexactly where you are… and where you're going.

Travel with privilegesComplimentary 1-year memberships to Hertz #1 Club Gold and Regus Gold. VIP car rental and access to 1,100 business lounges worldwide. ($660 value)

If you aren't sure Pro is for you, a free 30 day trial will help you make the decision. I have used the free version for several years and several trips and can't imagine planning a trip without it. Highly recommended.

So..... You know what they say about "the best laid plans....." Organization and determination doesn't eliminate frustration and angst when traveling. In the next installment of Music Row on the road, I will be discussing the good, bad, and the ugly of deal sites. Big names such as Expedia are high powered and you may discover, highly overrated. Others such as the lesser known SniqueAway can deliver a lot of value, but you have to be very vigilant (and a little flexible). Like a great five star dive bar which only the locals frequent, there are some online resources you may not know about to make your next getaway a bit more pleasurable. Stay tuned, and whatever you do, let TripIt add your next away from home inspiration to your itinerary......

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Apple; Google; TripIt, Inc.

I currently have a long position in $APPL; $GOOG

The Story of Spring Break and The iPhone.....

2012-05-02T12:37:00.000-05:00

I was at a local AT&T store for a painful reason. I was attempting to mitigate the expense and hassle created by a family member's "loss" of a second smartphone in a twelve month period. Sadly, my last inexpensive Go Phone also met a mysterious demise during an earlier family cell phone crisis. Sigh.

Almost everyone has had to replace a damaged, lost, or stolen cellular phone at one time or another. Still, you may find this tale has some entertainment value (and hopefully a lessen or two as well).....

If you aren't aware, AT&T (and many other network providers) use Asurion as their insurance carrier. At one point iPhones were ineligible for insurance except through select, third party, companies. This is no longer the case. Your iOS or Android SmartPhone can be insured for a monthly fee. Given the often vast difference between a modern smartphone's subsidized price and its full retail cost, the $5/month (approximate) charge is probably worthwhile. Don't confuse the promotional pricing with the "full retail" price you will have to pay should you need to purchase a replacement on the open market (i.e. without signing a new two year carrier commitment or renewing and eligible line for an additional two year term)!

Having some peace of mind is especially desirable if you are "accident prone" or are entrusting what amounts to a mobile computer with access to the world to anyone twenty-one years of age or younger (and perhaps this seminal date of passage into adulthood isn't even a good dividing line).... There are limits to insurance coverage beyond the deductible. If you aren't aware of your policy's limitations, you should spend a few minutes learning about the key elements of your coverage before you actually need to file a claim.

Early in my daughter's spring break adventure, she and her iPhone 4 (age three months) "lost" one another. The explanation as to the "how and where" of this parting are vague to put it kindly. I think it is fair to say that the issue can be attributed to a first encounter with the French Quarter.... In an effort to "handle the situation" without parental guidance (or lecturing), my daughter found a convenient AT&T store in bijioux country more than willing to assist.

Asurion "automatically" cancels your contract if you make two claims in any twelve month period. Further, that less than three month old "replacement" iPhone 4 which I purchased for $99, will cost a cool $199, to replace with the insurance deductable! (The best "full price" I can find for this basic 8 Gigabyte! iPhone is $439 at the time of this writing.)

Asurion doesn't make it easy to file a second claim! Despite what AT&T tells you, going through the "no hassle," ten minute, online claim process, isn't sufficient. In fact, it is just the first step down the rabbit hole. You must find, print, fill out, and get notarized, an affidavit. Once completed, you have to upload, or fax, this document along with a copy of your most recent cellular bill and copy of legal identification (typically a valid driver's license). Be sure to put your name and telephone number of the lost/stolen device on top of every page before sending this into the electronic ether otherwise the gnomes at Asurion are likely to inform you that your paperwork is deficient.

This process can take you a couple of hours to complete. If you happen to be a notary you can shave an hour off the process. If you happen to use a bank without local branches as I do, you may have to add an additional hour to the hassle. (Thank you to the local Music Row Bank of America for helping with this step! While I have a BofA credit card, the local agent broke the rule requiring a deposit account for this service and notarized the affidavit for me anyway!).

Wait. You aren't finished! Asurion promises to contact you after they collect your documentation to either a.) continue processing the claim or, b.) request new or additional information. In my case, no additional communication was forthcoming. Having waited two days for a response, I called Asurion. An agent found my paperwork (presumably in some never ending electronic in-basket), reiterated that this is the end of the line for my insurance policy, asked if I wanted to proceed, and continue the claim.

After a week a new iPhone 4 arrived. Azurion states your replacement may be a refurbished unit, but this unit appeared to be factory sealed. My daughter is once again, "smartphone enabled." She is aware that the insurance policy is now void and her "lifelines" for the year are exhausted (as is her father in repeatedly handling these misadventures).

How could this have played out differently? What lessons are worth learning beyond the tenuous life expectancy of expensive phones on Spring Break in the French Quarter? And why did I have to go to the local AT&T store to set things straight?

The last question is perhaps most easily addressed first. Rather than filing a claim while on break, my daughter with the willing assistance of the New Orleans AT&T Rep, elected to upgrade my third line (which was eligible) rather than going through the Asurion claim hoops. This had the salutory effect of getting my daughter immediately "on the road" with a new iPhone. It had the decidedly negative impact of costing me an upgrade potentially worth $500 or more AND adding a two year commitment to a line which had been dormant costing just $10/month. (As most everyone is aware, the true cost of smartphone ownership is that two year data plan costing $30-$50/month for the life of the contract!) Score one for daughter; zero for Dad. After finding out about this incident and insisting that my daughter return the phone within AT&T's "no questions asked thirty (30) day window" and file an insurance loss, most of the damage could be undone. Lesson One: Don't put any family member on your plan as an Administrator unless you are prepared to live the consequences of their decisions.

Had my daughter informed me of the loss, the first step would have been to use Apple's, Find My iPhone App to attempt to ascertain where the missing phone was at the moment. Lesson Two: Download and activate Find My iPhone immediately if you have not already done so on ALL your iOS devices! The App and service are free. If you are an Android user, there are several free Apps which provide similar functionality. For iOS, after downloading the app, you must enable it on EACH iOS device (despite the name, the service works equally well on iPads).

Assuming the iPhone in question wasn't off the grid, which is possible if the iPhone had been completely powered down or already reset to factory original condition, two alternatives were available. If it was "hiding" under a chair, bed, or armrest, the Find My iPhone App allows you to force a ring tone at high volume (even if the unit was set to mute) to assist you in ferreting out the device.

Failing this "easy" solution, you can also create a remote notification on the screen. This can inform a good neighbor of your name, current contact information, and other details to make it easier for them to reunite you with your device.

Door Number Three, if all is literally lost, you can remotely wipe the device of all data. This at least assures you that a bad guy will get away only with your iPhone and not any precious data! While this nuclear solution will make IT professionals responsible for hardware and data loss sleep better, it is also peace of mind for those of us who increasingly store our life's critical data on our mobile devices.

As an aside, I am happy to report that major US carriers are finally, and reluctantly, agreeing to set up a lost/stolen 'phone database! This will presumably make it impossible to reactivate a stolen device on US carriers effectively removing much of the incentive to steal these devices in the first place! All I can say is, "It is about time!" (There is yet another lost BlackBerry tale which brings this issue into sharp relief which I will not delve into in this post.)

All of the above remedial actions are only possible if Find My iPhone is already installed and activated! In the case of my daughter's iPhone 4 it was because I turned this service on, along with automatic iCloud Backup!, prior to setting the device loose in the world of college campus mayhem! SmartPhone owners beware! Failure to do set this service up immediately is likely to make you very unhappy at some future date.....

Lest you think I would have let my daughter continue her journey through the French Quarter phoneless, read on for my final lesson. All of the above measures could have taken place while she spoke with me from the AT&T store in New Orleans. In just a few minutes and mouse clicks, the phone's status could have been identified and appropriately addressed.

Assuming the iPhone was lost to the spring break gods, AT&T sells a very capable feature phone for $20! That's right, $20! In fact, the Go Phone I mentioned at the beginning of this tale cost around $50 through Amazon a couple of years ago. Deflation in feature phones has arrived! (Another old feature phone I found had a missing charger. It was determined that replacing the charger would be more expensive than purchasing this entirely new phone from the local retail store.) While awaiting the replacement phone from Asurion, this economical phone can be fitted with a SIM card using the lost phone's number. This basic feature phone certainly isn't an iPhone but it is capable of texting and phone calls; everything a college spring breaker must have to remain safe away from home. Problem solved!

Lesson Three: If you find this tale familiar, or possibly a foreshadowing of some future event, pick up one of these inexpensive feature phones which works on your carrier's network. You don't have to activate it until you need it, but for $20, you have alternatives. In fact, consider throwing this cheapy at your kid the next time they tell you they are headed for the proverbial hills. They can live without FaceBook 24/7 access for a few days and losing one of these phones won't raise your blood preassure nearly as much as that $500 iPhone! You may even want to take this advice yourself the next time you are headed to the beach....

Even when kids try to be adult and handle the problem themselves, they don't always realize the best course of action. If you are a parent who may find themselves in similar circumstances, don't give your kid full account access. This will "encourage" them to call you to get their lifeline (aka smartphone) problem handled in the best, safest, way for you all..... Oh, and you may want to bookmark this post for easy reference, just in case!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Apple, AT&T

I currently have a long position in $APPL

Roboform Is No Longer King of Password Managers.... LastPass Is A Tool You Need Today!

2012-04-27T10:37:00.003-05:00

I have long advocated the need for using a password manager. (I wrote about these and other productivity tools earlier this year. Click here if you would like to review this earlier post.) There are a wealth of reasons for this advice. First, the sheer number of authentications even a casual web user must grapple with can easily grow to thirty or more logins. An astounding number of users still attempt to "solve" this issue by using the same password, or perhaps a minor variant when necessary (i.e. adding a "1" or capitalizing, when a particular site insists on one or more of these rules for acceptable password creation). If you are among this group you are far from alone and what follows is of particular value.....

CNET recently wrote this article explaining how the majority of Windows passwords can now be cracked in less than 14 seconds! Identity theft seems to be a daily news topic and even Apple Mac users who have thought themselves immune to malware and virus threats have recently been reminded that they too are targets. You need to take prudent steps to protect yourself and employing a password manager is one important aspect of your online security health.

Online security experts often offer a number of authentication recommendations. Most of the advice is sage and will go a very long way towards ensuring you aren't a victim of identity theft. Following these steps also minimizes any potential damage (and liability) which may occur should one of your accounts happen to be compromised. Among the most important rules:

Use strong passwords. So called dictionary attacks makes it increasingly trivial to hack into an account secured by a user password, or even minor variant, which can be found in a modern dictionary. So if your idea of a "good password" is using the word, "simple" or "simple123" even a rookie hacker is likely to be reading your email or checking your bank balance in a matter of minutes if they are so inclined.
A close corollary to the first point, use pass phrases if at all possible! It is orders of magnitude more difficult to divine a pass phrase such as "simple solutions to 123 cake recipes" than "simple123."
Far better than a dictionary prone phrase, is a truly strong, twenty (or greater) character password such as, "Uq7ZT2D8YeNIS9lO2tbz." This character string contains UPPER case, lower case and numeric characters. The odds of such a password being discovered using even today's sophisticated hacking tools and powerful hardware are extremely slim.
Again, the value of such a strong password is greatly enhanced if you generate UNIQUE passwords for each of your various online accounts. If someone discovers the password for your old Hotmail account you haven't even reviewed for a month, the damage is very containable IF this same password isn't also the key to unlocking your online bank account or ROTH IRA!
This is almost a given, but using easily discovered personal data in your authentication scheme is an extremely bad idea. In today's electronic universe of social networks and search engines, it doesn't require a rocket scientist in most cases to unearth your mother's maiden name or the fact your cute lovable pet's, moniker.
Which brings me to one more security point worth mentioning. Even if you follow my advice and practice good password policy, if you answer those security questions with easy (or in fact true) responses, you still leave a rather big security hole in your online fortress. Especially for highly sensitive sites such as your bank and/or investment accounts, consider answering, or resetting, the security questions to information that is not available anywhere. In this case, telling a white lie or two is the better part of valor. There is nothing that requires you to answer these questions with the truth! It is really only necessary that you know the answers! So if one question is, "What street did you grow up on?" Avoid telling the truth. If you lived on "Eastside Avenue," respond instead with, "Westside Street." (Just remember what subterfuge you employed so if the worst happens and you truly do need to reset one of these sensitive accounts, you don't outsmart yourself! See Safe Notes, below.)

The nearby advice is all sound. There are additional nuggets of online protection which are well worth your consideration, but one thing all of these rules have in common is they are virtually impossible to follow if you are relying on traditional ways of generating and recalling your authentication information. Unless you truly have an eidetic memory, you need help! This is where Roboform, LastPass and other utilities fill a very real need.

I am going to focus on Roboform and LastPass. These two tools have more in common than not in terms of what they offer. Importantly, these companies have extremely good security themselves! After all, creating highly secure authentication and then entrusting this data to a less than trustworthy third party really defeats the purpose of the exercise! These two companies offer truly secure password protection with high levels of encryption while still allowing you access to your password accounts across all of your connected devices (if you need and want this functionality). Others may have similar services and security, but I can vouch for these two alternatives.

First let me highlight some important functionality both services provide:

Strong password generation. Effortlessly, create truly strong passwords, unique to each site you visit.
Automatic log in. When you visit a site, these programs will offer to automatically authenticate you with the proper user name and password information you have created.
Form filling. You can rely on these programs to fill out a multitude of online forms, saving you a great deal of repetitious data entry (and possibly data entry errors). You can also easily set up Identities, allowing you to fill out forms as appropriate (perhaps with individual information in some cases, company information in others, ....). Optionally, you can securely add credit card data and other personal information, further speeding the form filling process on most sites.
Ubiquitous access. If you find yourself using multiple devices as I do, you know how challenging it can be to access various accounts on multiple devices. Roboform and Last Pass both offer premium "Anywhere" Access. (More on this later.)
(Safe) Notes: If you have very sensitive information you want to keep handy and secure (perhaps those fake answers to security questions we discussed earlier), it is easy to create a secure note with this information which will always be available with a mouse click.
Single password access! Yes, you will still have to commit a single master password to memory! No getting around this, but it is just one password and it is used to provide you "master access" and encrypt all the rest of your information from the rest of the world. One password is all you have left to remember. (You SHOULD provide this master password and instructions, to a loved one, executor, or caregiver. Should something happen to you, this password truly is the key to castle and having it in proper hands can be among the most important estate planning actions you take!)
Integration with all modern web browsers. I have found a challenge or two using some obscure tools in various browsers, but key functionality-- managing and accessing web sites-- works well in modern versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Both companies offer plug ins for all these modern browsers.

Hopefully, I have convinced you of the value of these tools and the need to add one of these to your daily computational toolbox if you haven't already. I have been a long term user of Roboform. It is the grandaddy of password management. However, I no longer see any reason to pay this company's fees. Last Pass offers virtually all the functionality and security of Roboform without the expense.

As of this writing, Roboform Desktop costs $29.95 (free trial available). Lastpass is free to download and use. Confusingly, Roboform has another, separate program, Roboform To Go, designed to allow access to account information on a USB key ($39.95) AND Roboform Everywhere which is an annual fee based service which synchronizes your passwords, allowing access on Android, iPhone, iPad and other platforms using "free" Apps. Roboform Everywhere is available for $9.95 the first year, but renewals are pricier, costing $19.95 a year at the time of this writing.

Situations vary and you may not need, or want, all the functionality of Roboform's three products. If you do, it will cost you $80 the first year and $20/year thereafter. If you would like to review a comparison chart of the company's various offerings, click here.

On value, LastPass is the clear winner. LastPass can be downloaded at no cost. There are no gotchas. No limited functionality, no trialware, nada. If you want synchronized, everywhere, access, plus premium technical support, LastPass Premium costs $12/year. This fee is billed at one time and is refundable if you aren't satisfied with the service. Installation of LastPass on mobile platforms is also free (as are Roboform's mobile Apps).

The nearby video will provide a quick primer in using LastPass. If you would like to see some of this program's additional features in action, click on this link for a complete set of tutorial videos. With my annual RoboForm renewal days away, I decided to download and evaluate LastPass again. My conclusion, this program is every bit as powerful and functional as Roboform at a fraction of the cost. LastPass also transparently keeps you in full control of your data. You can easily export all of your information and use it as you see fit.

Siber (spelling changed from original post), the maker of Roboform, makes saving and exporting your data more difficult. In fact, exporting my logins, identities and Safe Notes from Roboform for use in LastPass was more challenging than I ever would have expected. It seems Siber consciously has made it difficult (impossible without some trickery), to get your data in a format which can be used by its competitor. (Shame on you!!!) For the record, moving from Roboform to Last Pass can be accomplished. The trick is downgrading from the current release of Roboform to an older version (which is no longer available on the company's official web site)! Once you have completed this step, the process isn't too painful, but there are still a couple of hurdles. If you are interested in learning how most easily to make the move from Roboform to LastPass, share your thoughts in the comment field, or contact me directly. I will be happy to share the specific steps necessary and if there's enough interest, I will write a formal follow up article.

If you don't have a Password Manager, stop what you are doing and download LastPass today. There is no cost and much to gain. Anyone who has suffered identity theft can vouch for how costly and painful this can be in life. Even if you haven't fallen victim to this dreadful modern day disaster, I bet you have scratched your head more than once trying to remember a forgotten user name and password!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: LastPass, Siber

Apple's Results Don't Disappoint!

2012-04-25T11:05:00.002-05:00

Apple's stock had undergone a precepitous slide over the past couple of weeks. In most trading sessions, Apple's valuation had fallen by several billion dollars, ending well off its $640 high early yesterday. On April 24 the stock had dipped to $555. As I put the finishing touches to this article for publication, the stock has risen over $50 per share since announcing second quarter results!

This drop of over 13% from the all time high which was attained just a few short weeks ago, was "explained" by various pundits from technical, fundamental, and technologic vantages. Depending on what theories you subscribe to, you could find reason to concur with one (or more) of the arguments presented.

My world lies at the nexus of these camps. I believe that one can look at technical stock charts and learn from classic volume and price patterns. Often the past truly does repeat itself on a stock chart as in life. However, divining these trends by looking to the past is often challenging, were it easy, everyone would "do it" and we may in fact (then should) stop repeating our mistakes changing the course (and value) of looking at the past..... Very circular logic I know.....

I also look at a company's fundamentals. As an investor, perspective client, or consumer, how a company's numbers look should be "red letter" information. Classic determinants of a company's financial health-- price earnings ratios; price/sales; dividend yield; and many more metrics, offer meaningful insight into a company and its relative relationship to its peer group and the market at large. Sadly, myself and others, find this form of analysis increasingly opaque. As an admittedly aging MBA, I feel I should be able to dissect a balance sheet's essentials with relative ease. Often, this is not the case. Not because the fundamentals of calculating classic ratios have changed (in fact public databases and computers in general have made the act of finding these values and ranking them trivial in many cases). The issue is with the shennangins of accountants and top level executives who "sign off" on dubious, to put it kindly, trickery. If you happened to watch this week's 60 Minutes episode on the Lehman Brothers collapse, you got a first hand report on how purposeful the deception can be and how utterly worthless the "watchdog agencies" you pay for through your taxes are in "protecting you" from such misleading accounting. It is, or should be, criminal. The auditors are as incompetent as the SEC and other federal agencies tasked with the challenge of ensuring transparency of accounting and information with publicly traded companies. (In Lehman's case, the SEC actually was co-sharing office space and overseeing on a constant basis the year prior to the firm's collapse which shook the world's economic system. Wow.)

Add the comic missteps of the SEC to discover and stop Bernie Madoff and his ilk from preying on "the sheep" which is detailed with clarity in the well written book, No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos, and you will better understand why I no longer feel viewing a company's fundamentals is a fair window into an organization's health for the average, or even sophisticated, individual investor.

The third area I rely upon is technology itself. Even if the company isn't strictly technology focused, how an organization embraces, uses, and adapts in today's world speaks volumes. P&G, a "stodgy" seller of consumer staples is a fierce competitor. Over twenty years ago, I worked with members of this company using then cutting edge technology tools to determine where best to position Tide, Bounce, Oil of Olay, and many other goods on store shelves to maximize profitabillity and sales for both our firms. We changed logistics too-- how many bags of dog food should wrap on a pallet. And pricing... By experimenting with store groups we found out how much elasticity a product has; how price sensitive are you to a decrement or increment of X% with a given product? Then and now, P&G is a highly sophisticated user of technology. In a business of pennies, this devotion to maximizing the tools of today can pay big dividends.

Two axioms always work for me, "Always follow the money" and "Smart tech companies trump dumb ones every time!" I can thank my grandfather (and father) for making me faithfully adhere to the former, I thank myself for coining the latter.

Back to Apple...... On a technical basis, the recent pullback looked like a classic technical retrenchment. After a truly meteoric rise over the past twelve months (see nearby chart), a correction appeared inevitable. Couple this with the general malaise of the market over the past several weeks and the need for market makers and regular investors to take what few profitable chips are available off the table they can, and Apple was a prime target for profit taking based on the "law of diminishing victories" alone (my own turn of phrase). Now that Apple is a dividend producing giant it has been green lighted for money managers whose funds were constrained to trade only dividend yielding equities and they above all seek positive quarterly results!

I don't pretend to understand Apple's total balance sheet. Few people can make this claim. I also don't believe Apple obfiscates anything even if its corporate mantra isn't "Do No Evil." However, a company now with more than 50% of its sales and profits outside of the US and tentacles in every corner of the world, creates even perfectly genuious accounting which is dense and indecephrable for most. By the way, for the uninitiated, Apple is also the most highly valued corporation in the world as of this writing.... Published second quarter results show the company earning just short of 1 BILLION dollars per week over the past three months!

Which leads me to what I do understand, technology and momentum. Apple has both. The iOS platform has an overwhelming preponderance of developers. There are myriad reasons for this fact, and it is indisputable. Look at the number of iPhone/iPad Apps compared to Android (and other competitors). iOS provides a more unified hardware and software platform The combination of custom designed processors and operating system simply provides a more seamless, smoother, experience to play Angry Birds (and everything else). The fact that Apple has virtually created a world built around Apps, and there remains a significant portion of the world's population still anxiously awaiting a chance to participate in this brave new universe, makes Apple's upside a "no brainer" in my mind. There are other reasons, but you will have to read on.....

Steve Jobs began a vision. The iPhone seamlessly builds into the iPad. iPhone Apps, while not always perfect, work passably, sometimes well, within the iPad uVerse. iPods, the progenitor of this brave new world, have been largely subsumed by iPhones and iPads.com . Apple hasn't missed a beat. Remember the Sony Walkman? Where did they fall off the technology train? Talk about a company which owned, and lost, a market! A tale of two visions.... Where is your music today..... If you don't have at least one foot in Apple's ecosystem, you are in the minority. Not a trivial thought...

So.... Back to today's news. I watched a compelling stock lose value for a couple of weeks. Stock techies call this a retrace, others a correction. I know that iPad 3 sales are over the top, not because I bought one, but because I had to FIGHT to buy one on the day of the announcement. Apple's web site literally melted down because of the buying activity in its online store. I knew that Apple had a winner. Today's results confirm my suspicions and reinforce the iPhone's international appeal. After years of bemoaning my lack of investment resolve, I have followed this company literally from the beginning to the trough, where the stock sold at $29 a share, I wanted to own this company and never did. While "on hold" for the new iPad, I flipped to my broker's web site and finally bought a few shares using simple logic. "If it takes me hours to get through the company web site to buy their newest and greatest toy, someone else must be waiting in an electronically frustrating line behind me." Today's market numbers prove my point categorially.....

Seems simple, and really is. Add to the mix the massive universe of would be consumers outside the current market penetration of Apple's sphere of Fanboys and growth seems a given. Some financial pundits make compelling arguments for Apple's valuation to rise to over $1,000 per share in the forseeable future (within twelve months). Second quarter results seen to confirm a return of Apple's trajectory towards this landmark price point . Sadly in some ways, Apple's numbers acknowledge the US is a diminishing player in the Apple portfolio (more than halve of the company's revenue came from outside the USA last quarter). As an investor, I see this as least a mid-term positive. The world truly is an onion and Apple is truly primed to peal the layers. Hooray for investors!

Forget the cash hoard.... it is hard to do. Ostensibly, A 1.5% dividend payback against a $100 billion plus of on hand cash seems tough to justify unless you understand Apple won't buy a company like Instagram for a Billion bucks on Tim's wishes. Apple's new iPhoto isn't Instagram, but it may eventually be better. Apple is very strategic and conservative in its acquisitions. I am more comfortable with this approach than having a CEO with a thirst to spend in a manner which makes one reminisce about the last Internet financial bubble. More importantly, if Apple learns from Microsoft's missteps, they can grow from within and without, for at least awhile.I think they have at least a few more "surprises" in the offing. My crystal ball, Apple at a $1,000 a share by mid 2013.....

Apple is going to divest $35 Billion to shareholders (about 30% of their on cash holdings!). Apple is trading cheap relative to the S&P 500 on a price/earnings basis. Even after the last twenty-four hour ascension to $611 per share, the company has a P/E of 14.87 versus 15.98 for the 500 stock index.....

I am the first to contemplate who is captaining the ship after Steve's death. Cook is not Jobs and shall never be. I have reservations about the company's long term roadmap. Today, Apple has a clear direction, one that will continue to innovate and drive its competitors forward over the next three to five years (and possiby beyond). Consumers worldwide will be the real winners. If you are a diehard Steve Jobs afficiendo, one can argue he left a blueprint extending five years into the future.

I do worry that patent litigation dilutes Apple, Google, and others from the real business of innovation. This is a broken piece of the technology landscape which requires a macro solution. However, this issue impacts all companies, not just Apple....

I could delve far more deeply into any number of points of this article. If you have an interest in reading further, or a desire to explore an aspect of this artice in more detail, please let me know by commenting. Should you wish to comment directly, please email me.

What are your thoughts? I believe Apple is justiviably the most lucrative and profitable company in the world. what are your thoughts?

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Apple

I have a long position in $AAPL but have no plans to initiate changes in position over the next 72 hours.

Microsoft Mobile Problems Continue, But The Phone Is Free (For Now)....

2012-04-13T14:33:00.000-05:00

Microsoft continues to stumble in the world of smartphones and tablets. In the latest embarrassment, Nokia released its new, flagship, Windows driven SmartPhone, the Lumia 900. By all accounts, the suffering phone manufacturer has pulled out all the stops, supplying its partner, AT&T, with 10,000 free phones to disperse to its retail store employees, advertising heavily, even creating a "Times Square Event" to announce the phone's availability. Nokia's international market share is tanking (as is its stock price). Android and Apple's iOS driven devices have eclipsed its product line on the high end in the United States and the news isn't any brighter in less developed markets where Android powered phones are dominating around the world....

Nokia has abandoned its own SmartPhone operating system, Symbian, and has placed all of its proverbial chips on the success of Microsoft's mobile OS. A big gamble. One which is stumbling at a crucial time. Apparently, a glitch which wasn't unearthed during the beta testing period is preventing some early adopters from connecting to AT&T's high speed data network! Oops!

As my Father used to say, if you've swum halfway across the river, there's no point in turning back. To borrow another old saw, Nokia to its credit is going "all in." The company is offering a $100 credit to all users between now and April 22, effectively making the new phone free (with a two year contract). The company also announced a "fix" for the actual connectivity problem which will be made available in a few days.

I have seen this phone and it looks "nice." Of course at the time, I wasn't aware that the AT&T Rep which was showing it to me had effectively been "bribed" to promote the device. Nice doesn't get me to give up my iPhone! Nice doesn't change the fact that the screen, while larger than my 4S, seemed inferior. Nice doesn't change the fact that Microsoft hasn't gotten developers to create great Apps for the platform (at least yet). In other words, after all this time and testing, Microsoft hasn't got a winner on its hands (and neither does Nokia).

For the above reasons, and more, I cannot recommend Windows Phones above an iPhone or contemporary Android device. However, there are opposing opinions. If you would like to read some countervailing arguments, here is a link to a Business Insider post which highlights some key positives about Microsoft's portable operating system. Most of the points the author brings up I find inconsequential.

The lack of third party apps alone makes the decision to use Apple or Google's platforms compelling. This situation isn't likely to change anytime soon. As a comparison ZD Net says Microsoft phone market share is less than 3% (third quarter 2011 statistics). If you are a developer, are you going to focus on Android with over 25% share, iOS with 16.6% of the worldwide market or Windows Mobile...?

However, if you are in the market for an inexpensive SmartPhone, or are just anxious to try out Microsoft's mobile operating system vision, free is a pretty tough price to beat. The deal is available to all until April 22, so if the Lumia 900 seems like an answer to your current SmartPhone needs, don't procrastinate. My advice, pass, but if you have a kid demanding a smartphone, this may be a cheap way to address the request. (Just don't forget the two year commitment and data plan!)

I will admit to one reason many business owners may take a second look at Microsoft powered portable devices, seamless and free integration with Microsoft Office. I am constantly asked how best to view and edit Office docs on iOS devices. It is a good question and there are a variety of third party solutions. However, Microsoft has been absent from the party. Whether out of apathy or spite, Redmond has yet to release a holistic Office App for the iPad and iPhone ecosystem. (I say holistic because Microsoft does have some marginal presence such as the OneNote App available. Even this app seems out of touch. Limited to five hundred notes before you are "hooked" and have to pay $4.99 to continue the mobile experience. Stick with Evernote. If you want even more flexibility, add the company's great Skitch and Penultimate offerings to your mobile arsenal.)

Worse, one of the best solutions to working with Office on an iPad is under attack by Microsoft. I have previously written about Onlive Desktop. This virtual desktop provides full Office functionality on your iPad. You can view, edit, and save, Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint projects using this free app.

Since the virtual desktop runs on remote servers, you need wi-fi or cellular connectivity. And herein lies the problem. Microsoft has made claims that the service isn't in compliance with it licensing. Engadget and others are reporting that Onlive has migrated to a version of Windows Server 2008 which avoids the licensing issues between the two companies. This article by TechSpot further supports this claim.

I fully believe and endorse Microsoft's right to enforce the licensing of its products. I believe they have every right to enforce fair use of their software and its distribution. As it stands, Onlive Desktop provides a needed and valuable service which allows iPad users to be productive if their work, or a client's needs, require Microsoft Office compatibility. Currently, Onlive provides both free access as well as fee based services which provides additional speed, full Flash support, and more. It appears additional tiers of service are in the offing.

There is clearly a market for this service and Microsoft would have been the logical company to fill this need. Once again, this company seems out of touch with the reality of its core customer base. Whether it is hubris or apathy, Microsoft has lost sight of its customers' needs. It is 2012 and small business isn't waiting around for Windows 8 or some variant to provide mobile devices with functionality which has been available for years on the iPad.

Integration with Office alone isn't a compelling reason to forgo all that Apple's iPad, and to a lesser degree select Android tablets, have to offer (much less defer participation in the mobile tablet universe for perhaps another year to see if Microsoft based tablet hardware will compete). As long as Onlive remains in compliance with licensing laws, the service provides all the necessary tools to keep iPad users who need Office happy (and make Microsoft irrelevant in yet another corner of the tech universe it helped to create).

Meanwhile, Redmond, the mobile training keeps on rolling and all it needs is virtual windows.....

If you are among the early users of the Lumina 900, please share your experience. Are you having connectivity issues? Are you happy with the phone if so what do you most like about it?

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Apple, Microsoft, Nokia

I have a long positions in $AMZN, $AAPL

Boutique Retail-- Focus Is Paying Dividends Across The Retail Landscape

2012-04-12T13:40:00.002-05:00

Much of my past corporate life was focused on using technology to maximize some of the most valuable real estate in the world. I am not talking about Malibu beachfront or secluded sea side property in Maui. On a per cubic foot basis shelf space within high volume retail stores is more precious than beach property. Not surprisingly, retailers micromanage the utility of this space. During my corporate tenure, we were able to analyze and measure a product's "true costs" throughout the distribution chain. This wasn't an easy process,often involving identifying and quantifying hundreds of discrete activities.

In many instances, a group of seemingly similar products had strikingly different cost components. A loaf of bread produced and distributed by wholly owned bakery and transportation group often sits on a retail shelf next to another loaf of bread which has been delivered directly to the store by a third party vendor on a privately owned company truck. In the latter case, store employees may never touch the bread until it is scanned at a register at the time of sale, in the former example, dozens of company paid employees may touch the product during its creation, transit, shelf positioning and ultimate sale.

This single example highlights some of the variables required to understand a product's "true cost" and ultimately, "real profitability" to the retailer. Multiply these issues by tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of items and you have a perfect storm of complexity; a problem seemingly perfect for modern computational software and hardware to help us resolve. This exercise is of great value even for companies not focused on traditional retail sales. Analyzing every aspect of delivering value to your company's customers can be quite eye opening. Many business fail due to a lack of true understanding of underlying fixed and variable costs.

Of course, identifying and measuring all the elements of the supply process is very different from the even more complex task of determining an optimal outcome (i.e. cash flow, net profit, total retail sales) and managing the variables to maximize the desired result. If nothing else, this conversation should disavow you of the notion that "profit" can be measured by simply subtracting retail from cost!

Back to the grains of sand on the beach, or should I say, nearly priceless store shelf space..... When analyzing a product's costs, and therefore profit contribution, the single greatest determining factor is how much "rent" a given product pays while sitting on a store shelf. Other inputs, while important, pale in relation to this charge. How do you determine a product's rental bill? Well, it is a function of volume (how many cubic inches) of actual shelf space an item consumes. And turns... How long does that tube of toothpaste sit on a shelf with the "meter running!?" This makes intuitive sense but it can create surprising results.

Seemingly profitable goods can become "loss leaders' simply by sitting too long and/or taking up too much precious real estate before you, your spouse, or your kids, are willing to trade cool cash for the right to own the product.

Why am I asking you to read this brief tutorial on modern product profitability? While this article may well make you look at your local supermarket or department store in a different light, I want you to reflect on changes taking place in traditional and virtual shopping arenas!

Apple is #1! (Credit: Retail Sales)

By most standards, Apple Stores represent the most profitable traditional retail experience in the world at this time. Generating in excess of $5,600/ square foot in sales! Apple leads the world in yet another statistic! The company accomplishes this using an average store footprint of just 7,800 square feet! By way of comparison, Best Buy manages to generate just $831 with an average store square footage of 13,900! Twice the square footage and less than one fifth the sales! (Click on the nearby chart to see how other retailers fare in this key metric.)

It gets worse, or better, depending on your perspective. Apple enjoys relatively high profit margins. The company is, first and foremost, a hardware company. They also sell relatively few SKUs (stock keeping units). There are only so many models of iPhones; iPads, and MacBooks stores must stock and maintain. In contrast, Best Buy must stock a dizzying assortment of items to satisfy its customer base, many of which are generic enough that they must compete on price. Not so Apple, whose products are distributed through a highly controlled distribution chain with virtually no price competition. Generally, fewer SKUs equate to far lower handling costs and most importantly from a true profitability measure, fast inventory turns. It may be "nice" for the consumer to have Best Buy stock twenty different flavors of home routers, consumers love "choice," but Apple handles just one router, and can do so with far greater efficiency online and in store!

The retail road has forked. Online sales through virtual stores-- organizations with no public retail spaces-- the most notable of which is Amazon. Traditional retail stores providing "instant" gratification but encumbered with many costs and distribution challenges making them easy prey for online competitors whose efficiencies allow them to sell more variety at lower prices.

Finally the zebras-- retailers trying to leverage both online and traditional retail presences. This final path has its own challenges not the least of which involves competing with yourself even on pricing. WalMart is experimenting with the "never ending aisle" concept which rewards the nearest local store for online sales (encouraging employees to recommend the web site for products not stocked in-store rather than losing the sale entirely) and next day in-store pick up of online purchases (which is labor intensive and not ideally suited to the retailer's other strengths. Being a zebra may provide cover in the sahara, I am far less sure that this dual focus guarantees survival in the modern retail ecosystem.

One can argue each of these three retail philosophies each has various strengths and weaknesses. I leave this argument for another day. What I do find very interesting, and worth commenting upon, is a trend I see all three general formats adopting-- boutique sales often combined with a deal of the "hour" ever so vaguely reminiscent of K-Marts once iconic blue light specials!

Best Buy has recently announced that it is closing fifty or so "Big Box" stores while at the same time developing a new line of smaller footprint retail outlets which will carry a limited assortment of higher margin electronics. Clearly, Best Buy is being squeezed, becoming a "virtual showroom" for customers who want to view products before ultimately purchasing at the lowest possible price online through Amazon or another online "superstore" and retailers such as Apple Stores (and others) who have a laser focus on select, high demand (aka high margin), items. In many ways Best Buy is in the worst place of all, online and traditional retail locations carrying a wide range of low margin goods many of which still require specialized sales expertise, setup, and maintenance. They must feel like they are captured in a retail Alamo with Indians on every side!

Amazon is the epitome of online genius. Amazon has no expensive retail store real estate. They have arguably mastered the art of suggestive selling using only a web site and your inbox. The company "knows" synergistic items to suggest based on your walking through their virtual aisles. Once purchased, logistics is there business! Moving items from A to B with a minimum of human intervention and maximum efficiency allows the company to offer razor thin pricing undercutting all competition in the majority of cases. The brilliant Amazon Prime membership effectively gets customers to "pre-purchase" a year's worth of second day shipping (which also predisposes these members to look first to Amazon when purchasing). Most importantly, all of that very costly retail shelf space is replaced with highly efficient, inexpensive, warehouse slots. It costs virtually nothing to add another "department" to its web site or online Kindle Fire marketplace.

The biggest trend I see from this company isn't the addition of Netflix like video to its Prime Membership or the promise of color ink e-readers later this year, it is the growing attraction of its online boutique stores! Years ago Amazon acquired Zappos, a shoe store on steriods. Bezos and company decided to continue to run Zappos autonomously rather than roll its business into the larger Amazon organization.

Today, myhabit.com is getting a lot of buzz. This boutique is also an Amazon offshoot. Combining trendy deals with limited supply, myhabit.com has some of the feel of Woot and Groupon, but with the clout and pricing only a company like Amazon can provide. Boutique formats with focus appear to be the direction online and traditional retailers are moving towards. These venues make online shopping "fun." Liberal shipping and return policies makes the risk of online purchase virtually zero. (When was the last time you thought rumbling through your local Walmart or Kroger was "fun?" I know, me either and I helped create some of that "excitement" in another life!) Contrast this with a shopping experience at your local Apple Store. The cash register walks with you-- you can even use a convenient App to check yourself out with certain purchases. Even people walking into an Apple store with a damaged device seem to be smiling! Now that is magic!

Online, myhabit.com and others, give you a sense of urgency--purchase now or forever hold your peace! The genius behind these sites is Amazon (and others) are able to build there very own virtual mall. Amazon's mammoth offerings and backroom efficiencies effectively serve as the mall's anchor. Building boutique specialty shops such as myhabit.com "around" this anchor is easily achieved in cyberspace. In many instances, customers may be wholly unaware as to who "Oz" is behind the curtain. This illusion is far more difficult (and expensive) to achieve under the harsh light of your local shopping center.

How about jewelmint.com? Another boutique online store which offers deep discount shopping with a limited number items. I always thought translating jewelry purchases to the web would be a (very) tough task. Based on how women seem to react to this site, I believe there is a combination of style and value which translates well and provides an exciting experience.

J.C. Penney has hired Ron Johnson as CEO. Johnson is widely credit with many retail innovations at Apple including the Genius Bar. He has a real challenge! An old brand, Penney doesn't evoke excitement, or even a yawn, in my daughter's generation. If he can instill some "Apple magic" at this chain, he will be the CEO of the decade in many people's opinion! I think the days of big box traditional retailers are numbered (or at least their best days are in the rear view mirror). Traditional 50,000 square foot supermarkets are probably a fixture of our retail landscape. They are very efficient in many ways and serve a real, if unexciting, consumer need. I am far less optimistic about selling non-perishable, low volume (i.e. products with long purchase cycles), items in big format stores. The economics aren't there and the wolves are at the door!

How do you feel about the current state of retail? Are you willing to pay a premium for the ability to go down the street, find, and walk away with a purchase or is the convenience of shopping from your easy chair and paying substantially less, worth waiting a couple of days? Other than daily groceries, are there just some things you refuse to buy online? If so, why?

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Best Buy, Apple, Amazon

I have a long positions in $AMZN, $AAPL

More Google News....

2012-04-09T11:05:00.002-05:00

While Google's Project Glass has gotten most of the buzz this week from myself and others, there's are plenty of lesser, but more practical issues buzzing around Googleland!

For instance, as Google tries to continue to make its search box the most relevant spot on the web, it is adding graphing to its capabilities. This push is widely seen as a counterattack to Wolfram Alpha (which is one of the primary behind the scene search engines driving Apple's Siri). While this feature will be of most interest to high school and college students, it seems like this is a clear sign that the war between Google and Apple is growing more overt and hostile. This feature works in modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, (and Safari!). If you want to read more, this article from Read, Write, Web, has details. These folks even have supplied an equation for the more mathematically challenged you can use to try out the new feature (simply cut and paste this formula into your desktop Google search box):

sqrt(cos(3*x))*cos(100*y)+1.5*sqrt(abs(x)) + 0.8 x is from -1 to 1, y is from -1 to 1, z is from 0.01 to 2.5

Google also announced its entry into the world of company surveys. This seems like a natural to me! By allowing respondents to get access to premium content (for participation) and publishers to get paid for providing targeted respondents, everyone wins! To take a look at the process and evaluate how this service might benefit you and your organization, click here.

Ever wonder, or even worry, about your Googling? You don't have to fear that your Google Gmail Account has been hijacked to be curious as to what exactly the search engine giant is collecting on your online life. If you are concerned or curious, Google is now providing an easy way for you to track your own online activity.

You have to sign up for this service, but once you do you will receive a monthly email providing you with a wealth of information (some of which may be eye opening). Here's how Google describes it:

Today we’re introducing Account Activity, a new feature in your Google Account. If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.

For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3 percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month, and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and [hotel].

If Google Activity seems interesting, you should also take a look at Google Dashboard. (This link will send you to a video which describes this service in greater detail.) In addition to the pure informational value, both of these services can provide detailed clues as to what is going on should you ever be concerned that your online Google Account has been compromised!

If you have ever marveled at Google's ability auto correct, or auto suggest, spellings in search engine queries, you aren't alone. This "on the fly" corrective ability wouldn't be possible using a traditional dictionary lookup. Well, if you are a Google Docs user, the online dictionary is being thrown out with the proverbial baby's bathwater! Google is now looking over your shoulder and making sure you are spelling "according to Hoyle" in real time. I would love to see this capability added to Blogger, Android, and other elements of the Google ecostructure. If you are using Google Docs, let us know how you like this feature using the comments section (spell checking is on you, sorry!).

Finally, more patent war absurdity! This war of litigation borders on the insane and is stifling innovation. In today's installment of "How The Patent Turns," Apple is firing a broadside attack against its hated rival, Google. While it is well known that Steve Jobs vowed to go after Google for what he perceived as outright "theft" of many of the iPhone's features in Android, I can't believe Steve at his most apocalyptic would find sanity in this madness. Essentially, this patent awards Apple rights to the rectangle! That's right, a square with four ninety degree right angles! Are you kidding me!? Where does the madness end (and what in the world is our government doing awarding such a patent in the first place)?

More to follow! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Google, Apple

I have a long positions in $GOOG, $AAPL

A Look At Google's Future May Have Sergey Walking Music Row Wearing One Cool Pair of Shades!

2012-04-05T13:39:00.002-05:00

Having a company with the name Music Row Tech and living in Music City makes converging news stories spanning music and technology of especial interest. I was surprised to read that one of Google's founders, Sergey Brin, has announced his impending retirement. Apparently, his passion for blues guitar is consuming his other interests. Sergey may be a Music Row neighbor in just a few years. I for one can't wait to witness how Sergey applies his creativity and passion to music recording and publishing. With his wealth, he will be able to follow his dreams without having to adhere to the staid rules and at times stultifying bureacracy which all too often seems to inhibit the transformation of musical passions to commercial product.

Speaking of new Google realities, the nearby video is simply too tantalizing not to share! (Thanks to +TechCrunch, +Gina Trapini, and others on Google+ for first bringing this concept project to my attention!) If this peak at how Google envisions the future doesn't make you sit back in amazement, you probably are reading the wrong blog!

On another front, and more serious note, I believe Android is in real trouble (despite the growing market share numbers). I am not alone. Android is only bringing $183 million to Google's bottom line. For some companies, this would be a mind boggling total revenue number, but taken in context of Google's mobile ad income of $2.5 billion, Android's contribution approaches a rounding error. In fact, by the company's own admission, it makes many multiples of this amount on searches conducted on various mobile Apple iOS devices. Of course, Apple's open hostility to Google is well reported. Siri is a major salvo in this war. Searches conducted vis a vis this "virtual assistant" remove Google from the search equation and Siri's introduction is a significant step in Apple's efforts to become a player in search. For whatever reasons, users of iOS devices conduct many more online search queries than Android owners (and therefore represent a richer source of online ad revenue to Google on an absolute and per user basis). But this isn't Android's real Achilles heal. Google has lost control of the update process and I don't see how they put the genie back in the bottle.

Fragmentation, the sheer number of devices "in the wild" running various flavors of Android is breathtaking. As the nearby chart shows, the vast majority of Android consumers are using devices running 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3.3 (Gingerbread). Less than 3% are running the newest release, 4.XX (Ice Cream Sandwich)! Google has already pre-announced yet another iteration release, Jelly Bean (5.0), which could be available as early as this summer!

What is a developer to do!? If you design and support the newest release(s) you dismiss the vast majority of current user devices and all the associated income. The breadth of devices, manufacturers, and version features makes supporting all flavors of the OS virtually impossible. By allowing everyone from Amazon (whose Fire tablet runs a heavily modified version of Android) to HTC to build on the Android platform as they wish, Google is losing the developer war which in turn bodes badly for the hearts and minds of customers (particularly in more developed countries). Compare this hodge podge of operating system support with the very streamlined upgrade path Apple's iOS offers and it isn't hard to understand why software developers migrate to the land of Infinity Circle. This post by Jason Perlow. a frustrated Android lover, expresses these concerns quite well.....

The end of Android certainly isn't the end of Google but this is a high stakes battlefront; mobile search is where the future is and the switch from desktop dominance is happening at an ever accelerating pace. Google's recent announcement that they are directly entering the tablet market with its own device may be the fork in the road. Abandon Android's SmartPhone to the manufacturers and carriers while exercising direct, tight, control over future tablet development. With the exception of the Motorola Zoom and the Amazon Kindle (which in many ways is an Amazon Tablet by birthright only), Android has failed to capture market share or consumer enthusiasm.

Tablets don't require tight integration with wireless carriers so many of the problems the company ran into when it attempted to directly sell its excellent Nexus SmartPhones should not re-materialize. Google's merger with Motorola could also provide some internal hardware manufacturing expertise (whether they outsource all of the component development or not) absent when the Nexus Phone was launched. There are at least two fronts in the tablet wars to attack-- lower cost Amazon Fire competitors and the high end iPad market. In my opinion, this move to control tablet development is Google's best chance to reinvent Android in a way which draws developers and consumers back to the fold. Who knows how this product will be branded (Google Play is a popular bet!), but the consumer will surely be the winner when the roll out begins.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Google, Apple, Amazon

I have a long positions in $GOOG, $AMZN, $AAPL

How Do You Feel About Employers Demanding Facebook Access As Part Of The Interview Process?

2012-03-29T13:49:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, a relative living in Cincinnati forwarded a link to an article entitled, "Employers ask job seekers for Facebook passwords." The article's title captured my immediate interest both as a Technology Consultant and a father with a child less than a year away from completing her undergraduate degree and confronting her first serious barrage of job interviews. I posted a link to this article on my own FaceBook page and received some immediate, impassioned, feedback. Over the course of the last few days, this trend has garnered national attention culminating in an extended Today Show segment and discussion.

The issue of online privacy is of ever greater relevance. Ultimately, the line drawn between personal privacy and public access to data is likely to blur even further as we voluntarily expose ever greater layers of our lives to the digital universe. Like many, I have real concerns over the wholesale erosion of privacy the digital world is bringing about. However, I am a realist at heart, and preach to my daughter, her friends, m many of whom are also facing the scrutiny of employers in the coming months, my clients (and anyone else willing to listen), that the only safe approach is to assume that ANY piece of personal information no matter how seemingly innocuous and regardless of what platform(s) one decides to memorialize your thoughts or actions on is PUBLIC!

This "worst case," if it's digital, it is open access, scenario is understandably disheartening to many. As a conservative and an advocate of personal liberties this isn't an easy position for me to take. One need only look at the ongoing confusion over FaceBook's privacy policies and settings over the past few years to appreciate how easy, albeit unintentional, it is to expose personal actions and thoughts to the world at large. Even self-proclaimed Technology Professionals such as myself have found the myriad privacy settings and options dense and confusing. While Google+ has learned from FaceBook's missteps, by being created as a kind of intentional hybrid between FaceBook and Twitter, its content must also certainly be construed as public by default.

Of course this is different from a potential employer insisting you "freely" relinquish your social network account authentication as a condition of potential employment. I found it interesting one of the profiled employers on the Today Show taking this approach is an Illinois Sherriff's Department . The representative defended the practice and indicated that this is common interview procedure for law enforcement departments across the United States. If law enforcement enforces this loss of privacy in the hiring process, it is difficult to imagine much effort being put forth to uphold privacy protection of more global design.

Donny Deutsch argued on the Today Show, as have many others, the solution to this dilemma will naturally occur in the free market. Bright potential employees will refuse such requests and through the power of social media itself, companies insisting on this step in the employer/employee process, will be identified, "branded," and spurned. I believe in the free market and believe some equilibrium will be found. Today's tough economic times makes such choices, laudible or not, difficult. Still, I would prefer the marketplace to decide this outcome rather than layering additional laws onto an already thick pile of privacy rulings.

David Galernter wrote a well thought opinion yesterday in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "The Pros and Cons of Cyber-English." This op-ed piece deserves to be read in its entirety. Among the points he eloquently makes goes beyond the obvious linguistic and stylistic changes to our language which email, texting, and other electronic, social, conversations, have created. Mr. Galernter rightly eschews the use of emoticons declaring them "empty beer bottles in the literary flower garden." At the same time his comments are reassuring to those who might be concerned that the barrage of abbreviations and terse commentary are marking the end of modern day language as we have known it.

A major component of how your "private" social conversations can negatively impact how one might be viewed in the context of potential employment, or any number of other long term commitments, is the very way in which Generation-i, and to a large extent several generations who have come before consider online communication as a "real time" conversation rather than an indelible data point in their lives:

Digital words are disposable words. Partly the problem is technological; mostly it is psychological. Ink and paper (or parchment or papyrus) have functioned brilliantly as a presentation and storage medium for a couple of thousand years. It's easy to read a 300-year-old book or a 2,000-year-old scroll. Can you imagine booting a 2,000-year-old computer? For a technologist, "permanent" means the next 20 minutes.

Look at any FaceBook Wall, Google+ conversation, or, God knows, Twitter stream, and the immediacy, the "nowness" of the conversation is pervasive. Mr. Galernter, argues that Generation-i is being "plagued by nowness" at the expense of the "not now," reflecting on the past and contemplating the future....

Digital words seem cheap because they are, and they grow cheaper by the day. Consider the withering hailstorm of mail, text, social net and blog posts that assaults you the moment you go online. It's become impossible for many a normal, solid citizen to answer his email promptly. But young people seem increasingly apt to ignore uninteresting messages on purpose. If the message is important it will be resent, and if it isn't, who cares anyway? So the value of digital words sinks even lower.

I am certain that my daughter and her contemporaries give no thought to the future ramifications of the tweets and posts whipsawing across iPhones, Blackberry's and IMs on any given Friday night! This focus on commenting on "the now" and constantly receiving feedback as to what is going on with friends and family at this moment can provide a distorted vision of self which a potential employer who knows you only from a resume and (perhaps) interview, cannot place in context of your past and future values.

If you find this issue, or even this discussion, frustrating and concerning, you are likely to find solace in Jeff Jarvis's recent work, "Public Parts." This recent work explores these topics in depth and detail while maintaining a conversational tone. Mr. Jarvis has a deep understanding of the technology driving today's social media on the internet, but this book's focus is on broader social ramifications. He views the internet as a public resource deserving public protection.

The power to foment change, whether as a catalyst in the recent Arab Spring uprisings, how we communicate in our everyday lives, how we partner with employers and spouses, all is being rewritten in the "now." I have clients and friends whose memories extend back to the "dark ages" of pre-2000 where job interviews, GPAs and perhaps even references were still the primary determinants in the selection process. In these bygone days, submitting an electronic resume was a novelty, not the norm.
I try to embrace change. I believe adapting to change is a positive force in life. This is a key factor in my lifelong love of technology; one need not wait long or look far into the distance to find something new, exciting, and occassionally, life changing. I continue to marvel at how different the world is today.

When I graduated from college, and a few years later from graduate school, Facebook's founder was in diapers, cell phones had yet to be invented, and sending a post meant heading to the local Post Office. Thirty years later, my daughter and her friends face an entirely new construct and yes, new challenges. I envy them the journey which lies ahead. Whether you find the idea of exposing your social universe in the quest for a potential job abhorrent or just a necessary evil in today's world, you have to reflect that your life's footprint is going to be written in digital ink and what you say now, will be a drop in your self-portrait "forever" (or at least until the next revolution flips our world again).

Let us know how you feel on the subject by voting in today's Music Row Tech poll (nearby). b4n!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Google, Facebook

I have a long position in $GOOG

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.

My Thoughts After A Week with the New iPad

2012-03-26T16:47:00.004-05:00

There seems to be no end to online reviews and posts regarding the new iPad. If you are expecting me to add another proverbial piece of digital paper to the pile, you are likely to be disappointed. I have read more than a dozen reviews from various sites and bloggers whom I respect. Rather than attempt to compete with large and well healed sites who seem to have literally reviewed every nut, bolt, and chip of the new iPad, I am going to share a few specific thoughts and impressions from my week living with the new device.

I marvel at some reviews which showed up in my in-basket even before my UPS driver delivered my unit at 10:30 AM (CST) on March 16 (release day). Engadget, and others, managed to get a unit and dissect it through the miracle of time zone shifting on March 15! Since I live and work in Nashville, TN. and don't have any friends living on the other side of the world, Music Row Tech isn't in a position to provide breaking news on an event of truly global magnitude. Nor am I one of the anointed such as the inimitable Walter Mossberg who has access to the who's who of technology, and often their products, before the rest of the world. As is typical, Mossberg's review was wonderfully written, focused for "average users," and includes only critical stats which mainstream users may find valuable in making an informed buying or upgrade decision. I invite you to read his thoughts through the nearby link, I agree with his comments and conclusions. (The fact that his review was published in the Wall Street Journal the day before the national release date is a testimony to the enormous respect given this writer and the power of his opinion in the mainstream universe.)

Before I can give an assessment of any new device, application or service, I need to spend a week or so in "real life" conditions. Specs are all well and good, but they never tell the entire story. In fact, specs can obfuscate the real value, or lack thereof, of a device. After a week with the new iPad, here are my informal observations:

The focal point of the new iPad and virtually every review to date is the enhanced screen. Perhaps because of my experience with the iPhone 4 and 4S retina screen graphics, my less than perfect vision (even with corrective contacts), my inflated expectations, or some combination thereof, I was initially underwhelmed by this feature. I say initially because after several days, my appreciation of the "better than HD" screen, has been greatly enhanced. I can't honestly say what the tipping point was, perhaps it was editing some photos using Apple's new iPhoto Application which shows off the new iPad's screen and improved graphic processing speed. In fact, this iPad is a wonderful tool for photographic (and video) editing and viewing! The color saturation and detail is unparalleled. I don't own a single HDTV, computer monitor or screen (with the exception of the iPhone 4S display) which comes close to the quality of this new display. A side by side comparison of a digital photo will let you truly appreciate this change of perspective and detail.

Extended reading sessions are a pleasure; the improvement in text quality is dramatic but becomes really noticeable over time. Amazon's Kindle App was among the earliest to offer an improved, "retina screen," version. Of course, Apple's iBook App also takes advantage of the iPad's higher resolution. My favorite three news and social media reader apps, Zite, Pulse and FlipBoard all have upgraded retina screen capabilities.Apps Love or hate him, I have to credit Rush Limbaugh with the same observations I have regarding the new iPad's screen. He too was "underwhelmed" initially. Whatever the reasons, after a few days I am apostle of the resolutionary experience.

The rear camera has been upgraded. I used the iPad 2's camera merely as a novelty or demo. Frankly, it was a marginal addition at best on this unit. The new iPad creates crisp photos and stunning 1080p video. While holding a tablet up for photo and video shots doesn't feel natural to me, the screen provides "real time" viewing and the video is "what you see is what you get 1080p!" In other words, the screen reproduces an actual 1080p screen experience which is unprecedented. I envision using the iPad, along with iPhoto, much more extensively in the future. (I will still be lugging my Nikon DSLR and lenses with me on vacations. For many a contemporary smartphone camera and iPad will be more than adequate companions to capture your next family reunion or trip south.) Capturing HD video is another compelling reason to eschew the 16 Gigabyte model for at least one of the 32 Gigabyte versions.

Some of the new iPad features I expect will ultimately make the biggest impact on consumer use are under the hood. Apple has aggressively supported Bluetooth 4.0 in the new iPad (and iPhone 4S). This technology offers much more than faster throughput for use with wireless headsets. The potential for very low power peripherals such as keyboards, speakers and more, will change your computing ecosystem. Power consumption is so low, and the "wake up" mode promises such fast access, new peripherals can go many weeks, and possibly months, between charging. Including this new bluetooth standard promises more "Apple magic" for new iPad owners over the product's lifetime.

Dictation. While the new iPad doesn't include full Siri support (not because of any hardware or software deficiencies), the built in dictation mode is surprisingly fluid and accurate. You may not envision yourself talking to your iPad in full sentences and paragraphs, but after a bit of experimentation, I believe you will learn to rely upon this feature.

Increased App file size makes a bigger difference than I envisioned in my earlier post on iPad purchase considerations. While I maintain that the 32 Gigabyte model is more than adequate for most users, the increased App sizes needed to support the great retina/HD display will make the 16 Gigabyte models seem cramped for many.

The New Apple TV ($99) which was introduced at the time of the iPad's launch. The most notable difference between this model and its predecessor is the ability to drive 1080p video (versus 720p). The iTV software was also updated (this upgrade effects both the new iTV and the iTV 2). Enhanced 1080p video looks great on the new iPad but will be less noticable for users watching content on HDTV's of 42" or less at typical viewing distances. In fact, you may have difficulty discerning any image improvement on televisions of this size.

The new software interface looks identical on the iTV 2 and new iTV. This App centric model actually is a step backward in my mind from aesthetic and usability perspectives. (Apparently, my apathy for this change is in good company, it has been reported Steve Jobs rejected this design five years ago.)

I didn't activate my 4G cellular service for the first five days for the simple reason AT&T made the carrier decision (needlessly) confusing. As I commented in several earlier posts, AT&T decided to eliminate unlimited data plan support for all grandfathered users in the weeks leading up to the new iPad release. On the day I placed my online order for the new iPad I was working under the assumption tiered pricing would be enforced for BOTH iPhone and iPad users. Since this time, AT&T has "clarified," some would argue, changed their position, on this policy.

The cellular giant is honoring grandfathered unlimited data plans for iPad users only (iPhone users are still out of luck). As a result, I reluctantly swapped my Verizon model for AT&T at the local Apple Store. (Apple has a "no questions asked" fourteen (14) day return policy.I am happy to report Apple's vaunted customer service lives up to the hype. Few questions asked (and none beyond common sensical ownership issues), my engraved 64 Gig Verizon iPad was transformed to an AT&T equivalent (sans engraving) with a bare minimum of fuss. The process was as painless as any exchange you may imagine. Apple may deal with the devils (AT&T, Verizon) but it leads and knows how to dance.

I never activated Verizon's service for this area so I cannot speak toward their 4G offering other than anecdotally. I met a new iPad user familiar with Verizon's coverage in this area. He said that the 4G network was faster but "only marginally." He based this not on formal testing, but perception during the limited time he has had access with his new iPad. While I have only been on AT&T's cellular service for a few hours since trading in my iPad and transferring my cellular account, I can say it "feels" much faster, but I haven't yet performed any formal speed tests.

It has been reported through reputable channels that 4G service is well received but early adopters are using monthly allotments in a matter of days. In fact, PC Magazine has scientifically determined that you can run through a 5 Gigabyte monthly data allotment on Verizon in as little as 32 minutes!! (To read about this testing as well as several useful data conserving tips, click this link.) Tip: Minimize video downloading and streaming. If you want to download video to your device, use wi-fi. There are many ways to do this, but here's a link to a post I wrote a while back on the subject. Based on numerous comments, I am convinced keeping my grandfathered unlimited data status with AT&T for as long as possible is worth the effort. Reluctantly, I have to say that the additional gigabyte of data this company offers for the mid-tier $30/month price makes this company a better choice for anyone living in coverage areas with LTE data.

Heat. The hype about new iPads adding to global warming (ha) have a germ of truth.
This applies to my new iPad and I suspect others. Beyond the initial charge and restore which was painful (see below), the temperature change in everyday use has been no bother and a perceived 10% increase from the iPad2. In other words, a non issue in my daily use. Charging time, not one of the iPad 2's strengths, has lengthened. While the purported ten hour battery life seems accurate, your new iPad will need an even longer recovery time than its predecessor to fully recharge.

I am not sure where the epiphany will create the "aha moment" but using a screen of this resolution, forget the specs, in the palm of your hands will change your life. Leo Loporte may again be prophetic. He said, "To those who have waited to buy a tablet, you're right. This is the first iPad truly ready to transform your life." I believe history (and to a far lesser degree Leo and I) will prove just how prophetic this observation is with the benefit of hindsight. All one has to do is walk an Apple Store to see how central the iPad, and tablet computing in general is to the company's vision and our everyday life. The iPad has become the retail proxy for the company's line of laptops and computers. Beside each model lies an iPad patiently waiting to explain and detail the model's place in the Apple ecosystem. You can even use a free in store App to make genius free purchases of selected goods while at the store! Apple wants your life to be tablet focused and I believe you will too after spending time with this device.

The new iPad's dimensions fall between the original and iPad 2 in thickness and weight (the width and height are virtually identical). For those of you upgrading, cases for earlier iPads should work fine. This doesn't mean that you can't easily find an excuse to buy a stylish new cover, only that you can't automatically justify the purchase to your spouse, significant other, or even yourself. One interesting aside, apparently some smart covers (the hinged, magnetic, design introduced with the iPad 2) sold by Apple and third parties prior to mid-2011 don't work as you would expect. The problem lies with a design change affecting the magnetic polarity. Apple is offering free replacements at their retail stores for those with dysfunctional covers. If you are having issues with covers manufactured by Otterbox or others, you should explore possible exchange options with them directly.

I can recommend the new iPad as a "must have" upgrade for those still holding onto the original. If you haven't yet joined the tablet revolution, the new iPad provides a compelling platform to begin your journey. There may well be Android tablets entering the market at similar price points in the next few months, but it is doubtful they will have a screen capable of matching the new iPad and they certainly won't have access to a half million (and growing) Apps!

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

Companies: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Verizon,

I have a long position in $AAPL, $AMZN

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.

Simple Steps To Prepare For A New iPad Upgrade

2012-03-13T13:58:00.005-05:00

So you have an original iPad or iPad 2 which is about to be put out to pasture.... What steps will get you from A to B, or one to three, without risking your data or your sanity? The process can be reasonably painless with just a bit of pre-planning. Even if you aren't joining the legions of upgraders this Friday, most of these housekeeping steps are still worth adding to your iPad to do list......

Make searching for Apps easy!

Do some housecleaning! If you are like me, you download lots of Apps and live by the 80/20 rule (you use 20% of your Apps 80% of the time). Organize your most used Apps on your primary Home Screen for easy access. Place specialty Apps into folders for easier access. Tip: If you occasionally have trouble finding a particular App which may be buried in a folder, go to Settings | General | Spotlight Search and be sure Applications are checked. From now on, tapping the first few letters of the App will bring it to the top of your search window!

Get up to date! If you aren't currently running the most current version if iOS, update now! If you are on a recent iOS release, you should have had the most recent update pushed to you wirelessly in the past few weeks. (Your iPad must be on AC current AND on a wireless network for the update to be applied.)

If you are unsure, tap Settings | General | Software Update. If you are behind the curve, follow the update prompts to iOS 5.1.

With this step accomplished, backup! Wireless backup was one of the under the hood improvements to iOS 5 which is so welcome. Still, most users backup at irregular intervals, and all users (hopefully) backup many more times to than restore! When it comes to data, I am a worrier and huge believer in the three backup principle of safe data preservation. The iPad's design makes this rule easy to follow if you are willing to take an extra step or two.

First backup to iCloud! If you aren't already backing up regularly, now is the time! Head over to General | iCloud | Storage and Backup. If iCloud Backup isn't "On" flip the switch! Complete the backup and Phase 1 is complete. Apple provides 5 Gigabytes of online space at no charge. If you have multiple iDevices, an iPad overflowing with irreplaceable data, or both, you may need to purchase incremental data from Apple to complete this step....

Now head over to General | iTunes Wi-Fi Synch ( this step assumes your iPad shares a wi-fi network with a Mac or PC running iTunes). Once again, be sure your iPad is on AC Current and has wi-fi enabled. At this point you can "force" a wireless sync creating a LOCAL backup. Step 2 complete. If you don't have a wireless network, you can easily sync and backup with iTunes by simply tethering your iPad to your computer using an Apple USB connecting cable.

With these steps completed, you have a three level backup-- 1.) Actual data on the iPad, 2.) Local data copied to your computer's hard drive via iTunes and 3.) An off site copy of your data "in the iCloud." Many will rely on either a local backup or iCloud backup, not both. This can be a serious mistake. I believe in data redundancy and you will too the first time you need to restore a file and discover it missing or corrupt from your only backup! I insist all Music Row Tech clients rely on data redundancy with tested local backups and off-site backups (this is non negotiable). So, do not pass go, do not turn on your new iPad, until you are 100% confident your data is safe! In fact, if you have certain types of data, iCloud backup and restore isn't a good option for the upgrade process (keep reading for specifics).

This next step is missed by many, but will make the upgrade a smoother process. Get a collection of user names and passwords. You should be using RoboForm, LogMein, or another password manager. If you aren't using such a program, this is the perfect time to begin. If you are, you are all set. Restores don't retain user account data (for obvious security reasons). You will have to authenticate with web sites, wi-fi networks, and more. Using a password manager which works across devices such as the two mentioned nearby makes this a reasonably painless experience and allows for much more secure password protection in the process.

Turn on that new iPad and sign in with the SAME Apple Account you used to do your online backup. Once logged into a local Wi-Fi network you should now be able to restore from either your local or iCloud based backup files. There are some items NOT backed up using the iCloud service. If you have movies, TV Shows, podcasts or audiobooks which were NOT purchased through iTunes, the iCloud backup and restore will not include these items. This is also true of photographs originally synchronized via your computer. If you have one or more of these types of data, you should backup and restore via direct cable using iTunes.

If your new iPad has cellular access via AT&T or Verizon, you will need to either transfer your current plan to the new device or sign up for one of several tiers of service. Head to Settings | Cellular Data to complete the needed steps to activate your 4G service.

Master Reset!

After you have satisfied yourself that all of your Apps and data have made the journey from old iPad to new, you may want to prepare your old iPad for sale or lucky friend or family member. When you are ready to take this step open up Settings | General | Reset | Reset All Settings.

If you are looking to sell your old iPad with a minimum of hassle, Amazon's Trade In Program is currently offering the best pricing. There is one caveat, your old iPad will earn you an Amazon Gift Certificate not a cash check. The trade off is highly competitive valuation for your old iPad. (My iPad 2; AT&T; 64 Gigabyte was worth $406 in Acceptable Condition.) Your iPad's trade in value will be determined by several factors including condition, type and timing. If, like me, you frequent Amazon on a regular basis anyway, this program has no downside. If not, this may be a great excuse to try out this retailing giant. Amazon provides free shipping too so head there now using the nearby link and see what your current hardware is worth. (The company's trade-in program isn't limited to iPads, or even electronics, so take a look around your house and/or office. Paying for your new toy may be easier than you think!)

Even if you aren't planning on trading up to the new iPad in the next few weeks, doing some housecleaning and ensuring your data is regularly back up is worthwhile. Take a few minutes now to do some iPad spring housecleaning will pay dividends.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, I appreciate your support.

Companies: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Verizon,

I have a long position in $AAPL, $AMZN

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.

AT&T and Verizon Add To iPad Purchase Confusion

2012-03-12T12:39:00.002-05:00

It wasn't easy getting to the Apple online store front after last week's announcement of the new iPad. The site was literally overrun and every step of the purchase process was slow and nerve wracking during the hours after the announcement. It took me several hours of nearly continuous effort to eventually purchase one iPad for March 16 delivery. (Since then, all first day online inventory has been exhausted, setting to rest any early questions as to consumer perception of the new iPad's merits.)

Even as I repeatedly failed to place a successful order, I noticed something interesting. During the carrier selection process, an 8 Gigabyte/$80/month Verizon plan was actually pulled from the Apple Store site within minutes. Unfortunately, the unresponsive nature of the Apple storefront, coupled with the challenges associated with trying to complete what is normally a simple online purchase process, kept me from taking screen shots.... Perhaps more fundamentally, I didn't imagine that online carrier options could possibly change on "game day." Boy was I wrong!

My growing frustrations with AT&T led me to change carriers this purchase cycle. Despite Verizon's apparently conscious decision to be uncompetitive at the critical mid-tier, offering 2 Gigabytes of data versus AT&T's 3 Gigabytes for $30/month, AT&T's recent decisions to eliminate all "unlimited" data plans even for grandfathered customers such as myself, coupled with the obfuscation of 4G network coverage (in which Apple is at least partially complicit by incorporating the "4G" moniker as part of last week's iOS 5.1 release), made the decision to go with Verizon seem wise on principal and probably practicality.

Since March 7, additional changes and confusion have come to light. Verizon has announced hotspot support for the new iPad at no additional charge. This feature has particular value to many Music Row Tech clients who could leverage this capability while out of wi-fi range. AT&T is not supporting hotspot handling but has stated they are "working with Apple to incorporate this feature at some future time." Of course, AT&T hasn't commented on Verzon's decision to make this a "no charge" addition to their plan structure. Verizon's announcement will no doubt make a contingent of early adopter purchasers second guess their decision to stick with AT&T.

On the other side of the ledger, there are mixed, and confusing, comments rumbling through the blogosphere regarding AT&T's future handling of unlimited data plans on the iPad platform. I have read comments ranging from the end of all unlimited data to AT&T IS actually honoring grandfathered plans at this time. I called AT&T this morning and was told that the Unlimited Data Plan will be honored. When I asked the representative if there are plans to discontinue this plan she referred me to Apple! When I asked if the unlimited data plan will be honored across AT&T's various 3G and 4G networks, I was again referred to 1-800-APPLE. My representative seemed to intentionally position her responses to focus the decision making on Apple, not AT&T. From a technical perspective, I find this perplexing since the provisioning of data is purely a carrier related matter.

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that the billing plans are also carrier driven. If Apple has some level of control in these decisions, I haven't seen this disclosed anywhere. However, AT&T's relationship with Apple has become more suspect than ever given the decision to label 3G networks as "4G" as part of the newest iOS release. Perhaps there is more shared control of data handling and billing between these two companies than the public has been made aware of.....

One thing is sure, the honoring of grandfathered iPad Accounts is squarely at odds with the elimination of this same "unlimited" option on the iPhone which was announced less than two weeks ago! Further, AT&T is doing all it can to HIDE the fact that this plan is still an option for iPad users upgrading to the new iPad! It isn't in print anywhere on AT&T's official site (that I have been able to find) and there seems to be vast amounts of conflicting commentary on the subject which the company is making no effort to clarify and the available pricing plans on Apple's storefront makes no mention (even in 3 point print as a footnote) of this plan. To the extent Apple is complicit (if at all) in AT&T's overt and covert actions to "unilaterally" modify data plans, I am saddened.

I did contact Apple regarding the possibility of changing carriers based on new information. My order is already on a loading dock so this opportunity has past. However, I was told that Apple will honor an exchange within the first fourteen days if you are in any way unhappy with your carrier decision. Given that I am among a dwindling herd of AT&T iPad users still eligible for Unlimited Data, I may well have to revise my decision to move to Verizon. Assuming AT&T doesn't change its mind in the next week, I will try Verizon for a week, contact Apple, and make a final decision then. I believe that the wireless carriers' failure to commit and communicate is going to make for something of a logistical nightmare for Apple early in the new iPad's purchase cycle.

If nothing else is clear from these events, the in play and jockeying for customers between Verizon and AT&T is intense and fluid. Consumers lose when there aren't well defined plans outlined at the time of purchase. Apple's best response would have been to make a "universal iPad" capable of running on either carrier's network. I am guessing the wireless carriers aren't rooting for this opportunity for choice on a month to month basis. While both companies offer "no contract, thirty day programs" for iPads, they know having to click on a carrier at the time of purchase effectively makes you a locked in customer for at least a year. This is a shame. Consumers lose again and since Sprint, T-Mobile, and others are effectively locked out of the discussion entirely, you have to pick which of these two behemoths are the lesser evil for your use and geography. I don't envy you the decision. If you want my thoughts on the full iPad selection process, please click here.

Do any of these recent announcements change your opinion, or decision, as to your data provider? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, I appreciate your support

Companies: Apple, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile Verizon

I have a long position in $AAPL

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.

iPad News Which May Have Not Hit Your Radar....

2012-03-09T11:53:00.003-06:00

As I scanned my favorite information streams last night, I ran across a variety of interesting articles relating to the release of the new iPad (aka the iPad 3 or iPad HD).

While I don't completely agree with this Op Ed piece published on VB News, I agree there were a few noticable, very un-Applian (what a mouthful of a non-word), elements to this week's choreographed product announcement. While there is much to like about the hardware itself, there appear to be some changes in direction.

I find it hard to believe the late Steve Jobs, would have endorsed calling this third generation product "the new iPad." I am perplexed by the naming convention, or lack thereof, for this product. The departure has the blogosphere writing and I suspect more importantly, average consumers shaking their heads. I presume in a few weeks, tech journalists and commentators can drop the "new" and it will simply be "the iPad." (As opposed to the original iPad three years ago....)

I also don't think the cheesey "Resolutionary" moniker would have gotten out the front door, much less to the front of the company's web site! I don't see Apple losing all of its mojo in this very early post-Jobsian era, but I completely agree that Cook and his top aides have very big shoes to fill and the company may lose some of the sophisticated, clean, veneer and focus which has made the company and its products iconic. There was likely a three year pipeline of products in various stages of design and production when Jobs left us. It will take at least that long in my opinion to see how the company's culture evolves without his mercurial influence..... Interesting read.....

The great web site Gigaom has written about an important byproduct of the new iPad's roll out, small business network administration and security. Their article entitled, "The new iPad has CIOs quaking in their cubicles" exposes some of the very real issues the exponential use of personal, mobile, devices, is having on small business networks. Many of these devices are finding their way into office space without ITs formal blessing. The new iPads superior graphic capabilities drives increased data usage, not to mention a host of other data and network security issues, which were all but non-existent three years ago. If you have a small business, there are issues you need to address now, not after a catastrophic network failure or data loss. If your company is in or around middle Tennessee and you would like help with these issues, Music Row Tech is here. Please contact us by telephone or through our contact form.

Apple's always churning the waters. A recent patent award gives insight into at least one future direction the folks at Infinity Circle are considering for upcoming mobile platforms, the iWallet. For all the details, I direct you to the Patently Apple blog on this subject. Near field technology is already available in other mobile devices but isn't in wide use or distribution. Google and others would love to create an infrastructure which turns your smartphone into your primary means of payment (credit and/or debit). The stakes are high and the company first out the gate with a secure, polished, solution, will be rewarded with financial gain and at least as importantly, a goldmine of consumer data!

Reading through Apple's application, adding NFC (near field communication) to iDevices is just the hook; the real intellectual property this patent is designed to protect revolves around handling rules and transactions between primary and secondary financial accounts. (As an example, think about adding your college age child to your credit card account. This may be a responsible decision to protect him or her in an emergency situation. However, it goes without saying, my definition of an "emergency" on spring break may be wildly different than my daughter's thoughts on the matter! Apple proposes that we be able to set up rules, or triggers, which manage these financial processes and relationships. For the record, I think this concept has great potential value.

I wonder why they haven't enacted something similar already in iTunes! Letting kids download songs, music, and apps at will can be very expensive! Giving gift cards out, isn't the best solution.... My other concern, Apple proposes to use iTunes as the repository for this financial transaction activity and mechanism! This makes me nervous! iTunes needs a major overhaul and adding this part of my life to this behemoth, makes me nervous!

Here's a summary of the patent taken from the above mentioned post. (Be sure to click through to the post if you want to explore this idea in much more depth!)

Summary of the Key Points of this Patent

Apple's patent figures associated with Apple's invention generally relate to techniques for implementing and defining financial transaction rules for controlling a subsidiary financial account. By way of example, the relationship between the primary financial account holder and the subsidiary account holder may be that of a parent-child relationship, employer-employee relationship, or the like.

The processor-based device may be additionally configured to transmit the financial transaction rules defined by the primary account holder to a designated financial institution that manages the subsidiary account. For instance, where the subsidiary financial account is a credit card account, the financial institution may include an issuing bank and/or a card association. The financial institution may store a record of user preferences associated with the primary and subsidiary financial accounts, and may update these account holder preferences based on the received financial transaction rules.

More news on the AT&T gone wild bandwagon! After a string of controversial moves including abandoning unlimited data plans for all, proposing what appears to be a net neutrality breaking new source of income by providing preferential treatment to App developers willing to pay "1-800" like services making access to their data "free" to the consumer (Stacey Higginbotham , GigaOhm, wrote a great piece on this subject a few days ago!) and still not responding to my plea for roll over data!, AT&T has managed to muddy the water further with the help of Apple.

After the release of iOS 5.1 this week, iPhone 4S users on AT&T's network may now see a "4G" symbol on their phone. Problem is, AT&T's network didn't suddenly morph into an LTE capable network overnight! This is a marketing ploy and nothing more. (TNW may not be the first to bring this issue to light, but this is where I heard of the issue and you can read their commentary by following this link). Yet another reason my new iPad will be Verizon driven using their true 4G network. AT&T seems hellbent on alienating and confusing every level of consumer and the App Developer world all in one month! To the extent it is happening, I hate to see Apple, whose reputation for "customer first" has long been a hallmark, be contributory in these activities.

On a related note, MacRumors announced yesterday that Verizon is including mobile hotspot use (a feature available on the new iPad if the carrier supports it) at no incremental charge! If you travel with multiple devices, or with associates, friends, or family, with wi-fi devices, sharing your Verizon 4G network can be a great productivity enhancer! I just wish Verizon was willing to take AT&T on with a true $10 Gig/month mid-tier plan! If I could get 3 gigabytes of data for $30 a month (rather than the current 2 Gigabytes) through Verizon, I could give the company a complete "thumbs up" for iPad 4G use. One last point, hotspot use currently carries an incremental charge through SmartPhones on the Verizon network. Oh, AT&T is saying "no comment" at the moment!

All of the new features of the iPad-- retina display; 4G cellular; hotspot support-- takes energy. To keep the ten hours of battery life iPad users have come to love and expect, a bigger battery is the only solution. 9to5Mac indicates the new battery has a 42.5-watt-hour capacity and it physically spans almost the entire iPad case. This power source is about 70% bigger than that found in the iPad2. They ask, as do I, will recharge cycles also grow by 70%!? If so, I will be putting the new iPad to bed even earlier than me most nights! It already takes a good six hours or so to fully charge my iPad2! I also suspect, I won't need a blanket while surfing this winter, this thing could actually throw off some heat. More after March 16.

By the way, it may be nothing, but Apple has sent me an email stating that my new iPad has shipped! Could they actually surprise the earliest round of purchasers with a pre-sixteenth delivery!!? I will keep you informed!

On another side note, this week's iOS 5.1 update actually seems to have (finally) improved my iPhone 4S battery life! Has anyone else noticed a difference! If so, let me know in the comment section. I should also mention that the 1.1 upgrade to the Windows iCloud Manager seems to have eliminated the nagging "403 Forbidden Access" error I have been experiencing for many weeks! I need to see what, if any, other iCloud issues this software release may solve. More to follow.... As faithful followers know, I have had several issues with the initial iCloud introduction and have been free with my criticism. In fairness, I want to evaluate any solutions Apple may release to the public.

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, I appreciate your support

Companies: Google, Apple, Verizon

I have a long position in $AAPL; $GOOG

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.

Updated: So You Want A New iPad? Which Model Do You Really Need?

2012-03-08T13:50:00.001-06:00

Click to Enlarge

Now that the third generation iPad (aka "the new iPad") is officially announced, you may be considering updating an older model, or joining the cadre of faithful users for the first time. One thing that didn't improve yesterday was the plethora of available SKUs (stock keeping units). Many, including myself, hoped that at least some of the complexity would be eliminated. Notably, I had hoped that Apple would unify (and halve the SKU count) the 4G/Cellular decision by incorporating all radios in every model. Sadly, if you decide you do want, or need, cellular service, you must select Verizon or AT&T, at the time of purchase.

Given that both cellular companies provide iPad service on a separate, month to month, contract basis it would have been (very) nice to be able to shift your cellular service from one carrier to another based on satisfaction (or a lack thereof), geography, pricing, and other factors. It should be noted that all new iPads support slower, 3G, networks (HSPA, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA) which will make international travel and roaming convenient no matter which primary 4G carrier your select.

The Easy "Stuff"

The first decision which is completely personal and subjective also has no dollar expense associated with it. The new iPad is available in black or white. When the white iPhone was originally released, this decision did play a significant role in one important dimension, time. There were significant delays in shipping what iPhones for many. In some situations, the delay was measured in months, not days or weeks. It appears that whatever production issues existed have been resolved. So make this choice in move on to the next critical choice, wi-fi only or wi-fi plus 4G.....

To 4G or Not To 4G

Adding 4G availability to the iPad can make all the difference in the device's value for many. If your job demands mobility, if you meet with clients wherever the need arises, you need 4G. If your job is mobile by definition-- Insurance Agents, Landscapers, Marketers and Sales People in virtually any industry-- need cellular access. You cannot rely on ubiquitous wi-fi access if the iPad is a key component of your sales/client service equation. Cellular service availability adds $130 to the initial purchase.

If your lifestyle revolves around home, office, and wi-fi enabled restaurants and coffee shops, a wi-fi only iPad will save you approximately $500 the first year of ownership ($130 in hardware and $360/year in data services).

As I mentioned, the real cost is in data access. Neither AT&T or Verizon offer unlimited data plans. Both companies offer tiered 4G pricing. If you factor in a mid-tier contract, you will pay $30/month for 2 Gigabytes (Verizon) or 3 Gigabytes (AT&T) of cellular data. Plan on factoring in this $360/year expense to iPad ownership. Both companies offer smaller plans (Verizon 1 Gigabyte/month, $20; AT&T: 250 Megabytes, $14.99) and 5 Gigabyte/month, $50 plans. Since these are month to month plans, you can theoretically tailor your monthly contract to your data needs. I say theoretically because for the vast majority, future data usage is almost impossibly difficult to anticipate (and both carriers understand this point). Overages, like all cellular voice, data, and text services, are painfully expensive. To date, no carrier has taken me up on my rollover data proposal. For the majority, the mid-tier plan is going to be "the sweet spot." It is important to remember that the new iPad's 4G focus makes it more important than ever to determine which carrier has the best 4G coverage in your primary geography. (Click here for the AT&T coverage map. Click here for the Verizon coverage map.)

If all else is equal in your area, AT&T's 4G service is probably the better choice (and it saddens me to have to make this recommendation!) Apple's own speed tests indicate that AT&T's 4G service is superior and the $30/month mid-tier price currently offers 1 gigabyte more bandwidth each month.

Update (3/9/12 12:30 PM CST): Yesterday, Verizon announced support of the new hotspot feature on the iPad an no extra charge. If the ability to use your new iPad as a hotspot is important, this may sway your decision as to which carrier to select. Remember, all hotspot use will count against your monthly plan's data usage. As of this writing, AT&T has not commented or responded.

How Much Memory Is "Too Much?"

When you have determined your preferred color and 4G service provider, you are ready to tackle the most difficult and expensive decision, how much memory do you really need...?

The iPad2 and the new iPad are available with 16, 32, and 64 Gigabyte models. Each doubling of memory also adds about a $100 to the purchase price (independent of wi-fi only or wi-fi & 4G choice). So, how much memory is "enough?"

This is a very difficult question with many interdependant variables. There really is no "typical" iPad user, but I can provide some general guidelines. For the vast majority, 16 Gigabytes will provide enough space for hundreds of apps, data files, and some music and video media files. If you anticipate using your iPad primarily for web surfing, email, and perhaps reading, your decision is over. For those with large media collections, extensive travelers, and content creators, keep reading.....

If you travel extensively and wish to pre-load your iPad with movies and music, you are a candidate to consider the 32, or perhaps even 64, Gigabyte models. The new iPads HD (hi def), retina, display demands richer graphics to take full advantage of this incredibly high resolution display. Movie files can be played in full 1080p hi-def (a single hi-def movie can consume 3 to 4 gigabytes of space). While Apps don't take up much room, graphic intensive games, will take up more space than ever because of the improved graphic ability of the iPad itself.

If you are an avid photographer and/or videographer, select the 32 or 64 Gig model. The new iPad offers a superior internal camera which can also take full 1080p video. Perhaps more importantly, Apple showcased the new iPhoto App which promises great photo editing and viewing on the retina display. The new iPad itself will support up to 19 Megapixel images (approximately 100 of these high resolution photos will consume 1 Gigabyte of storage).

Even if you consider yourself in one of these high use groups, or like me, prefer to "future proof" your purchase but rounding up for a $100 (iPads, like all Apple iOS devices, cannot be upgraded in the field), the 32 Gigabyte model is probably sufficient. If you are a current iPad owner and want to get a feel for your current storage consumption, you can easily determine your space utilization by tapping on Settings | General | About and looking at a few numbers:

You can view your actual data usage....

Final Thoughts

To give some perspective, I consider myself a data intensive iPad user. my iPad2 is a 64 Gigabyte model and I have never concerned myself with storage limitations in my day to day usage. As the nearby screenshot shows, my iPad currently has over sixteen thousand (16,000) songs (which is a somewhat deceiving because i utilize the Apple Match service which streams music and doesn't actively store all music on a device); fifteen (15) videos (not movies) and nearly eight hundred (800) photos.

On this 64 Gigabyte device with an available capacity of just over 58 Gigabytes, I still have over 30 Gigabytes available! Your mileage will vary, but for the vast majority of my clients and readers, the 32 Gigabyte model will provide ample storage. So what model am I buying? Despite the evidence available to me (see actual usage stats nearby) and the virtually certainty of another new iPad which will enter the fray a year from now, I pre-ordered a 64 Gigabyte, Verizon 4G, black unit.

I rely on my iPad and increasingly work with clients on mobile solutions, I rationalize this decision as a "future proofing" of this critical device for the next year. (My decision to move from AT&T to Verizon is more emotional than logical. I wish I had a third option, or more ideal, a "universal" iPad able to seamlessly shift between carriers. Verizon simply has been more honest and transparent with its pricing policies than AT&T. I choose to reward honesty with dollars which is the only way of expressing your relative satisfaction. Had AT&T honored its commitment to original iPhone and iPad owners with continued access to true unlimited data plans, I would continue my patronage.)

Speaking of the iPad2, it is still available and has been discounted $100. If price trumps all, consider buying an iPad2 at this new discounted rate. Even better, the secondary markets will be flooded with "gently used" iPad 2's as early adopters upgrade and sell their devices on Ebay, Craigslist, or through such online services as Gazelle. For a quick list of the new iPad's enhanced features click on this post. While I think the enhanced display and other improvements offer compelling reasons to upgrade or spend an additional $100, for many of you whose anticipated use makes a 16 Gigabyte wi-fi only, or even a wi-fi plus 3g, a compelling choice, the $399 base pricing now available for this model, may be a tipping point.

Hopefully, this article will assist you in making the proper purchase choice (and save you a few dollars in the process)! If you have saved a few dollars be sure to pick up the new iPhoto, updated Garageband, and iMovie Apps! ($4.99/App; free upgrades). These Apple iOS Apps are available today and have been optimized for the new iPads improved graphics. Even if you aren't a rock star, this century's Cecil B. DiMille or Ansel Adams, these apps are inspirational and fun. (And if you are a pro content creator, you will be surprised how productive these iOS Apps can make you.)

Enjoy! If you find this post of interest, please share through Google+, Twitter and Facebook! We welcome your comments below! We welcome your comments (which you can provide via the comment form below).

I currently participate in Associate Programs and certain item links included within this post may tie to these affiliate programs. By using these links, you help support Music Row Tech, I appreciate your support

Companies: Apple

I have a long position in $AAPL

Music Row Tech will never sell, give away or use your personal information with third parties.