Dell XPS One Impresses Walt Mossberg

In a surprise article today, Walt Mossberg of the WSJ says that he is actually impressed with the new Dell XPS One. Given that Walt in an Apple Fanboy, that is a pretty strong endorsement. Actually, if you need an all-in-one machine that uses Vista, this is the one to get. Mr. Mossberg points out that the hardware is actually much better than the iMac. That said, the biggest downside of the Dell XPS One is Vista. Perhaps SP1, due any day now, will help in this regard.

The best part of the XPS One is that is doesn't look like it was made by Dell!

World's Best Headphones

These must be the best headphones that I have ever seen. Every review of them ranks them as 'the best in the world.' They are from Ultimate Ears. This particular model is called the EU 11 Pro. Each pair is custom made based on a mold of an individuals ears. Even their baby brothers, the triple.fi 10, will blow away any other headphone that you have ever used.

Vista Ranked #1 Tech Disappointment of 2007

PC World named Vista the number one technology disappointment of 2007. It took five years to make and even a year after deployment, it is still giving people trouble. They go on to say that it isn't that Vista is horrible, it just isn't all that good.

Here is the thing, people are clinging to XP. It is faster than Vista. Think about what Microsoft's universe must be like when the fastest Vista laptop in the world is actually an Apple Macbook Pro.

There is no doubt that Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right.

Meanwhile, watch Apple's market share increase to over 10% in 2008.

Ninja Warrior

This is the most amazing sports action TV show on the air right now. There are actually people in Japan that train full-time to compete on Ninja Warrior. Now in its 10th year, the show details athletes maneuvering a four part obstacle course. How hard is this? Only two people have ever successfully completed in course. They are Zazuhiko Akiyama and Makoto Nagano. Mr. Akiyama no longer competes as he has developed a degenerative eye disease. Mr. Nagano, the current top-ranked Ninja Warrior All-Star is arguably the best all around athlete in the world!. The show can be seen daily on G4.

Apple People

Need I say more about Apple people. Justine Ezarik is the girl who started the Apple tattoo craze. A little different from the Zune guy :-)

For those of you that are not familiar with Justine, she is the girl that made a video of the 300 page iPhone bill that she received from AT&T.

Microsoft People

Like many issues, there are always two sides. As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. As such, this demonstration is of Microsoft people vs. Apple people. This guy represents the Microsoft side of things. How strange is he you might ask? He is trying to have his name changed to "Microsoft Zune." Handsome creature isn't he :-)

It's about 'Customer Service' Stupid!

What Apple understands extremely well is customer service. Oddly enough, not one single PC vendor seems to get this. Most PC vendors end the transaction when they sell you a computer. Customer service seems like a foreign concept to them. Customer service has made Apple what it is today! Lest you think this is not true, look at Apple's customer service rating and their recent growth in market share.

The Ultimate Wii

If you are looking for a Wii this holiday season - good luck. The stores have been out of them for some time. The funny thing is, I saw ladies loading up shopping carts full of them a month ago at Costco. I suppose that they are now selling them on eBay for a fortune.

Now, if you really want the 'Ultimate' Wii, you must have this one of a kind Darth Vader Wii. Someone on eBay is asking $15,000 for it. That said, what is cooler than a Darth Vader Wii?

Dell Coming to Best Buy

Dell and Best Buy have reached an agreement to sell Dell computers at Best Buy stores. While the primary reason that Dell is doing this is to try to stave off plummeting market share, they have an opportunity to also address being the company known in the technology industry as having the worst customer service. Were Dell to reach a service agreement with the Geek Squad to provide timely and friendly customer service, Dell might be onto something. Only time will tell.

Apple's West 14th Street Store Opens

Apple's third store in Manhattan opened yesterday. Another beautiful store added to the Apple collection. It is also the largest of the three stores in NYC.

You Will Not Unlock Your iPhone!

The saga of locked and unlocked iPhones continues. In the USA, ever time someone comes up with a hack to unlock the iPhone, Apple pushes a software upgrade to brick the phone.

The iPhone in Europe is different. France sells all iPhones unlocked. It is French law. Germany, on the other hand, sold the iPhone unlocked for two weeks the locked them again.

So what is a consumer to do? Easy, people in Germany are buying their iPhones in France.

XP Twice as Fast as Vista

The Associated Press today released that states that Windows XP is about to get faster and Windows Vista isn't.

Vista SP1, due out in the first quarter of 2008, barely improved the operating system's performance, but XP SP3, scheduled for the first half of 2008, will improve on XP's performance, making it much faster that Vista.

So what is the bottom line? Benjamin Gray, an analyst for Forrester Research, said businesses will upgrade to Vista regardless, to "stay current with Microsoft's support life cycle." The SP1 release of anything from Microsoft is where businesses start to upgrade.

Google to finally release gDisk

Google is finally going to release the long rumored gDisk. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google plans to launch a remote storage service as early as "a few months from now." This would be a great tool limited only by bandwidth.

What Cats Talk About

Do you ever wonder what cats talk about? Here is a great video with two cats talking. This is the funniest thing that I have seen in awhile. Even funnier is the translation.

Dell XPS One Released

You have to hand it to Dell. Making a copy of the Apple iMac and passing it off as anything other than such takes guts. That said, several of the reviews say that it is actually a very nice machine. From what I can tell, it is overpriced compared to the iMac. Even if it were the same price as the iMac, you would have to deal with Dell customer support hell and who needs that aggravation? If you want an all-in-one Vista machine, buy an iMac and install Vista using Boot Camp. Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal feels that the iMac is the best Vista machine available today!.

Star Wars in one photo

This is one of the coolest photos ever. It depicts all of Star Wars in one photo, from left to right. If you are a Star Wars fan, this photo makes perfect sense!

KPMG Photo Contest - I Won !!!!!

I won the KPMG Photo contest with this photo. The funny thing about it is that this one was just for fun and nowhere near as nice as the other photos. I took this in April of 2007 in Jamaica. This bird is eating a hot dog off of a plate. He must have been about 5 feet from me. The weird thing is that is you look closely you can see a lump in the birds throat. The waitress told me that it was a chicken bone that the bird tried to swallow and it got stuck. I have no idea what kind of bird this is but was told that they can eat mice whole.

Ballmer it at it again

What must it be like to live in Steve Ballmer's head? You can't help but like the guy although he does often seem delusional. His latest comment regarding Google's Android announcement is par for the Ballmer-course. Ballmer is quoted as saying about Android, "Their efforts are just some words on paper." When asked if he felt if Android would go anywhere, Ballmer said that the mobile platform market is "Microsoft's World." Remember, back in July of 2007 Mr. Ballmer predicted that the iPhone would be a flop. Today Google traded for $700 a share while Microsoft traded for $35. Good job Steve!

Google Android Announced

Today everyone was expecting Google to announce the Gphone. Google never does anything in a small way. Rather than introduce a single phone, they announced an entire platform called Google Android. Google describes Google Android as "the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices." They go further to describe Google Android as the ideal platform for the Gphone. This is a very real paradigm shift in mobile communications.

It was bound to happen!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. There is a new Mac trojan in the wild. It seems that the default firewall setting in Leopard is off. How stupid is that? If you upgraded to Leopard, go into the security settings and turn the firewall on immediately! Is this the sign of things to come?

Is Vista on a Death Watch?

While the Microsoft fanboys continue to talk about the virtues of Vista, there are many of us that are having a great deal of trouble with it. Keep in mind that Vista was released over a year ago. In fact, most of the power users that I know personally have already moved to OS X. As Microsoft keeps trying to fix Vista, more people are actually moving back to XP when they have an opportunity to do so. John C. Dvorak's article today at PC Magazine puts it best when he says that Microsoft is no longer focused on making good software. They are too busy trying to compete with Google.

The video Microsoft doesn't want you to see

This Vista video is the funniest thing that I have seen in a long time. Yes, this is how it works for most of the people that I talk to about technology.

Macbook Pro - Fastest Laptop for 2007

Today PC World named the Macbook Pro the fastest laptop of 2007. This is even if you load Vista on the Macbook Pro. They compared the Macbook Pro to the best machines on the market including some of my favorites from Voodoo PC. Not only is the Macbook Pro the prettiest laptop on the market, it is now the fastest.

Happy Halloween !

Happy Halloween! I found this photo today. Somebody turned an old Apple Classic into an electronic pumpkin. He even listed instruction as to how to build one. How funny is that?

Leopard is out

Apple 10.5 Leopard was released yesterday and it is amazing! Most of the reviewers love it including Walt Mossberg and David Pogue. The most realistic review of the new OS was done by Paul Thurrott. If you are thinking of making the switch, you owe it to yourself to read it. Food for thought, when as the last time you heard the words love and Microsoft in the same sentence?

My Museum Photo

How cool is this mash-up tool. It takes one of your photos and uploads it to appear as if it is hanging in a museum. This photo is one that I took in Jamaica last year. This museum site is very easy to use. Upload one of your photos and select from four museum layouts. The site does all of the work for you.

Is Steve Ballmer Schizophrenic?

When Steve Ballmer was asked what he thought of Facebook at this year’s Web 2.0 conference, he said:

“There can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years. I think these things are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a … faddish nature about anything that appeals to younger people.”

So what did Mr. Ballmer do today? He took a $240 million equity position in Facebook. Microsoft really doesn’t understand Web 2.0. Did Microsoft just walk into a Google trap? This is going to be fun to watch.

Apple is a market force!

With all of the Apple news lately, it is hard for some to remember that Apple was almost history only 10 years ago. Those that feel that Apple will never be a real market force need to remember that we are in the middle of a paradigm shift. As Paul Thurrott states in one of his lastest blog posts, there is now an entire generation of students that manage their lives on the web. They are not logically or emotionally tied to Microsoft in any way. Furthmore, they do not have the patience to deal with technology problems. This is a potential threat to Microsoft's very existance.

Apple reports record market share

With Leopard coming in just 4 short days, Apple reported record revenue and market share. Apple has experienced 34% growth since the same quarter last year. Apple now has a market share of 8.1% and is third overall in computer sales. Lest we forget, the first two places go to Dell and HP, both companies with horrible customer service. What is contributing to the increase in Apple's market share? Two things as I see it: customer service and Vista. Who knows where this will go but it certainly seems as if Apple is on a roll.

Leopard goes on sale Oct 26th - Wow

Apple's new operating system, OS X - Leopard, will be released on October 26th. Imagine a world where operating systems install without a problem, where the drivers are in place and where everything works the way that it should. That is Leopard. The other great thing about Leopard is that there is one version, not 7 :-)

It is hard to imagine that Vista went RTM one year ago this month. People are still switching back to XP from Vista due to problems. Talk about Wow!

Microsoft XP SP3 on the way

For those of you who are having Vista problems and by that I mean everyone that is using Vista, there is good news. XP SP3 will be available in early 2008. Why is this exciting? XP SP3 will have the enhanced security features of Vista which is the only real reason to switch to Vista in the first place. Now that is WOW

FAA to Ditch Microsoft

The FAA has had so much trouble with Microsoft products that they are considering moving away from all Microsoft products.

In a recent Informationweek interview, FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers and laptops. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. "It's a different sort of computing strategy," he said. "It takes the desktop out of the way so you're running a very thin client. From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages."

This move would also include using Linux as an operating system to replace XP.

We do live in interesting times.

Steve Ballmer - The Dark Lord ?

Many people, myself included, are beginning to believe that Steve Ballmer is crazy and I don't mean a little crazy.

Although Microsoft is considering taking a major position in Facebook, Steve stated recently that “There can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years." He went on to call Facebook a fad. So why bother taking a stake in it?

If the Facebook remarks were not bad enough, he called Google "Big Brother." What is Microsoft's answer to Google. It is called "Windows Live." Haven't heard of it? Don't worry, neither has anyone else. The Windows Live group is loosing approximately $300 million a quarter. Yes, those numbers are correct.

Lest we think Steve does not have a sense of humor, he laughed when asked if he thought that Apple's iPhone would sell well.

The real question is why Bill Gates allows Steve Ballmer to go out in public? He can't open his mouth without embarrassing the company. You would think that Vista was enough embarrassment.

Things are going so poorly with Vista that Steve was recently confronted about it by a 'mom' at a recent Gartner group conference.

When one watches Steve Ballmer, late night infomercials come to mind. That may not be far from the truth :-)

Stay tuned for more Steve Ballmer embarrasing moments.

Switch to Mac - or not

I can't tell you how many times a day people ask if they should switch to a Mac. There are many good reasons to switch to a Mac. They just work! In addition, it reduces the number of phone calls that I get that are all basically the same - "what is wrong with my PC?"

Steven Leigh of Apple Matters wrote two great articles on the topic. They are - "8 Reasons Why Windows Users Don't Switch" and "8 Reasons Windows Users DO Switch to Mac." As a heads up, Steven was once a rabid Microsoft fanboy. These two articles are very good.

Microsoft opens medical records division

Microsoft announced that they plan to get into the medical records business. They want consumers to store all of their medical records on a server in Redmond. The project is called HealthVault.

I would have thought that this was an April fools joke - except that it is October. I predict that that this project will be an abysmal failure. Honestly, who in their right mind would trust data security to Microsoft? Perhaps Microsoft should concentrate on building a quality OS first.

Frozen iMac

Lest we think that Microsoft's Vista is the only OS with woes. There is no perfect machine as is demonstrated by the problems that people are experiencing with the new iMac. It seems that the new iMac is prone to an interface lockup that requires that the system be re-booted. Apple has discovered that the problem is related to the ATI graphics card driver. This problem surfaced with Vista early on. You would think that ATI would have figured that out by now.

Unfortunately for several people that have purchased an iMac, this happens right out of the box. Fortunately, Apple has unmatched customer service.

Zune 2.0 on the way

The new version of the Zune is on the way. Great, an answer to a question that no one asked - "Why doesn't Microsoft make an iPod competitor?" :-) The strange thing about the Zune is that Bill Gates even apologized for it's mediocrity. Now, return to your regularly scheduled show - on your iPod.

Zune Phone

With the recent success of the iPhone, Microsoft has decided that they are going to create the Zune Phone. If this weren't so funny it would be sad. I think that this video on YouTube captures how the Zune Phone will be perceived by the public. How many people do you think will wait in line for this one? :-)

Vista Trouble ?

Have you ever talked to anyone that had trouble with Vista? Maybe the better question is have you ever talked to anyone that didn't have trouble with Vista?

Today Microsoft announced that XP will be around a little longer than they had intended. This not only applies to OEM's but now consumers will be able to purchase XP until at least June of 2008. This will include XP SP3 that is to be released in early 2008.

Engadget points out that people are just not "feeling the love" for Vista. CNET even goes so far as to say that "Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself." They call Vista one of the biggest blunders in technology.

I use Vista, XP and OS X. While Vista is pretty, it crashes about every other day on a brand new machine. How is that for feeling the love?

The Truth Hurts

Do you think that the people at Microsoft are getting tired of the Apple commercials yet? More and more I hear of people trying out Vista and making the move to Mac. The most recent famous person to make the move is Mark Cuban. That is huge news!

People often ask me what kind of computer to buy. Almost 100% of the time I recommend buying a Mac. Think about it. Have you ever met a person that didn't have a problem with a PC? While I like Vista, it is not for the faint of heart.

Frolic at the Frolick's - 2007

Emily and I hosted the 3rd annual Frolic at the Frolick's party for the KPMG crowd. It was a lot of fun. This year we picked up this R2D2 cooler. It actually holds a full two cases of iced beverages.

This year about a dozen people made it to the party. We had a great time!

Florida Vacation

Emily and I went to Destin Florida for a family vacation. We stayed in a nice house on the beach. Let's just say that it was an interesting time :-) We should call it 'National Lampoons' Florida Vacation."

July 4th 2007

Emily and I went to the big Mason, OH July 4th celebration. It was really a lot of fun. Kansas and Asia were in concert prior to the fireworks. We had great seats. It was certainly crowded.

2007 USGP

Emily and I went to the USGP this weekend. It was a lot of fun but man was it hot. I was certainly glad that we had seats in the shade. This may be the last USGP at Indy. This will be ironed out soon I suppose.

Jamaica Sunset

Jamaica sunsets are hard to beat!