Yesterday was Apple IPhone Day in Canada. With all the call reception issues that are being reported you would think that their would be no market for the IPhone at this time. This could be not further from the truth. I walked by the Apple store at 3:15 in the afternoon and here is what it looked like in the lineup outside the store:

As each successful purchaser came out with his/her IPhone high fives were exchanged and the crowd roared. The gentleman who walked out at 3:15pm had been in line since 5am.

As always an Apple event is something to see. No wonder Apple users are so loyal and this is one more example.

As many of you know I am not an Apple Basher. Actually I believe in using what works best for you at the end of the day. Their have been so many articles on why you should purchase an Ipad, I thought I would do an article on why you should not purchase one. Here are the reasons on why you should not purchase an Ipad:

1. Cost – The device itself is expensive. If you choose the 3G model then you have an ongoing monthly data plan. They you have the cost of your applications and the content which you purchase.

2. A locked in Platform – The Operating System is a locked in platform and only available on the Iphone and Ipad. The Android operating system is much more open.

3. Google Android based tablets are coming. You should wait and see what the competition will come out with.

4. Even if you want an Ipad you should wait for the second release. Hardware and software issues are always cleaned up by then.

5. Duplicate Devices – If you already have a laptop/netbook what do you need an Ipad for? Is it just an expensive glorified Netbook? Some people think so.

6. At&T in the US. All I can says is dealing with AT&T is like dealing with the devil. Fortunately I live in Canada where we have choice for the Iphone/Ipad

Before you purchase an Ipad consider the above reasons and say can I wait?

I thought I would take a minute to say Apple is defiantly rated number one for their support for the Imacs and their Mac Books. I recently read two articles the first in
Laptop Magazine and the 2nd in Consumer Reports. Both publications rated Apples user experience very high.

My personal experience with Apple in Canada and the Apple stores in Canada is the same. I do believe Apple as a company really does get that customer support is important and that the user experience needs to be high.

Why is the Apple support experience so much better then the Windows computer experience. Their are a few factors which I will discuss below:

1. The Apple staff really do get it, They understand the word service in customer service.

2. The Apple Imac/Macbook is a closed platform on the inside. No one else makes internal addins for the machines which make them easier to support.

3. Apple has developed a great premium support plan called Apple Care.

4. Apple has realized making the customer happy is very important.

5. Apple has control over both the hardware and the software.

6. Apple computers are not prone to spyware or virus issues.

7. Apple machines are more expensive then their counterpart Windows machines. This allows support costs to be built into the cost of the product.

These are some of the reason Apple is leading the support experience charts. What are your thoughts?

The announcement was made by Steve Jobs yesterday to make it official. Apple has introduced a new tablet on to the market:

I tend to agree with the comments circulating that the tablet looks like a giant Ipod touch. That being said I do see some issues for the tablet.

The tablet will be cheaper that purchasing a touch screen monitor and pc. I see it is a strong possibility that many touch screen applications can be developed for the tablet. One that comes to mind would be a directory in an office building. The Apple Tablet could be mounted in an enclosure. A touch screen application could be developed to display a list of Tenet’s in the office building and their office buildings. Using the current Ipod touch/Iphone type technology you could scroll up and down the list for a list of Tenet’s names. By touching on the Tenet’s name you could receive more information like the suite number and a map to their location.

Besides niche applications like the one above, I personally believe the tablet market is dieing. At the low end we already have netbooks which is a market Apple is not in. At the high end we already full fledged notebooks. Apple is also is the smartphone market with their Iphone. These are the 3 biggest areas of portable machines, not the tablet.

The tablet by many is considered a competitor for the E-book market. I have heard reports that Amazon is greatly concerned. Many people feel that Apple is going after the E-Book reader market. My bet is the tablet will be much too expensive to make it a glorified E-Book reader. It will appeal to some people who just love Apple but not to the masses.

The Apple tablet will be a niche piece of hardware. Personally I will not be rushing to purchase one since I already own an IPhone will you?

Everyone who knows me realizes I am a big fan of Windows 7. Currently I have the Operating System running on two of our computers at home including my main machine. We still have 3 machines running XP pro in our house as well. I also run 2 virtual pcs which have Ubuntu Linux running on them. To add to the equation we also have several cell phones, an ipod and an Iphone. The question then is why do I run such a mixed environment?

The key to this equation is choice. I really prefer the best of breed approach for whatever task I have at hand. In 20 plus years in the technology business I have learned to keep an open mind and keep looking for alternatives and better way of doing things. Most importantly to never stop learning and progressing.

Lets start with the Desktop setup at home. I have an AMD 4000+ machine that runs the Windows XP RC. As soon as the full Windows 7 release comes out I will be upgrading the operating system on this pc. This machine was orginally purchased with Windows Vista and Vista was just pure junk on this pc. Vista did not agree with my AMD box at all. I had constant crashing that was unreal. This is very hard for someone like me who’s livelihood depends on his computer.

On our second pc (the one @neonrose uses) we also have Windows 7 RC running. It is a Lenovo that originally came with Windows XP on it. It is a dual corse machine with 3GB of ram on it and it just flies.

In the server department I have have made an interesting choice. I saw no need to installing Windows server at home. The overhead of creating a home domain was not worth it. I decided to setup a Windows XP Pro work group server. I have this server running on a Compaq slime line PIV with 1 GB of ram. This work group server drives our 2 printers and our shared drives. It has 5 usb Hard drives connected to it. Our long distance phone device is a Majic Jack and it connects to our work group server as well. The Majic Jack does not yet have Windows 7 drivers available for it and I really do not like running Windows Vista as an upgrade so XP it is.

In the portable department we have two portable computers. One is an IBM PIII laptop an older model that Kelli (@Neonrose) uses around the house when she is watching tv and in the bedroom. It has Windows XP Pro on it for the security. It runs a little slow but for what we used it for it works well.

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire netbook that I really like. One of the fist things I need when I got it was upgrade to Windows 7 RC. I then ordered a Rogers Rocket stick for portable Internet on the go. It turns out the Rocekt Stick does not like Windows 7 yet. The driver loads but then the connection manager will not connect. As a result I had to downgrade the netbook back to Windows XP Home.

I also run 2 Virtual machines that have Ubuntu on the. These help me keep up to date on the Linux world.

In the cell phone department we basically have two. Kelli users a Motorola Crazer that she really likes. It is as basic a cell phone you can get and suits her needs well. As for me I have recently switched to an Iphone. I use a lot of Web 2.0 applications on the go as well as check and write email constantly. That added with the ability to listen to podcasts and audiobooks enhances my daily life.

Kelli uses a Ipod as well for music and I use my Iphone for that as well.

Yes I am a true geek who lives in a mixed environment.

I thought I would spend a little time re-mincing about technology and the changes over the last 25 years in the computer business. A lot has changed and in tech one week can be a life time. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

When I first started programing the first machine I ever wrote software on was an Apple II plus. This computer ran in the 5000 dollar range including the 11 inch white on green monitor my Dad had. I learned to program in Apple Basic. The Spreadsheet that my Dad used was the pioneer program VisiCalc. VisiCalc was the first main spreadsheet program out on the market and at the time nothing came close to it. I wrote several large programs in Apple basic. I used the Apple II to communicate to online services and BBS (Bulletin Board Systems). It was my first taste of communicating with the outside world.

Around the time the high school I was at Had the Model III by Radio Shack and I learned to do basic programing as well.

I then moved from the Montreal to the Toronto area. The high school I went into still had an IBM-1130 on site as well as a pc lab. The first year student’s were required to learn on the IBM-1130 to have an appreciation for what program on cards was like. I am so glad I no longer have to do cards either bubble or punched cards because it was not my idea of fun at all.

Since this time I have had the pleasure on working on most desktop, laptop, and tablet models of PCs which ran Microsoft O/S systems. I had not really ventured back into the Apple world until I purchased my IPhone and then my Ipod. It is just interessting to think I started on an Apple II series machine.

Apple is now the company to Beware off. Originally built as a computer company Apple should be the most feared company in today’s market place. Steve Jobs has re-built Apple into one of the most respected and dominated Consumer Electronic Companies in the world today.

Steve Jobs runs Apple with an Iron fist. What Jobs says goes. He is god at Apple and walks on water the same way Bill Gates once did. Jobs is a pioneer, master strategist and a visionary. Most of all Jobs has turned Apple into a company to be recoded with.

it’s not the Mac, the Ipod, the Iphone, or The Power Mac that make Apple the force they are today. What males Apple one of the most powerful companies is Itunes and Itunes store.

Interesting food for thought is the I Tunes Store. This is the most guarded service in the growing Apple franchise. This is Apple’s entire gateway to success and their biggest potential for failure.

An Illegal service called Napster revolutionized how we shared music. Once Napster was closed down due to copyright violations, the Apple I tunes store has emerged as the dominate place to get music and applications for mobile devices(the Ipod, Itouch and IPhone). This is the number one music store across the world.

This is all fine and good but why should we concerned? It is called competition. AT one time Microsoft ruled pc makers with an iron first and called all the shots. To some degree they still do. Guess what – Apple is doing the same thing with the music industry. They are calling the shots and in a lot of respects forcing monopolistic behaviors. It seems history in the technology business is once again repeating itself. It is big bad Microsoft all over gain this time called Apple.

Apple is so protective of the ITunes Store that they have kept is as a closed platform(shall we say Windows). Apple guard’s the ITunes store so much that when the Palm Pre was connecting to the Itunes store Apple put in checks so this could not happen. This was all to protect their franchise.

Leopard/Windows are just two different ways of doing things on a computer. That said Apple has many exclusives in the Itunes store. Exclusive deals with publishers and record companies. One might argue that the Iphone is the best smart phone on the market. It is in my opinion. What makes the Iphone is not the features on the phone but the applications that are available for it. The applications are great but they need to get out into the consumer’s hands. How does this happen – Itunes and the Itunes store.

I really believe that Apple will possibly enter the game console market one day. The reason they will is they have the entire distribution structure in place. It is Itunes and the Itunes store. A version of Itunes could push t he games out so their is no need to run to the games store to purchase your games.

The EU will start the investigation Apple soon. They are one very dangerous company and if they keep up their practices will have Antitrust law suits in Europe and the US.

Beware of Apple…..

As most of you know I have been a big opponent of Apple’s Itunes until recently. A lot of that had to do with I tunes not working well on Windows Vista originally. Now that Apple has fixed those issues I have rethink ed where I am going on how I am going.

As most of you know I went to a smart phone a year ago; a Samsung Jack; to try and consolidate my life. I do live on my phone when I am on the go and require email, pda functions, the ability to browser the web and the ability to run other applications.

A Blackberry was too corporate and my issues with Itunes at the time meant Windows Mobile the choice to go to. That all said I entered into a new contract with Rogers getting a Samsung Jack.

A year late this has not worked out well. I had one phone experience many lockups and I have had one phone overheat to the point Rogers sent me out a replacement. My Warranty expires in a week and I was getting concerned since I just had issues again.

After talking to Rogers and thinking I have now gone to the Rogers I Phone. I am awaiting for delivery since Rogers is currently out of stock.

The I phone is better for web browsing and it will allow me to run some applications better. The I Phone has a great Evernote applications and this is one web application I use all the time.

If Microsoft wishes to compete in the Smart Phone market they need to encourage major companies like Samsung to do a better job then this.