Marketing, Communications and Technology

It’s no secret that the iphone is one of the best tech toys out there, but to me it’s a life changer.  Its a revolution in function and where it goes from here could change everything.

The word phone is actually a misnomer.  It would be more accurate to label it a handheld computer that can make phone calls.  Never has there been so much function in such a compact, easy to use format.

Although it is easy to make hardware comparisons and compose bullet lists versus other smart phones, the ace in the hole for Apple is the App Store.  In the same way that video game consoles live and die by the success of software (games), so will smart phones.  Except that the iPhone already has a long line of developers clamoring at making applications and the hardware itself is so hot that it often sells for double or triple depending on what part of the world you live in.

The iPhone, like a computer with only an operating system, is a blank canvas.  Yet it holds many advantages over even the best laptop.  Microphone, Speakers, Camera, GPS, Accelerometer (tilt sensing) Wifi, and 3G (Fast data) all in the palm of your hand and all with Apple’s trademark easy to use interface.

There is so much to talk about that new websites spring up everyday concerning this device.  A podcast called iPhone Alley is dedicated to iphone news only and then there is the legions of hackers “jail breaking” (allowing them to use unlicensed software) their phones because they can’t wait for official applications but I could be here forever if we travel down that rabbit hole.

Lets get to my favorite applications so far:

Productivity

Evernote is an online repository for notes. You can take them in any fashion: photos, recordings, writing.  They are stored and archived for you in a an online repository for future use. It even has the ability to take handwritten notes and recognize the text. The iphone application lest you do all this from your phone with ease.

Weatherbug: If your business is outside, then knowing what is going on with the weather is very important.  There are many ways to get this information but with the built GPS and a real-time radar, it doesn’t get much easier to tell of that rain is coming your way.

Microsoft Exchange email support works flawlessly and was easy as pie to setup. Typing on the screen became second nature to me after a couple of days.  The trick is just to trust the phone, it will auto-correct spelling in most every case.  I can now type pretty fast on it and do not miss my berry one bit.

Kyte.com lets you broadcast live photos and video via a website and the iphone application only supports photos at the moment but is expected to support live video.

The Fun Stuff

Facebook: This one is both fun and productive as many organizations use a facebook account to keep in touch with customers/students/alumni.  You can post images directly, post new messages and chat.

Twinkle: This is a twitter application which amazingly takes your current location and shows you what other people are talking about. You can post a photo direct, respond to messages and make your own posts.

More Cowbell: There are so many novelty applications on the App Store,  I thought I would include just one of my favorites.  Some of you may remember the Christopher Walken skit from SNL. Essentially this turns your iphone into a Cowbell.  Best part is it works with music.  So if you are using your ipod to play music, you can run this app and add cowbell to any song. LOL

The Future

I only scratched the surface here, the killer app is the App Store itself, it represents the life changing possibilities I alluded to.  The list of problems that can be solved is endless: pull up medical literature on a drug, read a CT scan, measure how many calories you burned (based on movement of phone), buy anything, read a book, control your computer, access a server, get directions, find out who is around you, get all your news, watch anything, talk to anyone in the world via wifi, turn photos of text into text, etc etc etc.

All these things were already here or on the way on multiple portable devices. However, no device (other than the iPhone) so far brings them all together and makes them easier to accomplish at the same time.

Oh alright, there must be some cons right?  Battery life is rough, although I heard it was the same or better than most 3G devices.  Video is not there yet but I think this will be a software upgrade.  Maybe this was a battery life decision.  I know its capable, here is a clip of it being used.  As far as cut and paste and MMS messages, I do not really care.

Needless to say, I highly recommend it to everyone. You will wonder how you functioned without it.  Sliced bread’s got nothing on the Apple iPhone 3G.

I have been away form the blog for a while and away from marketing as well.  I have been charged with the task of organizing a search committee and a plan for our new central web team.

My assistant found this great site and I wanted to share it.  If you need to write a job description for a field that you are not completely familiar with, this is great place to start.  Of course it’s also a nice job search engine for job seekers as well.

Essentially, it searches live job posts and profiles the information much like google, including salary averages per city.  Although the information is only as good as the posts, you can always click right through the results and read the actual description that was posted.  Its great resource that I will definitely go back to.

Come July 11th I think I will be taking the iphone plunge. I have turned into quite the mac addict recently. I guess I was just waiting for the price to be right. $199 for 8gb and $299 for a 16gb. Delicious.

• 3g speed
• Microsoft Exchange - important for me, it means I can use work email on it
• GPS - no need to by a Garmin now
• 24 hours of audio playback - do i need my regular ipod anymore?

Official Apple Store Marketing

Beware: 3G sucks battery life, they claim 5 hours of talk time/browsing but the silver lining it you could just turn it off when you don’t need it.

OK , where do I preorder!!!

Apple store down. Will we be able to buy a new iphone today?

Tick, Tock, Tick Tock.

Many times I am asked for recommended video and photo gear. There is a plethora of options out there but you would be hard pressed to find an easier solution for recording HD video than the Sanyo Xacti HD 1000. First of all, lets get something straight, if you want the best quality you should be looking at Canon’s line, they make incredible camcorders.

However, if you want ease of use, nearly pocket size, full hd recording, at a bargain price, look no further. Sanyo, yes Sanyo has done a great job with its xacti line by filling a niche of folks looking for portable digital recording (saving to a memory card) at an affordable price.

I hate tapes. I hate long editing jobs. I have grown to love taking short clips with my digital cameras and putting them together with simple editing tools like movie maker or imovie. This is why the next logical step up for me is a more capable memory card based camcorder.

Here are a few clips (which we took just to test it out). We have since purchased the wide angle adapter and are going to get some better campus shots filled with students for b-roll on our video projects and to feed our virtual tour pages.

In order to see it in HD you will need to visit vimeo’s site. Vimeo is a great video sharing site for hosting quality video. It does have high traffic (compared to youtube) but its embedded videos look fantastic. Actually, the one seen here is not even as nice as they can appear on your site, since wordpress is restricting the size of the video window on this site.

Pros

• nice quality HD video
• pocket size - take anywhere
• easy - flip open = turn on mechanism
• fast edit potential - easy upload
• external mic plug
• wide angle adapter available

Cons

• photo quality - sub standard
• low light performance - slow focus - focus hunting

But what about post production?

All these HD camcorders had many problems with editing when they first came out, mostly software related. Many are fixed now, including the HD1000. You can edit clip files with IMovie and Windows Movie Maker (for movie maker you only need to open in quicktime and save as “mov”, this alows movie maker to read the files). Its also important to note you can actually edit right in the camera’s built-in menu and you will be able to upload the “mp4″ file right to any video host.

The caveat: you need to record in the 720p mode. I use the 720p 60 frames per second mode. I have tried the higher resolution (1920 x 1080) and I just cannot find a program that will edit it. I am sure that video production folks have the skill to make it happen but for the amateur or enthusiast like myself, it was not working. It’s a software thing and eventually the consumer software will catch up but for now 1280 x 720 is a nice jump from standard videos and looks great online (for those with broadband and a good computer who can view it).

But even if the end product will be used in standard definition, you will get a very crisp looking picture that will rival and in some cases beat professional standard video equipment (assuming you have good lighting of course).

Lets recap, the name of my game is fast quality, portable, HD.

For this task I feel the HD1000 is a great choice. It been out for 8 months now and Canon has released memory card camcorders that I am sure are better choices for image quality but at $200-300 premium and a different, less portable form factor. As with all technology, I am sure in a few months I will have a different “weapon of choice” for quick HD video recording but for now you cannot go wrong if you want quality fast HD in your pocket.

Here are some more samples of what others have created with this little hd wonder.