tampa tech solutions

For the uninitiated, "Fanboys" are all the rage now-a-days. Perpetuated by the irrational love of certain genres and even brands of technology ... they are much like rabid sports fans. Being from Philadelphia, I can equate the Fanboys' love of gadgets and tech to Eagles fans' undying love and devotion to their team. They're die-hard, take no prisoners, tattoo-on-their-arm kind of fans. You can find them on all sides of the latest tech debates - and they're hilarious.
 
Their debates have nothing to do with rational discourse and everything to do with their "team" winning. I think we all are guilty of this in some degree, shape or form. Fanboys take it to new heights and horizons, though. Some of the worst offenders are the participants of the smartphone wars - particularly the Apple iPhone vs. the Android Killer-Phone-of-the-Month.

One of the more frequent questions I hear come up in my discussions with Social Media virgins is the issue of commenting. People rightfully want to protect their business and their brand at any cost, but when is the cost too great?
 
How much abuse should you take? When is the customer wrong? How far should you go to make people happy? Is it worth all the headache to stay on top of these social networks?
 
We'll explore the top two social platforms here, but much of this can and does apply to social networking in general: blog posts, FourSquare, Flickr and more.

And here it is. The iPhone4 on Verizon in the flesh. This is a day that people have bantered about for literally years. The only thing that could make techies and gadget-a-holics more giddy would be if they had announced an LTE iPhone4.
 
As a little history, it was revealed in a court case some years back in California that the AT&T exclusive was a 5 year exclusive, leaving everyone hanging until 2012. This public document became the bible when people spoke about a Verizon iPhone. Many people, myself included, doubted a 2011 launch of an iPhone4 for this very reason, but lately the rumors became so solid that the Wall Street Journal flat out said the 1.11.11 event was absolutely, without a doubt, for the VZW iPhone. With the day finally here and all the details fleshed out, WSJ has proven, yet again, that they have a VERY solid inside source at Apple HQ who is giving them real, current information.

Tablets used to be "convertable" laptops, where the screen would swivel around and fold on top of the keyboard for one handed (one-armed) computing - usually with a stylus as the screen didn't support finger touches. They were heavy, bulky and really not very convenient since you had to use some version of Windows or Linux that was certainly not touchscreen-friendly.

Apple, in my estimation, really did to what they intended to ... they created a whole new category of electronics. Sure, the iPad's fate is still in question, but let's assume my other prediction (iPad dominance) is correct and Apple ships 2M iPad's at US Holiday time alone.  Then, you can certainly assume that Apple created a market segment for itself, but in order to create a category, others must succeed.

The Spring 2010 LocalShops1.com magazine is out! Ester Venouziou, the creator of LocalShops1 (@localshops1com on Twitter) accepted my idea of writing a tech-centric article and here it is!
 
Ironically, since I crafted this article, it was announced that the Nexus One will be coming to Sprint too, making the phone available on ALL FOUR major carriers in the US.  This gives Google a leg up on overall potential market share and could make for an even MORE serious competitor for the iPhone. 
 
Anyway, read the article by clicking the thumbnail and, by all means ... SUPPORT LOCAL SMALL BUSINESSES!
 
LocalShops1 Magazine's can be found over at issuu.com.

In the late January to early February timeframe I was contacted by Lisa Stephens with the Westchase WOW (a local, Westchase-only association magazine) to schedule an interview.  She'd heard of the Westchase Area Business Association recently and wanted to get to know more about me and how I came to create WABA.
 
Well, this article is the result of that interview.  It's really focused on me as much as WABA which was a little unexpected.  I'd like to thank Lisa for taking time and writing an excellent article that I'm proud to post.
 
Click 'read more' to see a legible copy.

  The other day I was browsing TED as I often do and just when I thought I had consumed everything that was consumable, I come across Daniel Pink. His bio, while interesting, didn't really give a hint to the brilliance of what I was going to see. So I click through to his "Surprising Science of Motivation" speech. I mean, who wouldn't be interested to hear any science that can increase my - or anyone's - motivation.
 
For the next almost 19 minutes, I'm marvelling at his striking resemblance to Danny Tanner, but still managing to hang on every word.  Dan is both engaging and funny, but not nearly as engaging nor funny as he is passionate.  You can tell that he has poured over books, articles and every other medium in order to come to the most specific, provable science.  The focus of the speech is Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.  Unfortunately he only has enough time to go through Autonomy, but the evidence he was able to get to in a short speech was convincing and eye-opening.

This week, Google released it's newest application (or is it a feature?) called Buzz. The  Twitter-verse has been all a-buzz (sorry, I can't help it) about #buzz since it was announced.  My initial thoughts can best be summed up by Joshua Topolsky of Engadget fame:
  

I finally have a way to stay connected to my friends and update them on my status!

 I found myself on #phpbb over at irc.freenode.net and was greeted by Leviatan21 who immediately wanted to help me.
 
You see, I'm responsible for a local Poker forum (www.angryjacks.com/forums) and in order to make a cool experience, I decided to use "smilies" that look like playing cards.  This way you can post a hand online and see a graphical representation of the hand instead of just reading "2h" for the 2 of hearts.
 

When the iPad splashed onto the rumor scene, the date was November 18th 2002.  In that month there was an article in eWeek by Matthew Rothenberg that speculated on an Apple tablet.  Of course his leaked info wound up being WAY off compared to what we see today as the iPad.  After that, it seems there wasn't much mention of it but once a year until April 2009.  From then on the rumor was white hot and the rumor mill was working overtime with many claims ... many that wound up being right.
At first, my excitement was hard to contain.  I was glued to the coverage of Apple's latest event, because the rumors had promised some serious excitement.  We were talking about a front facing camera, some multitasking goodness, and other tech geek goodies.  Then the announcement.  Everyone was waiting with baited breath for a Verzon partnership, iPhoneOS 4.0, and a real game changing device.  None of that ever came.