Cutting the Cable-Cord Is Not a Myth

I recently read an article on www.slashfilm.com: Streaming Bits: Time Warner CEO Calls Cord-Cutting a Myth, Amazon Instant Video Comes to iPad, Apple TV Launches Hulu Plus App. 

This headline cracks me up “Time Warner Cable CEO, Jeff Bewkes calls Cord-Cutting a Myth.”  Well he is sadly mistaken because I for one cut the Time Warner Cable cord three years ago and haven’t missed it except for HBO and Comedy Central.

How do you get the entertainment you want like News, Sports, Movies, and TV shows? Simple as explained in this article.

Image via CrunchBase

Get Netflix, Hulu, and/or Amazon.  Get a PS3, Xbox 360, or Apple TV.  Finally buy a Digital HD TV antenna and you’re all set.  You’re total cost the cheap way is one time equipment cost $130 for Apple TV and HD antenna and monthly cost of under $20 for Netflix and Hulu or Amazon.  The expensive route one time equipment cost $330 for HD antenna and either PS3 or Xbox 360 which also gives you the added benefit of gaming and Blu-ray capability (PS3 only).  The monthly cost of $35 for Hulu, Netflix,

Image via CrunchBase

Amazon premium, and optional NHL game package (PS3 only) with all other major sports to follow.  These sports packages allow you to watch any game any time you want.

Most people don’t even realize that they can purchase a very inexpensive Digital HD TV antenna that will provide you the main cable channels like NBC and ABC.  You simply buy this HD antenna for $30 bucks and you get 20+ digital channels FREE for life.  Getting the same deal with Time Warner Cable is just impossible.  Their most basic plans start at around $50 buck and you definitely won’t get those premium channels that are almost the only reason you would get a cable plan in the first place.  You will also have to sit through 15 min of commercials to

Image via CrunchBase

watch a short 30 min TV show.

In my opinion it’s not worth the hassle the expensive equipment, set up cost, set up in general and the rude service you get with TWC.  At least DirecTV are personable and helpful but you still have equipment and installation costs.

The CEO of Time Warner Cable doesn’t want you to know what I’ve just explained and that’s why he is in denial about the future of TV viewing.  Denial, I meant he’s actually lying to you so he can lock your wallet in for a year.  I’m honest with you and want to share my experience how to do it the right way that doesn’t lock you into anything but you’re own freedom of choice.

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HTC EVO 3D: Device Review

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This is a review of Sprint’s HTC EVO 3D.  This is a slight upgrade from the original HTC EVO 4G with one main added feature, taking 3D photos and watching 3D movies.  The EVO 3D also got a usability upgrade placing the camera clicker on the side of the phone rather than making you touch the screen itself to take a picture.  Touch sensitivity increased from the original.  With all the upgraded usability upgrades in mind I would rate this: 
Usability 9.5 out of 10

Next test is the battery life.  Looking at the original HTC did make this phone have a slightly longer battery life.  I was able to use it most of the day with a decent amount of usage and it came out ok.  This version also has an expandable battery pack but it leaves it feeling bulky and heavy.  The added battery does help it last much longer but is not generally need for this phone.
Battery Life 9.0 out of 10

Connection stability I thought was much better on the 3D then on the original.  I was more often getting a cell phone signal than the original.  Not sure if they made an upgrade to the internal antenna but I definitely saw an improvement. Wifi no change but the speed did obviously increase from the regular 3G signal.  The 4G feature is also present but eats a ton of battery so I never really use it.  But when 4G works it works great.
Connection Stability 9.7 out of 10

Overall speed and responsiveness of the HTC EVO 3D is quite an upgrade from the original as I mentioned before touch sensitivity increased immensely with this new iteration.  The processing speed when loading apps is also an improvement.  All the load times and transitions from one app to another are crisp and clean.
Speed 10 out of 10

I know this post will be dated but if you’re thinking of jumping to this phone from the original HTC EVO 4G, I would highly recommend doing so.  A lot of improvements and upgrades were added.  My overall feel for functionality and reliability are very high.  Check one out at your local Sprint store.

Overall 9.55 out of 10

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Jigsaw 3rd Annual Rainmaker Event in Las Vegas

I recently attended the 3rd Annual Rainmakers Event in Las Vegas from June 19th to June 22nd.
Jigsaw is a crowd sourced contact information platform that makes it easy for sales people to find the relevant contact details of people in their industry.

Rainmakers are Jigsaws most trusted and engaged users.  As a thank you for our hard work Jigsaw, who is owned by Salesforce, throws one of the greatest parties I’ve ever attended.  

Well it’s not all fun and games; the primary focus is to get hard user data about experience design, usability, and functionality from these Rainmakers.  Since we, Rainmakers, are using and interacting with the platform on a weekly or even daily basis our experience and pain points are high on their radar and they want to know about it.

I think this is a great way to get your super users involved and to give their feedback; put them up in a fancy hotel, feed them, and give them plenty of opportunities to interactive with the product teams to build a user driven top notch platform.  I can seriously attest from experience that it is a true pleasure to work with these guys.  It makes me want to work even harder every day to help them attain quality information.    

During the event we listened to keynotes from the top Salesforce people, interacted in roundtable discussions, and participated in user feedback groups.  After the main conference events we were given fun scavenger hunt tasks to complete for a chance to win some very cool prizes; like mac book airs, iPads, and Apple TVs.  Jigsaw also reserved the Ghost Bar on top of the Palms featuring a live band and all the free alcohol you could drink just to show their appreciation.
 
Overall the event left me feeling great! I met some interesting people, made some great connections, and didn’t have to spend a dime.  If you’re a sales person prospecting without Jigsaw I would say you’re pretty much dead in the water.  Do yourself a favor and get on board with Jigsaw.  Jigsaw (Salesforce) is a great company and I highly recommend giving it a try and maybe someday I’ll see you at the 4th Annual Jigsaw Event in Liva Las Vegas!

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HTC EVO 4G View

HTC tablet: EVO View 4G (Photo credit: cizauskas)

This is a review of Sprint’s HTC EVO View tablet.  
The first thing I’d like to address is OS.  Loved this tablet when it was running on Gingerbread OS, however when I downloaded the update to Honeycomb there were a lot of features I was missing.  First off, the hard buttons at the bottom no longer worked.  I wondered why they jammed all the apps so close together not taking advantage of the full 7 inch screen as it was meant to be viewed.  It’s like a glorified cell phone that doesn’t make voice calls.
The other noteworthy flaw with View is the touch sensitivity when web browsing and was my ultimate pet-peeve is reviewing the device.  Especially viewing sites like Facebook or using Gmail it was extremely hard to get the thing to open the page in which I touched.  I also had a ton of trouble sending any kind of email from the Gmail and Hotmail sites.  As much as I hate to say it the HTC EVO View has nothing on the iPad2 when it comes to the touch screen sensitivity.  
I think this was a bad idea on Sprint’s part to have a mandatory OS update.  I believe that choice to the user should always be the most important thing.  Build it with your users requests in mind and you’ll never have to wonder if you made the right choice not mention your customers will love you for it.  On user experience design I have two ratings but will only count the second as after you update there is no way to revert.
User Experience Design: Gingerbread OS:  10 out of 10 Honeycomb OS: 2.0 out of 10

Next let’s talk about battery life; one full charge gets you through the whole day with a decent amount of usage.  If you don’t run live wallpapers and just use Wi-Fi for internet, this puppy can hold a decent charge throughout a 24 hour period.  Considering the tablet is pretty lightweight I applaud the durability and life of this battery.
Battery Life: 9.8 out of 10

A very important factor in all devices of this type is connection stability.  The HTC EVO View is probably going to be the front runner from the all other devices I have reviewed.  A very strong signal wherever you go in and around New York City.  The 4G signal is also very good, although it does eat up the battery quite a bit more.  Another important point is that if you are roaming with this device it does hinder the experience.  As I’ve seen from other types of devices that it will notify quite annoyingly every time it cannot find a signal.  You actually have to put it on Airplane mode to get rid of the nuisance.  
Connection Stability: 9.0 out of 10

I’d like to highlight processor speed as the HTC EVO view.  The single core, 1500 MHz, Snapdragon processor is quite amazingly fast and I was quite satisfied with it.  Also the 1024MB of RAM also helped in making this device as fast as possible.  It runs multiple apps with ease and I never need to force stop applications as a result of needing more free RAM.  There is absolutely nothing to complain about in regards to processor or application speeds.  In this case iPad2 has nothing on the HTC EVO View 4G.
Speed: 10 out of 10

Feature set of the HTC View is quite extensive.  One feature that doesn’t come with most tablets of this caliber is a stylus.  With Gingerbread you aren’t able to use it much but with the addition of Honeycomb it becomes much more of an editable feature function.  Just the ability to use it for writing notes was enough for me.  For me at least it’s much easier to handwrite notes on the fly instead of typing in out on a laptop.  The other advantage is portability.  The HTC View is extremely portable I was able to slip in my pants pocket or coat pocket without it being too heavy or bulky.  Trying to carry an iPad this way is just not ergonomically correct.

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New York Cares – Sony Wonder Technology Lab

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This past Saturday I had the pleasure of volunteering with New York Cares.  The volunteers took a group of ten little boys and girls to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in mid-town Manhattan.  It was a fun filled day of learning about technology.  It was very fulfilling knowing the few hours we spent with the kids meant so much to them.  I was really surprised at how well-mannered the kids were too. I would definitely be inclined to continue this project again. 

Image by jasoneppink via Flickr

Sony’s museum is great.  There’s a ton of stuff to do and interact with and makes for a fun learning environment for the kids as well as the adults.  When you walk in your given a card that lets you interact with anything in the museum.  Visitors are encouraged to look and touch to get the most of their experience.  When you leave you get a print-out of everything you did while you were in the museum.  Taking your experience with you is the name of the game. 

If you haven’t volunteered yet I urge you to try it out and New York Cares is a great place to start.  They always have lots of projects running at the same time so you can pick and choose where and when you are willing to give some of your time to doing something besides watching TV.  It’s also good for your community and giving is always better then receiving even if you don’t think that way yet.  What you are actually getting back is the satisfaction knowing you did something for someone else, someone that needs your help.  I sound like a charity infomercial but it’s really not that hard to do.  The rewards are not always tactile or on the surface but they may emerge when you least expect it.

The little boy I shadowed while I was there was very quiet and looked like he was very sad.  Then I found something that we both we’re very excited about (video games) and the adventure took off.  His frown was replaced with laughs and he was filled with a thousand and one things to say.  Finding that common interest was like that aha moment.  Everything that followed just felt right. 

This experience is something that I want to share with everyone; yes it’s that good of a feeling.   Trust me if you ever wanted to do something like this, I say “Just Do It” Start here www.newyorkcares.org 

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Jigsaw Rainmakers Rountable Event

Image via Wikipedia

If you are a business person looking to generate new business for your company the most important thing you should do is get on Jigsaw and start collecting people’s information that matters most to your business. 

I’ve been a Jigsaw Rainmaker for a number of years now and I can say that this service has helped me close more business than any other service, not to mention it’s free if you don’t mind doing a little leg work yourself. 

For those of you who are new to Jigsaw (which is owned by Salesforce.com), it’s a crowdsourcing service that allows you to find any person in any company.  It gives you their contact information in the form of work phone number, email, title, and mailing address.  This opens up new possibilities to prospecting.  Finding exactly the right person at the company you’re trying to get into is extremely helpful during the sales process. 

Image via WikipediaWhen you contribute to Jigsaw enough they give you rewards such as badges or ranks to show how great your data is to the rest of the community.  You start as a Prospector, then become a Closer, then a Maven and finally end at the Rainmaker status.  The Jigsaw Rainmaker status is difficult to achieve and Salesforce does a lot to reward you for your service. Salesforce show their support and love in a very meaningful way, from sponsored dinners to all out parties, and I for one appreciate it immensely. 

From one of these, such sponsored dinners in NYC I met a like-minded individual named, John Shin, who had a similar need, he wanted to become a better sales guy.  We talked about an idea that came to me after listening to veteran sales guy talk about his experience cold calling.  We decided it would be in our best interest to try and get a bunch of sales people together to discuss topics that would help us all become better sales people.  

The Jigsaw Rainmakers Roundtable event was born and we are holding our first event on January 18^th.  This event will be an open discussion about the topics of cold calling, prospecting, presenting and closing techniques.  You can even add your own topic for our experts to discuss openly.  Following this post will be all the details.  Please come and join us.  We will also have food and refreshments so come hungry.  

Sign Up Here: http://www.meetup.com/Rainmakers-Rountable/events/47349522/   

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Kindle Touch 3G

This year Zemanta gave all its employees Kindles as a Christmas bonus. This blog post is all about the Kindle and my review of it.

Starting with usability as a reader this thing works great there is a bit of jarring when swiping to the following pages as it’s not like a tablet where the transitions are smooth from one page to the next but it serves its purpose quite well. The screen itself it very easy to read except in very low light as the screen is not backlit. Figuring out how to use the Kindle is very easy as well no need to look over the instruction manual almost self-explanatory.

User Experience Design: 9.5 out of 10

Next I want to talk about battery life. Wow this little device lasts and lasts. It’s like the energizer bunny on steroids. Using the kindle every day as reader only, the battery lasts about a week without being plugged in. When you think most cell phones don’t last a whole day this is quite a leap forward. There’s no contest with any other device I have seen on the market today.

Battery Life: 10 out of 10 


Getting FREE 3G for life on the Kindle helps with the selling point. However you cannot surf the web, you must be connected to WiFi to do that. I’m not totally sure what else you would use the free 3G for perhaps to download your books which should be free anyway. Maybe there will something else I can use it for we’ll just have to see. One helpful feature that is most useful is the MP3 player as it’s nice to carry your favorite tunes with you while you read your favorite book.
Features: 8.0 out of 10 

Using the 3G I haven’t run into any problems with it not connecting or searching for a signal. Almost everywhere I go I always have a strong signal.
Connection Stability 9.9 out of 10

The price tag on the Kindle is very reasonable. For the model I have, Kindle Touch, the base price is $149. When you consider the free 3G to the package you can see the value add. If my company didn’t get this for us I would have probably picked one up one way or another.
Price Tag: 9.5 out of 10
Overall Rating: 9.38 out of 10