February 29, 2008
12:16 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Let’s Yada! (a division of WinPlus) is looking to make Bluetooth affordable and easy for everyone. I had a chance to try two of their new units and speak with their CEO Dan Sheehan.
The concept behind Yada is to make devices easy to use and affordable. There devices are specificly geared towards in car use. Their thought is that not everyone is looking for a Bluetooth fashion statement. I have to admit, I love my Jawbone headset but I do not wear it around my head all day long. It’s generally in my pocket more than on my ear. I choose not to be one of the many people I see each day at my Starbucks in the am having conversations with themselves it seems.
The driving force behind their products is the fact that with more than 38 states that have recently passed laws governing cell phone use in vehicles and others with legislation pending or under consideration, hands-free devices are increasingly important for consumers’ safety and convenience.
The first product I demoed was the YD-V1 + phone holder + car charger.
The YD-V1 is a all-in-one Bluetooth 2.0 headset, phone stand, and car charger.
The Plus Column:
- I love the fact there this is stand, headset chargers all in one.
- Each time I entered the vehicle, the set paired with the headset every time.
- Hang-up feature. There is a place to pick up the headset and start your call and hang up to end the call on the stand.
- A vent based clip system so I can easily move the whole system from car to car
- Headset sound quality was good (about an 8 of 10)
- The headset turns off when the handset is not being charged and when a Bluetooth connection has not been established for more than an hour.
- Price point of around $50.00
The Minus Column
- The headset would not always stay firmly in my ear if I moved my head back and forth often.
- It took awhile to find the proper angle for the stand (more than once I took a left turn and the stand went flying right till I found the optimal placement in my car)
- The blue active light is very bright and somewhat distracting when mounted while driving at night.
- No home charger. This is an extra cost.
Overall, the YD-V1 is a excellent value and great for those people who just want a good quality headset, stand and charger combo for their car for a very reasonable price.
The second product I demoed was the YD-V8 speakerphone + car charger
The YD-V8 is a Bluetooth speakerphone.
The Plus Column:
- Excellent sound quality with the windows rolled up
- Ability to play music from my Blackjack II through the speakerphone with better than average sound.
- It is small and barely noticeable on my visor
- It is a stereo not mono speakerphone
- Easy to use start/stop call button
- Very portable due to size. I use it in rental cars when I travel. The total size is comparable to an iPod Nano.
- Great option for those who do not like a ear based headset.
The Minus Column:
-
When plugged in to charge, I have a long and somewhat distracting cable running from my cigarette lighter to my visor as there is no other way to mount the speakerphone.
-
Did not always synch every time I entered the car. I had to hit the call button to manually re-pair when I entered the car.
-
The button to move the call off the speaker and back to the car is hard to hit while driving.
Overall, the YD-V8 is a good value for those looking for an easy to use and portable speakerphone with a Bluetooth music speaker as a nice extra.
Thanks again to Dan Sheehan, Yada’s CEO for allowing me to try out his products. Visit Yada at www.letsyada.com
Stephen is a Microsoft MVP and Sr. Partner with the Odyssey Consulting Group
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
February 24, 2008
12:13 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Over the past few weeks, it is possible you missed a few interesting announcements outside of the Microsoft/Yahoo venture. That was Microsoft‘s commitment to the Open Source movement (to be discussed in a later post) and Dreamspark.
Microsoft is giving away development and design software to university and high school students around the world through a program aimed at fostering technology innovation worldwide.
The software available to students through DreamSpark includes Microsoft's development environment, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, and its Web and graphic design toolset, the Expression Studio, XNA Game Studio 2.0 (for game developement), SQL Server Developer Edition, Windows Server Standard Edition and other software and resources through the program.
In the next six months Microsoft expects to extend the program to college students in Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and other countries. And in the third quarter, the software will be available to high school students.
So I received a lot of emails and comments saying “it’s about time Microsoft gave something back.” My response, you don’t know the half of it.
Over the past few years, I have been involved in a half dozen Microsoft and user group initiatives in Southern California alone. And, every one of these is completely free of charge. Here are a few examples:
· SoCal “Rock and Roll” Code Camp- Each year at Cal State Fullerton, Microsoft along with a dozen other companies sponsors a free Code Camp. Code Camp is a place for developers to come and learn from their peers. This community driven event has become an international trend where peer groups of all platforms, programming languages and disciplines band together to bring content to the community. This is two days of free seminars, tutorials, demos and classes taught by professionals and Microsoft employees and evangelists. The seminars are free and the speakers donate their time. That evening a dinner and live rock concert (hence the rock and roll portion) take place. This takes place every spring. Another in San Diego takes place the last week in June. Are there large seminars out there that people can attend? Sure. Big seminars have their place but don't have a wide spread reach... code camps and other "camp" events can fill the gap. For more information go to http://www.socalcodecamp.com/
· Digigirlz- Digigirls is aimed at 12-17 year old girls who are interested in learning more about a career in technology. Microsoft is hosting a day-long event on March 24th called Digigirlz Day. The event is a fun and interactive day with activities, demonstrations, labs and talks with women and girls who are already working in the technology industry. DigiGirlz days are being held across the world. For more info visit Digigirlz here: http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/programs/digigirlzday.mspx
· The Code Trip - What's a Code Trip? Think of it like Cannonball Run. Only slower, and geekier. The concept is to get out to the user groups, customers and influencers and meet with the people. Meet local talent and showcase new technologies. It’s a chance for folks to meet one on one with Microsoft specialists. Code Trip starts March 6th and ends April 15th after visiting over 28 cities. To learn more visit http://www.thecodetrip.com
This plus Microsoft’s support of local and national user groups, schools, the Product Red campaign, webcasts, product training. TechNet events, virtual machine labs, free online training, Partner Events, etc…
So, looking to learn more about the technical world around you? Need to increase your knowledge, technical savvy or your visibility? Find these many free resources and utilize them. With all the copies of Windows, Office, etc... you have bought over the years, isn't it time to reap some dividens?
Stephen is Sr. Partner and Network Architect with Odyssey Consulting Group and a Microsoft MVP in Connected Systems.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
February 17, 2008
01:37 am | 0 recommendations | 3 comments
A few weeks ago I ran into a Beta for a product called Xobni Insite. (Xobni is Inbox spelled backwards). Xobni is another in a long line of email taming tools (NeoPro, TrogBar, Jello.Dashboard, Orgoo, etc).
The big difference is this one really works.
Unlike a lot of the “inbox tamers” this one does not try to change the way I work. Instead it augments it. That was the key for me. I ran the Xobni installed, it installs a simple sidebar and starts to catalog all my emails. I have about 6 sets of Personal Folders and Xobni found them all.
Once all the emails were cataloged (it only took a few minutes) I was ready to go. I clicked on my first email in my inbox and here’s what I got Email analytics Each sender was ranked by the total amount of emails I sent them and that I received from them I got a break down of the average time when emails were received by me from that sender. I quickly realized I have too many friends sending me emails at 1:30 am.
Availability Matrix
I love this feature. I have a lot of people who do not have access to my exchange server. With the click of a button, it will send that user a list of my availability times for the next 7 days.
Instant Search
Xobni's instant search allows me to search for someone with my emails.. For example I type in Daniel, I get a Wiki search, all people with Daniel as their name or part of their name and every email with the name Daniel mentioned in the body and/or title.
Quick Attachment Discovery.
Every attachment, no matter what folder, exchanged with this user is now accessible from the panel.
Threaded Conversations
All my conversations with that user in one place. Click a thread and I see the conversation in full without leaving my inbox. I can directly reply or forward from the Xobni bar. It brings my favorite aspect of Gmail to Outlook (finally!)
Phone Numbers
Automatically extracts a contact's phone number from their signature. And supports dialing via Skype directly.
People Connected
This area shows me every person connected via email to that user. What is nice is address I have sent “one-off’s” to are listed here as they were part of communications with that user at some point.
Access to Appointments, Tasks, To-Do’s and Follow-up
All right from the Xobni bar.
The bottom line is the constant toggling between Outlook calendar, inbox, personal folders, and the to-do list is a pain and time consuming. Xobni removes all that. It lets you look for everything from within the sidebar, and correspond with people from it — all without leaving the email you were originally working on. See it in action for yourself at their site at http://www.xobni.com. If you like, they have a video demo of the product there too.
Again, Xobni is still in beta but it’s one to watch and grab when the beta is up. If you do get in, Xobni offers some free invites for your friends.
Stephen is Sr. Partner and Network Architect with Odyssey Consulting Group and a Microsoft MVP in Connected Systems.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
February 15, 2008
02:08 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Microsoft Server 2008 will be launched next week among much fanfare and hoopla.
IT professions are asking the same question we ask every time Microsoft releases a new server platform, “Is it worth money to upgrade? And What is my ROI?”
I am happy to say that for many of you (businesses with over 999 users or more than 5 servers to manage), it is worth the look and should be part of your server timeline.
Here are some of the reasons to look at Server 2008.1.
NAP
Network Access Protection is used to help ensure that any computer connecting to the network meets each company’s policy for health requirements. This includes that the virus profile is up to date. The system is spyware free, scan state requirements have been met. Through this it will restrict access till the computer has met the domains NAP/Security requirements.
Networking Performance
Window Auto-Tuning, Side Scaling, and Quality of Service are features geared towards gigabit networks giving greater control the bandwith, delivery and overall flow of network traffic.
Web Server Functions
Windows Server 2008 provides a more stable and unified platform for Web publishing. It integrates Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0), ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services to create a foundation for home grown and next generation web based business applications.4.
Hyper-V
Hyper-V supports virtualization technology. Basically, turning all your physical machines that are utilizing less that 40% of total machine resources, in to Virtual Servers. Virtualization helps businesses reduce costs, creates a true test and development platform and when coupled with the new System Center Virtual Machine Manager, makes a easy and efficient way to manage data centers
Security and Compliance
Enhanced auditing, Drive Encryption, event forwarding, and Rights Management Services have been added to allow for great security control over your network.
All of this paired with the new SQL 2008 should help to create faster, more stable platforms for all the next generation of business applications that companies are looking to move to . From Office Live to custom BI dashboards and Web Apps, Server 2008 should be a platform to better support your business initiatives.
Stephen is Sr. Partner and Network Architect with Odyssey Consulting Group and a Microsoft MVP in Connected Systems.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
