Oddities aside I opened up the box, traded the SIM cards out and turned on the phone. Had I been standing I would have been knocked down. The super AMOLED (Active-Matrix organic light emitting diode) display was other worldly. You might think “Well of course, the display of your iPhone 3 was cartoonish” but I reply “No, my bosses have been using the iPhone 4 for weeks” and my comparison is based on the iPhone 4. Super AMOLED technology is similar to the fancy new super thin LED TVs that are all the rage in the market right now. The kinship is obvious. When Verizon releases their version this September, named Fascinate, the memory chip comes pre-loaded with Avatar so that you can be immediately introduced to the AMOLED’s awesomeness. It is hard to describe in words, in short, you have to see it to believe it.

Maybe examples are appropriate. Super AMOLED displays have no backlight. The pixels (I will explain that later) themselves emit the necessary light for the eye to see. On the red eye between Denver and Washington DC I took a couple of weeks ago, I had to hide the display with a blanket so as not to disturb the other passengers. My apple-head bosses, who stood in line for both the iPad (3G and non-3G) and iPhone 4 said nothing when they played with the device. I could tell they were impressed because instead of instantaneously putting the Samsung down and saying “Look what my iPhone 4 can do” they played with the device for 30 minutes before I had to tear it out of their hands, leaving them to the “retina display” on their iPhone 4.

When geeks like myself talk about resolution, we have a specific concept in mind. In light microscopy, resolution is defined as the ability to differentiate between two separate objects. Think about zooming into a picture on your computer, at some point the photo blurs. On screens what we are seeing is pixels, or very tiny dots that form the shapes we see on the screen. The higher the pixel density (Measured in dots-per-inch or DPI) the higher resolution. The iPhone 4 actually has a higher resolution than the Samsung super AMOLED. The iPhone 4 display is extremely sharp, but the shapes appear smaller and more confusing than on the Samsung super AMOLED. Resolution has nothing to do with the ability of the eye to easily recognize two separate objects. This is where the super AMOLED shines, the shapes are not only sharp, but they are relaxing to look at. The iPhone 4 causes my eyes to focus hard to read the screen. Over the long run I would prefer to look at the super AMOLED day in and and day out.

Thats not to say the Samsung is perfect. The GPS on early models (including mine) is defective and we are waiting for a software update to correct the problem. The 5 mega pixel camera underexposes and does not have a flash. This is unacceptable when its main competitor, the iPhone 4, has a flash and forward facing web cam.

I will, soon, have to hand my beautiful phone back in. In a later post I will explain why, but we are ditching ATT for Verizon and since ATT and Verizon use different chipsets, we will be getting all new phones. Luckily for me, the Samsung Fascinate will be available soon, leaving me no doubt about the phone I will have.

When shopping for a laptop, $1000 is the magic number. Last week I was given a hard limit budget of $1000 for a new laptop. I went to my favorite reseller’s website and found the best laptop (by model number) I could find. The price was about $929 for a HP Elitebook 8440p. I ordered a $70 memory upgrade which busted the budget by a few dollars. Most people could live without that upgrade. I barely looked at the specs of the laptop and when it arrived I was floored.

The elitebook is a 14 inch laptop, that size screen is just big enough to be looked at but small enough that the laptop is not a honking piece industrial hardware. Have you ever tried to travel with a laptop that has a 17″ screen? The screen has a webcam built in, I never us it, but frequent ‘cammers or video conferencers will appreciate it. The bezel is a smooth brushed aluminum which reminds me of the $2,400 MacBook Pro. HP has improved its keyboards. The new ones have raised typing surfaced which makes it nearly impossible to strike two keys at once and provide decent tactile feedback. Mine does not have a 10-key but the larger screen versions do. The 14.1″ inch screen has a maximum resolution of   1366 by 768, which is not bad from the base level video card. You can spend more for a higher resolution card, but you don’t need it.

This laptop comes with all the things you expect. I was surprised to find an external SATA port. Few people will ever use that, but those who do will appreciate it. It comes standard with 2 gigabytes of RAM, which is less than you want, the upgrade is only $50 to $70. The true star in this laptop is the Core i5 mobile processor. It runs at a respectable 2.4 GHz with 2 cores. This processor includes Intel’s hyper-threading technology. This should mean nothing to you except that it allows the processor to have double capacity. Windows 7 thinks this computer has 4 processors, even though its a dual core processor. The result is an interface that has zero waiting time. Even with too little RAM you are never left waiting for your computer. This is an area people tend to go cheap to save money. The i3 is a fine processor, but the i5 will deliver much better for a lot longer.

As far as software is concerned, it is not worth using the XP “downgrade” option. Windows 7 is far better in every respect and pretty much every PC software manufacturer has made sure its products are compatible. Don’t spend money on anti-virus, get Microsoft’s free “Security Essentials” software found here. Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 (2010 if its available) is everything you need. If you actually use MS Access you need to get the pro version. This may push your budget over $1000. Skip it and install later if your budget is inflexible. You may want to get the three year 24/7 support, but that will run you. Consider this carefully. Most of the time you will never use this service. IT departments buy it because it eases hardware replacement logistics by a wide margin.

This budget laptop will get you pretty far down the road. The manufacturer does not matter, a similar Dell is within $50 of my rig. Consider the more expensive alternatives. The i7 processor has more cores but its slower. Most applications you run will not be able to use 8 cores anyway, so you are better off with the i5. Memory is easily upgradeable after the sale and often at a lower price. You could get the higher quality video card, but you will only notice an improvement if you must have HDMI output or if you are using a program like AutoCAD. The base card has great resolution.

Larger screens make the computer more bulky. Mobile 10-keys make the keyboard even more cramped. Get an LCD monitor for $90 and an external 10-key for $10. For $100 you get much better parts for a fraction of the cost. You get the added benefit of being able to use 2 monitors which gives you a lot of screen real-estate.

Do you have a budget computer that exceeded your expectations? Tell us about it in the comments section.

The Galaxy S was first released in the UK and the only comprehensive review I could find is based on the UK version. In March Samsung stated they would be selling the Galaxy S in the United States starting in summer of 2010, which is now. It seems that the Galazy is one of the newer “super” droids like the HTC Incredible (or 4G on Sprint) and Motorola X which have sold by the boatload since their introduction and are generally considered iPhone contenders.

Would you switch to the Android platform from the iPhone if it were free?

*UPDATE*

This phone is available on the US ATT network under the name Samsung Captivate. It is slightly different than the European models, most notably it lacks a forward looking web-cam. The price is quite good at USD 199 with a contract, USD 499 without a contract. Details here.

What can we expect from a Windows 7 phone? Pick up a Zune HD (you can find them mixed up with iPod’s at Best Buy) and have a look. The interface is beyond simple; Microsoft has started to go the way of Audi with a “less is more” concept in their interface. It remains to be seen whether or not this will catch on, but so far it looks very promising.

Our friends at Gizmodo, the blogging site famous for its pre-release iPhone 4 flap, got its hands on a Windows seven phone in beta. You can read about it here and here.

New Online Word

Microsoft has finally released Microsoft Office 2010 to the public this past week, which represents an incremental improvement to Redmond’s iconic business software. As I reviewed about a month ago, I found Outlook 2010 to be fantastic, and so far nothing has changed my opinion. Microsoft released an online version of Office 2010 in two flavors. One, which most people will ignore, is a version that can be run on the inside of a company’s intranet, sort of like bringing the “cloud” indoors. The other, which is where most of the press has been, is on the free online versions of Word, Powerpoint, OneNote (if you use OneNote please comment), and Excel. Microsoft is challenging Google docs at their own game.

Online Power Point

Google docs has been far less of a boon than all the techies predicted it would be. When it was released, you could hardly find a blog that did not predict the end of MS Office dominance in the business and education sectors. If you have been around long enough, it smelled a lot like all the predictions of a Linux desktop operating system taking over the home PC market…these ideas never came to fruition. Not with a practical Linux desktop nor a free online office-like program.

Excel Online

Why has google docs been a failure, and why is Microsoft bothering to challenge a failed idea? To put it bluntly, google docs is not very good. Its a bit difficult to navigate, the UI is uninspiring, and every time I want to edit a document that was not generated by me, I have to wait for the Google computers to convert it into a format Google can edit. What a pain! Additionally, there is a very good free office program called Open Office which will run on your PC and cut out the “cloud” middle man. If I had a zero dollar budget for an office progam, I would use Open Office and Windows 7 Mail. I would even still use Gmail to handle corporate email, using IMAP to synchronize my gmail to Windows Mail.

Google Word Processor

So whats the appeal of any online office program? Microsoft and Google may be ahead of my curmudgeoning ways. The appeal is probably to the education sector, where an Administrator could quickly release hundreds of low cost laptops with very low software overhead; having students use the “cloud” of online office and online storage. With fewer programs running on the computers themselves, the supportability becomes much easier. A student could simply trade in a defective one for a working one and be up and running in a matter of minutes.  

Google Spreadsheet

This fictional school administrator has two choices, Google Docs and Microsoft Office 2010 online. I dislike both of them because they are both a bit slow, with Microsoft edging over Google in the navigation department. As far as which one you should use; I can’t tell you. Microsoft will deliver a very familiar interface and is compatible with all Microsoft documents, including the 2007 “docx” standard. I am hard pressed to find a task Google will do better; for some though, not using a Microsoft product is reason enough.

Eleven in the morning and already bustling

I have to admit that having heard the news that Microsoft was opening a retail store in the Park Meadows mall, I was more than a bit skeptical that this might end up another Microsoft “Bob” moment. First, lets understand some key elements of where the Redmond software giant’s business is right now. It’s stock price is lower than both Apple and Googles’, over the last several quarters it has lacked the media blitz frenzy that has surrounded the release of the iPad and iPhone 4, as well as competing phones by Motorola and HTC running Google’s Droid software; which is now on version 2.2. With little to no fanfare, Microsoft has released Windows 7, Exchange Server 2010, Office 2010, Sharepoint 2010, and Microsoft Server 2008 R2; all of which were critically regarded very well. In the first quarter of 2010, Windows PC sales outpaced sales in the first quarter 0f 2009 by a whopping 27%. Keep in mind in the first quarter of 2009 PC sales were fairly strong for recession economics and outsold its only competitor, Apple, by a very wide margin.

Why then, is Microsoft’s share price lower than it’s two main rivals? Microsoft is beginning to think that selling its Windows 7 software through a major manufacturer like Dell or HP, or a big box store like Best Buy, removes a personal element that Apple Store customers enjoy. I think they have a point. Microsoft is kind of like a cloud that hangs over Dell and HP, they don’t actually make computers, unless you count the XBox game console. If you want personal service, you often have to go to your local PC repair depot, or drop your PC off at the geek squad where before they even look at your computer, they will (annoyingly) try to sell a support contract or extended warranty or whatever. Wondering how this would take shape with a Microsoft flare, I got in my car and drove down to the Park Meadows mall to have a look for myself.

First of all; before the Apple fanboys begin to complain, Microsoft has totally ripped off the Apple store from the Answer Desk (Genius Bar) to the under 25 hipsters waiting to answer any question that comes their way. They ripped it off properly. The Microsoft Store is large and spacious, plenty of room to move about with lots of eye candy on display for sampling. I found Dell’s answer to the Mac Book Air; which has been on the market for over a year but has not gotten any press:

Traffic was high today. Unlike the Apple Store, even though it was crowded it was not claustrophobic; the store is at least double the size of an average Apple Store. Including PCs and laptops, they had Windows Mobile phones by HTC, XBoxes, hundreds of accessories, software, game titles, and Windows 7 Kiosks showing off Microsoft 7′s multi-touch capability. If you are waiting for this, don’t call Redmond. We are waiting for Samsung or someone else to make a monitor capable of multi-touch.

MS's version of the "Genius Bar"

Why would you buy a computer here instead of Best Buy or directly from Dell or HP? I spoke with one of the answer desk guys and they told me that unlike those retailers, when you buy a PC here, an answer desk tech will go through with you exactly what you want on the computer. Pretty much any software title is available (of course you have to buy it!) for you to chose from. Bring your old PC in for them to migrate. Once they get all this information they will install a fresh copy of Windows for you, install your purchased software, and migrate your data from your old PC. You don’t have to worry about silly Dell or HP software, or a 60 day trial of Norton; they will only install what you tell them too. Not a service I would take advantage of, but I would send my mother there.

The ultimate question is, will this work? I have no idea, I think that Microsoft is wise to try new strategies to remain relevant. However, I think that they would be just as well to reinvent microsoft.com to make it quick and painless to purchase and install software. They could also try selling Dell’s and HP’s through microsoft.com. One of my principle complaints about the Apple Store is that when something went wrong (and they do), you had to go to the Apple store. I don’t have time for this, ship me the part and an instruction sheet and I will forget that the thing broke. In all seriousness it seems like this is a plea from the dozens of manufacturers who rely on Microsoft as their platform. In the Apple Store all you get is Apple. You might as well subtitle “Microsoft Store” with “Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Sony, HTC, and Samsung too”.

Bottom line, I will still do my shopping online. Although, I may pop in from time to time to check something out before I decide to purchase something, and in that case I will by probably buy said product from the Microsoft Store. This is exactly the behavior PC makers are trying to capture.

Unless you are an uber-geek (like me) you probably have no idea about Bill Gate’s famed letter to hobbyists, or how he sold IBM “licenses” to use DOS instead of selling IBM DOS itself. Confused yet? I don’t blame you. Having sat in front of astounded customers and had to explain that they had to pay not just for the “seed” (per processor, of course) of Oracle financials, but also a per user license, which was often north of $100K, I have developed some insight into the lack of understanding between the IT world and the regular world.

Most people think of buying software as going to your local electronics store and picking up a copy of Photoshop or Word, coming home and loading it onto their computer and that is the end of the story. What is actually happening is that you are paying for the physical medium (the CD or disk) and the right to use the software. If you take the copy of Photoshop and make it available to your friends to install, that is technically not out of compliance, since you bought the media. However, they don’t have the right to use the software since they did pay for it. Built into Photoshop is a function that will prevent you from using an unlicensed copy of itself for more than 30 days.

In a corporate environment a developer will often charge a “seed” fee, or an installation that can support a total of one person at a time at any given time. Oracle, my favorite example, makes money because it has a rock solid accounting software which can be accessed by multiple people. In their mind, the ability to have more than one person work in the software at the same time is worth money, and they see no reason why they should not charge for that. This is where we get a per user license fee. Not only do you need the “seed” of Oracle, you need to make sure all the people in your accounting department can use Oracle at the same time. In total, you will have to pay for the software plus 10 licenses.

If this seems like a lot of ways to nickle and dime you, consider the following: behind the scenes at Oracle are fifty to sixty talented programmers (MIT, CalTech, etc) who spend 3-4 years developing the software version you are using. Once they have completed that version, those same programmers remain on the project developing security patches and incremental improvements for that version of the software for as long the version is active. That is roughly the amount of work that it takes to produce a reliable (reliable defined as having an up-time of 99%) which a company can confidently use for 5-6 years as a primary platform for commerce. Quickly you realize that the $100k software platform earned your company many times that in efficiency, increased capacity, and lowered labor costs.

The MR11 delivers the high throughput and advanced features required by the most demanding business applications, such as voice and streaming video. This high performance is delivered through a dual-band 802.11n radio that utilizes advanced radio techniques such as beam forming, multiple ratio combining, and expanded channel widths. In addition, MIMO technology provides more consistent coverage throughout corporate environments.

Rapid, Simple and Flexible Deployment Anywhere You Need Coverage
Sleek design allows MR11 to be installed even in highly visible locations. A simple, intuitive and flexible mounting system allows secure installation in minutes on walls and ceilings without the need for expensive technicians. MR11 is UL 2043 compliant, and can be mounted in plenum spaces in compliance with the strictest building codes. MR11 also features Meraki’s award-winning, self-healing mesh technology, which can further reduce installation time by enabling rapid extension of your network into areas where laying Ethernet or fiber cabling would be impractical.

Ease of Management with Limited IT Resources
Paired with Meraki Cloud Controller, MR11 receives automatic, over-the-air firmware upgrades, hosted branding and simplified authentication. The Cloud Controller also runs network-wide optimizations and frequency-planning to maximize capacity and throughput. With a global view of network health, the Cloud Controller automatically balances capacity to maximize client throughput across the network.

The Metric that Matters: ROI
Meraki’s hosted architecture eliminates the need for expensive controller hardware and software, substantially reducing upfront capital expenditures. In addition, for areas where installing Ethernet or fiber cabling is cost-prohibitive, Meraki’s mesh technology enables reduced upfront wiring costs. MR11’s low, fully 802.3af-compliant power consumption means not having to pay to upgrade your switches. Most important, Meraki simplifies the network design process, making installation fast and easy and makes even the largest networks easy for a single person to manage from any web browser, reducing the need for expenditures on IT staff and consultants.

FORETHOUGHT.net, a leading provider of internet, voice and data services, and StoneTree Networks, have signed an Agent Agreement effective immediately.

This agreement will allow Stonetree Networks to sell FORETHOUGHT.net’s products and services to businesses across the metro area. “Stonetree’s partnership with FORETHOUGHT.net is the perfect marriage of expertise and technology that I’m certain will deliver our clients the competitive edge they’ll need for many years to come,”says Dan Mullen, CEO and President of Stonetree.

Sean Ellis, Vice President of FORETHOUGHT.net agrees. “I’m excited to be working with the team at Stonetree Networks. They have high standards, ethics and are driven to succeed.”

Who is FORETHOUGHT.net?
Since 1995, FORETHOUGHT.net (http://FORETHOUGHT.net) has grown into one of Denver’s largest and most recognized reliable internet, voice and data providers, utilizing its own data loops on its own network, guaranteeing bandwidth speeds and quality–without the cost of products offered by a major carrier. The mission of FORETHOUGHT.net is to simplify communications and remove the headaches around last-century phone and Internet services.

FORETHOUGHT.net is recognized by the Denver Business Journal as a Top 15 telecommunications company and Top 15 Internet Service Provider; and recognized by ColoradoBIZ Magazine as one of Colorado’s Top 250 private companies. For additional information on services, please call 303.815.1000.

About Stonetree Networks
Stonetree Networks provides complete IT solutions for small to medium businesses across the Denver Metro area, specializing in multi-location services and support. Customers include organizations within the medical, hospitality, engineering and legal industries among many others.

Communications Simplified.

I recently purchased the Wyse “Pocket Cloud” iPad app to use for remote controlling our client’s servers… then, I wondered… Could I use the remote session as a jumping point to launch a support session to any/all of our clients…?

Turns out… it works fabulously… if the iPad is doing the controlling… I didn’t spend too much time on using the iPad as the client… every time I attempted that… I ended up getting disconnected… “Controlling” from the iPad, like I said, works great!

Check it out… Click here to watch the video!!