Larkland Morley’s Professional Blog

Wow!! 5 years ago this question would seem far fetch and remote.  For about a couple years we had the Celio Redfly which gives you a Netbook type device to control your phone. This only worked with some Microsoft and Blackberry phones but it had potential and use. The limitation with that approach was that the user interface was primarily the Phone screen and seem to be generally slow. Check out the Redfly in this quick video.

Well, lets take a step into 2011 and here we have the Motorola Atrix.  This is basically a phone that was designed with the intention to function as computer since it has 2 GHz processor and lots of memory and storage (min 16 GB). The key with this device is that it can function as Desktop, Entertainment Center as well as a Laptop with full functionality using Firefox web browser with webtops.

Some important highlights of this approach are that you can run Android applications on a larger screen, you can use a full keyboard and mouse with the phone, applications such as Google docs can work really well in the computer mode either laptop or desktop.

This phone will come with 4G LTE wireless up front and should be out by March 2011. Unfortunately , it’s only available on ATT network for now.  You should be able to buy one open but much more expensive going that route. Here are some great demos of how this works.

Second video with another perspective.

I really like it as I always believe in the concept of modular computing especially coupled with the cloud. I am sure you are very excited to check one out.

Wanted to share a little on my experience with a tablet computer. I got my android Ipad lookalike tablet some time in September this year. I want to give some feedback on how I view it and how it could be improved over time.

1. Since this is not from a big name company but some Chinese copycat company, the quality is not that good although it looks good and with extra care you could manage with it.

2. It lacks secondary wireless capability. I am really surprise it does not have bluetooth as a standard feature. In any case, basic 3G built in would be useful. They could at least make the wifi configurable so you could setup an adhoc connection with your phone or computer. Most of the good applications such as email and Internet depends on having a connection.

3. I find it difficult to use for note taking although with practice you could get to be good at it. It could be useful to have a dictation machine built in to tape a session directly.

4. Its very useful for reading but still I have a lot of PDF and even the adobe reader is not that flexible on there. It does not even allow you to jump to the last page read. You can browse the Internet as well but only useful when you are away from your laptop.

5. Video play back is very good, I would see the use of this to watch a movie in bed or at park. This is one good potential for tablets I think with both video conferencing and video playback.

6. Since the version of Android was not officially released for tablets, there is still a lot of bugs to work out especially with calibration but overall its still very good for a first cut.

Overall, the tablet is usable but until we find the right applications to make it stand out, it’s more of a tool for information consumption on the go. I strongly believe in modular computers which means it could be a real system on the desk and you take the screen along for mobility. I think the Ipad has that with its docking option.

In any case, there are some real Android tablets coming out before the end of the year, so watch out for the improvements.

I have no intention to make money on this Post. If you are planning to buy an IPAD as I am, then this is a cool gadget to convert it into a laptop configuration for some functions such as typing documents, taking notes in a meeting. When you want to read, watch movies or other functions you can just use the original IPAD as is.

Check out the Clam Case here – Clam Case Site

Enjoy!!

Today, April 3rd, was the first release of Apple’s Ipad tablet computer. It’s important to note that this is not the first tablet computer on the market, in fact I got myself an old Fujitsu ST 5022D off ebay.com recently which I think is about 5 years old in terms of technology. In fact Apple once had a tablet/large PDA called the Newton as well.

The Ipad is not the first of the new generation of tablet computers either as  there are several other brands out in the market except that the closest competitors in terms of functionality are from smaller companies. Now what makes the modern tablet stand out from its ancient siblings?

There are several key differentiating technologies that is changing the face of computing in general and will drive not just tablets but intelligent devices in general. The first is touch screen technology. This allows a user to interact directly with the screen on a device with fingers as oppose to using the pen on older devices. The other technology is battery in general. This has made the other devices very heavy such as the Fujitsu ST 5022D that I have. I took the battery out, and it weighs so much less. I think the evolution of battery technology and low power components is a big factor in driving the usage of portable devices.

The next key factor, is wireless data technology. Several devices came out on the market in the last few years from the blackberry which allowed corporate e-mail interaction to the Iphone that provides web browsing and applications in general. Several others came with options to surrounding those models but pretty much the same thing. The wireless technology I want to mention is 3G wireless. This allows much better data experience from literally anywhere. Of course, we know this will reach its peak soon and fortunately 4G technology is pretty much ready to go. We will see this in larger scales by 2011. Wifi should not be ignored, as it’s the technology that is still available in pretty much any decent locations nowadays including most homes. Bluetooth is another one that will help device to device communication in a limited space.

The next very important technology that’s driving the technology landscape is the issue of application deployment. I think Apple has set a trend with the launch of its Iphone Apps store and this will continue with the Ipad and other similar devices. The ability to find an application for pretty any function in one place is very big.

In summa I think the Ipad will do well as Apple is very good at marketing, but I do think it will improve significantly over the next few years as this is just 1.0. Other vendors will drive the competition forward but the question I have, is this the ultimate computing device? I doubt it. I think this is where Apple will beat the others. They will focus on having an Ipad answer will Apple is now focused on solving the next computing challenges for user interaction.

I do believe we are heading towards the time when we can have full video interaction anywhere. While, we have several means to get that done, there is still work to be done in that arena.

Here is a recent review from the different points of view on the Ipad – Goto Ipad Review.

Ran into this great article on business technology trends to watch from Mckinsey quarterly. Check it out at Eight business technology trends.

I am sure you will learn something can be applied to your business.

Since I am a network and communications person, I would like to share some of the ideas I have for a small business to communicate effectively using very reliable and sophisticated modern facilities.

Domain Name:

Its good to have a proper domain name that reflects your business name. Good source

godaddy.com

Web hosting

You will need to host your website somewhere with good storage and reliability and great customer service – Best place

hostgator.com

Website Platform

While you may need a good e-commerce platform to sell products online directly, best practices nowadays for most business is to have a blog as the front end to the business. This can be structured in different ways based on your desires. The recommendation here is:

wordpress.org

This platform is free and you could also get it through your hostgator account, so its makes the installation much easier.

General E-mail

To communicate outside and inside your organization you will need some basic e-mail platform. Normally, the first thing that comes to mind is outlook e-mail platform, which means you need a server etc.. A very cool solution and I am sure there are many others is:

Google Apps – http://www.google.com/apps/

This allows you to setup e-mails on your domain name for both internal and external use. Its just as simple as using gmail but its coming from your own domain and would look much better to the outside world for corporate presence. I am sure there are others and in fact google is coming out with Google wave soon that would even help your internal communication much better.

Fax Communication

There are numerous services out there that will allow you to reliably send and receive faxes directly from your PC without moving. In some cases, you may need to have a scanner available to capture documents that needs signature etc. In any case in mostly you can send a document in PDF format through e-mail but its still good to have the fax option for traditional purposes. This is one I have tested and looks good so far.

http://www.maxemail.com/

There are many others out there.

Telephone

This is an area that has changed quite a bit with the advent of voip, now with a small business, you don’t need to have a major PBX installed. One option you have is to buy a small box that connects to your DSL connection but even that you may not need nowadays.

One cheap option to look at is Skype.com especially if your employees are not in the same location. You can buy accessories that will let skype behave just like a regular office phone and even wireless if you so desire. Skype also allows you to buy a payment plan and get a phone number for incoming calls. You could tie into your mobile phone such as Iphone or Android.

Otherwise, if you want a standard looking phone system, look into hosted PBX options. I am not in a position to recommend one over the other but I will list a few that looks interesting to pursue.

Here is a good place to look – http://www.voipreview.org/Business_Telephone_Systems/compare_business_voip_providers.aspx

Look at Google voice too, very interesting little tool especially when you are mobile.

Internet Access

To get all of these services to work well, at least not all of them since the webservice is running from a different server, you need a physical connection to your home or office. If your employees work from home then you need for each employee, at least to re-imburse for them using their personal connections.

Typical DSL is the preferred choice for this type of setup. Othewise maybe cable could be a good second.

Can’t recommend a provider as its dependent on where you are located. In the US, ATT would be the most common in most locations and in Canada, it would be bell.ca.

Coming very soon is the world of wireless 4G networks that will give you DSL speed pretty much anywhere but it will take about another 5 years to get full coverage at these speeds.

Social Communications

The next important step outside of using e-mail is how do you communicate with your audience effectively. The first step and almost an absolute requirement is a blog. The next tool to add into that would be twitter.com regardless of the audience type.

Now in terms of your client base, you may have to look into what medium is suited in terms of other tools. If your business is consumer based, then facebook.com is recommended, otherwise if its business/corporate oriented you could look at linkedin.com.

Other tools that could help your business are facilities such as google groups or yahoo groups. There are a lot of free social forum platforms that you could tie into your website especially for customer interaction as well. a good one to look at is ning.com

To close off, you may want to have a mailing tool to manage paying customer as well. The popular platform for this is aweber.com.

These tools used in the correct way can create the image of a powerful organization since you are pretty much on par with larger companies at very minimal cost.

Found this great article on 45 Ways to use mind mapping tools. Most of these can make your business a lot more efficient in the process.

Check out the Article – 45 Ways to use Mind Map

Try these out now on your business or new ideas

I have been considering a netbook for my daughter to use for her general computing needs. I did not realize that things have changed so much in this arena. I guess sleeping at the switch.

Anyway, this article has some great insights on the trends in this space. Read here.