Doug The Tech Bug

Google Sync 101

2010-07-07T10:00:00.002-04:00

If you are like most of my friends, the lower cost of entry into the smart phone market has made you give up that Motorola Razr from 2006 and upgraded to the plethora of available smart phones in the market.

But what now?

Its amazing how many times I have come across someone who owns a smart phone yet is not taking advantage of some of the many tools available to you with the additional power of a smart phone. One of these tools I want to touch upon now is Google Sync. Whether you own a Blackberry, an iPhone, an Android device or a WebOS device (and those in Europe a Symbian device) Google Sync can make your life much easier.

The idea for this write up was sparked from a few friends informing me via facebook that they have lost their phone and need my number again. I'm flattered my friends want to keep in contact with me, but I'm amazed many don't know about the great tool of Google Sync. We'll begin with the first question.

What is Google Sync?

Google Sync is one of the many apps provided by Google for different phone platforms. The technology is actually built directly into the Android and WebOS Operating system, but the application is available for the iPhone and Blackberry platform. Google Sync allows you to sync information from your Google Calender and Google Contacts directly to your phone as well as from your phone to your Google data.

First thing you'll need is a Gmail account. Most people seem to have picked up a Gmail account but if you haven't as of yet I highly recommend it. Gmail is currently my favorite E-Mail provider and it has the added benefit of working cross platform with many different Google owned services.

Now for those with an account, if you want to set up your Google Contacts your first step should be here:

In the highlighted box is the Contacts section of GMail. Once you click there you are greeted with this screen:

(please excuse the redaction's as this is my personal contact list)

As you can see, it is mostly setup as you would expect. A few small things to point out. You may be wondering what the difference is between "All Contacts" an "My Contacts". Google setup contacts to automatically add your frequently emailed email addresses into your All Contacts area along with everyone from My Contacts. My Contacts is comprised of all contacts you have added manually.

As you dive into the editing of contacts you'll notice that they have many fields to fill out. Of course you do not have to fill out all fields but I will advise that you fill out as much information as you know as most phones will pull in all the information provided.

Once you have added all the contacts that you wanted to I advise you to also export your contact list just so you have a copy of the information on your own computer in case Google ever suffers a major data loss (highly unlikely but general rule to follow is if you don't have more then one copy of your data, its not that important).

Once that's out of the way, you have the easy part up next. Syncing all your information. This post would be a bit too drawn out if I walked through each process depending on the phone but here is a short run:

WebOS (Palm Pre and Pixi): When you first get your phone as you open your email app, your contact app and your calender app you are greeted with a screen asking you to add an existing account. All you need to add is your Gmail address and the phone and the "cloud" will magically start syncing your data over. The first sync will be the longest so I advise doing it while in the range of wifi. And that's it! Your phone will periodically check in with the Google server to see if there is anything it needs to update. And remember, this works 2-way. From your phone as well as from GMail.

Android: Android works very similar to WebOS where you will be greeted with a prompt when you first turn on your phone to add different accounts (including Facebook and twitter). Once you add your Gmail account and any other account you wish to add, it will start syncing much in the same was as WebOS.

Blackberry and iPhone: These two OS's actually require you to download the Google Sync app from the App Store and Blackberry App World. Just do a search and they should be easy to find The actually app itself will give you parameters for when it syncs and what it will sync and if you want 2-way sync. Once that is setup, they will sync again, much like WebOS and Android and you should be all set.

And that's it! You can use Google Calender as well (which I do) and it works the same way with contacts. I've been using Google Sync since I owned a Blackberry Curve and I haven't found a downside to it yet. To those that own a blackberry there is actually an easy way to export your contacts from your phone to an .xls (excel) file that then can be imported into Gmail. Not only is the ability to never have to ask your friends for their number again a great help, but the fact you can access your information from virtually any computer and all modern smart phones use this service makes updating and changing phones a snap. I also included the quick run-down video created by Google that may be able to answer any remaining questions.

If you have any further questions please feel free to reach out to me via E-Mail or in the comments. If you have made the switch to Google Sync let me know what you think.

Apple Passes Microsoft to Become Second-Largest U.S. Company by Market Capitalization

2010-05-26T13:35:00.004-04:00

In the less-than-three months since Apple first passed Wal-Mart to hold the third highest market capitalization among U.S. companies, Apple's stock price has continued to increase while second-place Microsoft has seen its shares drift downward. The combination of events has quickly closed the gap between the two companies, and today Apple finally surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization for the first time, although second-by-second fluctuations currently see the two companies frequently swapping positions.

Market capitalization is a popular metric for assessing the size of a company as a representation of the investing public's notion of the company's worth. The figure is derived by simply multiplying the number of outstanding shares of the company's stock by the share price.

In the case of Apple, slightly over 900 million shares outstanding times over $250 per share yields a market capitalization of about $228 billion. Microsoft, meanwhile, has a share price of only slightly over $26.00 but over 8.75 billion shares outstanding, giving it a nearly equal market capitalization to Apple.

With Apple and Microsoft now neck-and-neck, only Exxon Mobil's $282 billion market capitalization remains significantly ahead of Apple's among U.S. companies. Exxon Mobil's shares have dropped significantly over the past month, bringing its market capitalization down from a high of over $325 billion.

SOURCE: Macrumors.com

So what does this mean? Nothing really. For most of us we should not worry or care about it, but investors will take note. When I read this article I wanted to put some thoughts down on where Microsoft stands now. It’s not really an open letter, but just some things I’ve been thinking about.

If Microsoft continues going in the direction they are going in, they will be left in the dusty by Google and Apple unless they start looking and succeeding in new markets. Yes, Windows will for the foreseeable future always provide Microsoft with money and their Xbox part of their Entertainment division is profitable…but their Windows Phone has been on a decline so they need to slam Windows Phone 7 out of the park. And it looks good so far, but still not much is known about it.

They have been pushing Bing like crazy and it did gain ground (at the expense of Yahoo!) but thye need to keep up with Google and make sure Apple doesn’t pass them in the advertising department with their recently announced iAd.

Next they NEED to offer a very cheap, or hell, free OS for low powered devices other than Windows 7 Starter Edition. They are losing TONS of opportunities the more Android Tablets are announced. Yes, I’m sure windows Phone 7 OS could and will be used in a tablet, but again…they need to hit it out of the park the FIRST time.

This brings me to my next point. Though they are not fans of this its time to think seriously about starting a hardware division within Microsoft. Relying on others to constantly make your products that surround your software A. reduces your creativity and B. makes you one step behind Apple. That’s not to say the hardware they make isn’t good. I like my Zune, but it was made by Toshiba. The ZuneHD however looks great. The Xbox360 looked good in 2005 but it was also introduced with a terrible malfunction that has since been corrected in current Xbox360s.

Microsoft tends to have a lot of great ideas and never do anything
good with them....while Google and Apple actually move forward with
them. At they very least if Microsoft is going to continue being its huge software company it is...it has to at least match everything Google is doing. The issue is, they can't. Google currently offers just about everything to their consumer for free (at the expense of the users privacy). Microsoft could go this route, but so far the money they make on advertising is nowhere near the level of Google's so giving away products for free is tough.

Google has their Google Docs which most casual users can use just fine instead of paying $100 for Microsoft Office. Microsoft recognized this and at least is going to soon be offering a free online version of Office and they need to do more things of this nature.

What needs to stop happening is then umber of failed/canceled projects. Everyone LOVED what they were seeing with the Microsoft Courier. Then out of nowhere, they cancel the project. Robbie Bach, the now ex-Microsoft employee stated he believes technology showed off with Courier will make it into another project one day...and I want to believe him but if I'm going off on Microsoft's track record...I can't. What about Windows Surface? They have only sold these innovative devices to stores and casino's. When I saw a demo of this I pictured having one of these in my living room as my coffee table...but that dream is all but gone.

To wrap this up, I'm a big fan of Windows 7, big fan of Xbox 360 and even looking forward to Natal. But to see the lack of innovation in other areas of computing or simply not even promoting or marketing the few innovative products (have you readers ever heard of Microsoft Photosynth?) are getting old Microsoft. You have the money, you have the marketing dollars you have some great software...stop letting the competition just make you look silly. I wish you luck with Windows Phone 7 (again, it looks superb) and hopefully that Courier does make it out one day.

On the tail end of that, congrats Apple, the iDevices really were a money pit for you. I'd like to see more innovation however and less stress on ease of us. We get it, the iPhone was the easiest phone to use....in 2007. The competition caught up, lets see you leap frog again as you've been playing catch up on features since (copy and paste, Video, multi-tasking etc).

Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G on June 4 for $199

2010-05-12T19:22:00.005-04:00

Everyone's favorite WiMAX-powered Android device finally has a date and a price, and you don't have terribly long to wait: June 4 is the date that you'll want to be lining up outside your local Sprint store for an EVO 4G, $199 in hand (assuming you're signing up for a new contract, of course -- according to the fine print, the full cost is $450 before all discounts). Interestingly, Sprint has specifically called out that you'll be able to video chat (remember, the EVO 4G has a front-facing cam) over both 3G and 4G using Qik -- not a bad choice, considering the company's well-established expertise with streaming live video out of handsets.

Unfortunately, there's a downside to all this: customers will be paying a mandatory (as confirmed to us by Sprint reps) $10 per month "Premium Data add-on" on top of their plan -- ostensibly for the privilege of enjoying WiMAX when they're in a Sprint 4G market -- and the 8-device WiFi hotspot feature runs an extra $29.99 a month, which Sprint is quick to point out is half what you'd pay for a dedicated mobile broadband account. As we saw at CTIA, the phone is the first to offer on-phone YouTube high quality video, a feature that automatically kicks in when you're in the sweet confines of a WiMAX tower. Oh, and check this out: Sprint was hesitant to commit to offering simultaneous voice and data before, but HTC must've worked out the kinks, because it's all systems go -- you'll be able to yap and browse on 4G at the same time.

Source: Engadget.com

Barnes and Noble to annouce E-Reader soon?

2009-10-14T11:37:00.003-04:00

So it looks like.

Amazon hit a new market when they annouced the Kindle a year ago, but it appears that other companies are trying to jump into this market. We have already seen a few Sony E-readers hit the market as well as cheaper, less powerful ebooks as well. Not to be left out of the cold Barnes & Nobles have been rumored to be making an E-reader for the past few months but it looks like on October 20th, we may get some official information on this when they hold an event they just recently annouced.

Below is the supposed mock ups on this reader.

Something to note, it looks like the reader will still be using B&W e-Ink but also will have a multi-touch LCD at the bottom for more graphic intensive purposes.

I'll keep you posted come the 20th.

Palm Pre Application Walk-through

2009-08-04T14:26:00.001-04:00

Here is a quick walk through of some features of the Palm Pre:

At long last....The Palm Pre Unboxing

2009-08-04T08:09:00.004-04:00

I apologize in advance....I had a bit of a snafu with my capture equipment for the Windows 7 demo I was doing to do. But I did get my hands on a Palm Pre and I have a few videos coming.

Here is my unboxing of the Pre....I apologize for the focus getting wonky but it shouldn't be too bad.

Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) walk through coming shortly

2009-04-22T12:34:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. I'm working on a walk through of the Windows 7 Beta that i'll hopefully have up within the next week.

I'm going to lead with a general over view than make additional videos highlighting different aspects of it.

Stay tuned.

Palm Stakes it's Future with WebOS

2009-03-12T13:43:00.008-04:00

As some of you have probably heard by now, The Palm Pre is being hailed as the "new hotness" across the mobile world. This is exactly the reaction Palm (and Sprint to a degree) needed to remain a competitor in the cell phone market.

For the unaware, Palm's stock have been in the garbage and talk about their new operating system was just that...talk. After many years of waiting they unleashed their new OS at CES this year to great impression.
Now that sometime has passed I thought I could better address my personal opinions on the Palm Pre and WebOS but first a quick rundown to update people on the Palm Pre:

The Palm Pre, which is set to be released "in the first half of '09, follows the trend set forth by the iPhone: Large touch screen with a intuitive user interface. While we have seen a few companies go after the iPhone market, many have failed to garner the same attention that Apple received when they announced the iPhone. This has now changed.

The Palm Pre is built off a new Operating System developed by Palm called WebOS. It gets its name because of a few reasons. The platform (which is a Linux core) relies heavily on what palm calls Synergy. They have partnered with companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon to bring the internet to your phone without you even noticing.

For instance: During their press conference they announced that your contact list could be completely downloaded from Facebook (and the phone would smartly combine any duplicate information) but not only that, if your friend changed his/her profile picture, the new picture would be represented on your phone as well. It's this kind of "synergy" that Palm hopes will separate their product from Apple's.

The other reason Palm went with the name WebOS is the fact that any application built for the phone has to be programmed with web standards such as HTML and Javascript. While this is more than capable for most applications, there are some concerns how well this will work in terms of gaming and more intensive applications.

The Pre itself in my opinion looks great. Its a pebble shape with a slider form factor. That's right, the Pre has a slide out physical keyboard. The Pre retains the classic Palm Mute/Ringer switch as well as a power button and usb port for charging. I'll post additional pictures after this article.

So far the Palm Pre looks like it could be a real winner. The term "iPhone Killer" is getting old in my opinion but this phone certainly looks to have the same "ease of use" feeling of the iPhone with the workhorse abilities of a Windows Mobile device.

Keep checking in and as soon as I get a chance to use it I will give further impressions.

Until next time.

Microsoft Zune 80 Review

2008-08-04T11:34:00.006-04:00

When Microsoft came onto the MP3 scene with their original Zune over a year ago, many scoofed at the idea. Microsoft, corporate suits, boring Windows....they can't be cool.

But to some people's surpries, it was a decent mp3 player. Didn't beat out the ipod but it was an additional option in the marketplace.

Fastforward a year later and I guess the original Zune sold well enough to warrant a second incarnation and Microsoft wasted no time making improvements. They completely overhauled the UI (user-interface) that seperates it completely from any mp3 player on the market. The great part is they provided this update for the original Zune as well as to not leave their original userbase out in the cold (something Apple could learn.)

But lets get into the meat of it:

Design:
The Zune 80 is a pretty good size. Its slightly bigger than the iPod classic but still very pocktable. Compared to the original Zune, the Zune 80 is 3.6 millimeters thinner and 31 grams lighter. It also has a slightly larger screen (3.2 inches instead of 3) and higher battery life (up to 30 hours for music, versus up to 14).The majority of the front is taken up by the huge screen with the bottom reserved for the three button setup. The Zune 80 now includes a touch pad that is capacitive and only reacts to human contact similar to the iPod scroll wheel. It works well and is documented in my video review. The Zune comes in 3 flavors, Zune 4, Zune 8 and Zune 80...each representing the amount of memory in the Zune.

UI:
Great as well. Everything is logically put together and you should have no problem adjusting to it. The ability to use your pictures as a background are a plus as well.

File Formats:
The Zune is a great music,video and picture player. It also can read many formats to keep you covered. Here are the file formats it supports:

Windows Media® Audio Standard[3] (WMA) (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps; constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) up to 48-kHz sample rate. WMA Pro 2-channel up to 384 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz

WMA Lossless

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov) - .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz

MP3 (.mp3) – Up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz

Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync

MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video[4] – Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync

H.264 video[4] – Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync

DVR-MS[5] – Zune software will transcode at time of sync

It supports jpeg files for pictures as well.

Features:
Wifi for file sharing and wireless syncing.
FM Radio.
Video Out.

Software:
The software can be downloaded on www.zune.net. The original software for the Zune was a reskinned version of Windows Media Player (in my opinion a very sloppy/clumpy way to organize your music.) However the new software is made from the ground up, and once you place it on your computer you will be able to tell. It looks like something created by a bunch of hipsters as opposed to Microsoft. iTunes, which looks like a musical spread sheet is more Microsoft orienated. With that said, once you become accustomed to the software you will find it very good. You have many of the options you find on iTunes including playlist, auto playlist, Music store etc. But the Zune software also includes an area for your "friends" you can have in the Zune social.

Conclusion:
If you have been searching for a media player other than an iPod Classic, take a good look at the Zune. Its a great player and a wothy competitor to the iPod. Though some may still feel some restrictions as opposed to the more open Media players currently on the market. Below please find a video review of the Zune 80.

First impressions of the Samsung Instinct

2008-06-24T13:39:00.004-04:00

I was lucky enough today to check out the Samsung Instinct over at the Samsung Experience Store at Columbus Circle. To those who are not too familiar, the Instinct is Sprint's new flagship phone. Much of the press (and even some of Samsung's marketing) have been dubbing this phone an "iPhone Killer." While I won't comment on that speculation until I have the phone to review I must say with the brief time I spent with the phone I was impressed.

Like the iPhone, the Instinct is mostly controlled through the use of its haptic touch screen. Haptic is force feedback felt when a "button" is pressed on the touch screen. The Instinct emits a small buzz so you know when you touched something. This really does add to the expeirence of a touch screen phone. Dimensions wise, it is a bit taller than the iPhone but a bit thinner and a slightly smaller screen size (3.5" vs. 3.2"). Some notable features of this phone are the fact it has built in GPS, a full function web browser that works similar to the iPhones' with a zoom in/zoom out feature as well as a media player built in. I did not get to try out these features as the phone was not connected to Sprint's network but given other online previews it seems these all work as advertised.

From my brief time with the phone I can tell you the screen is clear and beautiful, the on screen keyboard is comfortable and the camera is solid. Going through pictures in your album is very similar to the iPhone as you use your finger to slide over to the next picture.

All and all, I was very impressed with the Instinct and I can't wait to give a full review on the phone.

Stay tuned.

I'll kick this off with an oldie, but a goodie.

2008-06-19T16:31:00.001-04:00

Hey there readers.

Welcome to my new Tech Blog! I figured I loved technology so much and spend enough time reading and playing with it I'd make a blog.

Here you will find great posts on product previews/reviews and information and news. I also want to relate to you, the readers so any questions or request please send them my way and I'll do my best to accommodate them.

So for my first post, here is my in depth review on the Pioneer Avic-D3 in dash Navigation system.

I look forward to your comments.