RealtyTechBytes.com » Apple Information

Best MacWorld/iWorld 2012 app!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:00:22 +0000

I spent a very enjoyable day on Thursday at MacWorld/iWorld as two friends and I wandered the aisles of the Expo and took in a couple of classes on the second floor.

Last year’s MacWorld was renamed “iPad Case World” by another friend because it seemed that nearly every vendor was selling some sort of iPad case or accessory. Because of that he decided to not attend this year’s event. Big mistake my friend, because this year there was balance between iPad/iPhone/Mac hardware and software. Some pretty amazing products were on display in all categories.

The one that really captivated me though is an app for the iPhone (an iPad app was announced but as of this writing it hasn’t appeared in the app store) that claims to be the first full featured contact manager app for the IOS 5 platform.

It comes both as a “Lite” version (FREE!) limited to a maximum of 100 contacts, and a Pro version with no such limitation (I managed to load over 3500 contacts with no problems). The price is $4.99 for the Pro version but is expected to double by March 1st.

What makes this interesting to me is that you open the app into a dashboard that says:

“Hi! Today you have X Calls, X Meetings and X ToDo’s.

This may seem trivial until you realize that you’d have to open 3 different apps on the iPhone in order to accomplish the same thing!

Contacts can be organized into groups called “Orbits” and can be color coded so that you can see how they are organized at a glance. You can message the Orbit in a single or group emails, send them a Facebook or Twitter message or even start a Skype conversation. Every time that you use the app to initiate a conversation it get’s logged so that you have a record of what you have done. Contacts are imported from Address book when you set the app up and are kept updated as you make changes in Address book.

The Calendar function is imported from iCal and as with the Contacts, any changes or additions to a contact via the Calendar function get logged automatically. There are many other features that would be useful to a real estate agent, so head on over to http://www.viporbit.com/features to learn more.

In my opinion, this was the best app on the Expo floor by a long shot. I see it giving you the best contact and calendar management features of products like Top Producer, Act, Goldmine and Salesforce at a tiny price and on your phone at that!

Realtytechbytes.com by Jerry Kidd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.Realtytechbytes.com. Did you know that I have arranged for readers of my blog to receive licensed software for free? And that there is something new everyday? Click on the link to go to the blog and look for Give Away of the day in the sidebar.

Best MacWorld/iWorld 2012 app!

Is your blog ready for the year of the tablet?

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:00:38 +0000

After several false starts, 2011 has been labeled the “Year of the Tablet”. (Here is a link to a Google search on that topic: the year of the tablet: http://realtytechbytes.com/Tablet)

When the iPad first came out there was a big rush on the part of iPhone developers to port their apps onto the new and larger interface. Apple helped out by allowing most iPhone apps to run on the iPad and even offered a 2x button to double the size of the app so that it would fill the entire screen of the iPad. Frankly, I hate the 2x versions…they just don’t look good on the larger screen.

I was waiting for some of those apps to get their native iPad apps out, but as the wait wore on I wondered what was taking them so long. Then it dawned on me…they were never going to create a native iPhone app because they were able to to provide a browser interface for the iPad that was so much better than what any app could do. A case in point is the Facebook app. It’s awful on the iPad, but works well on the iPhone. As far as I can tell, there is no need for a Facebook iPad app because with the iPad large screen, Facebook works as well on Safari on the iPad as does on my desktop..

Which brings me to my point. If you have a WordPress blog, you really need to look at how it is presented on the iPad. This blog looks ok on the iPad, but it didn’t “pop” like content viewed from Flipboard (http://realtytechbytes.com/FlipBoard) does. I toyed with changing the Theme of the blog to give it more of a modern look, but honestly, that would require more work than I have time for right now. I was in a quandary.

Then I discovered Onswipe. (http://realtytechbytes.com/onswipe) A simple WordPress plugin that took all of 5 minutes to install and now this blog looks astonishing on an iPad. And given that we are in the year of the tablet, it may turn out that more people look at my blog on their iPads than on their computers. Since this plugin is free, and since somebody is looking at your blog with an iPad right now, why not give them a treat and show them how your blog rocks the iPad?

And if you want to give people on iPhones a treat, just install WPTouch (http://realtytechbytes.com/WPTouch) on your blog and iPhone users will see your content formatted especially for them! (Free and paid versions are available.)

If you are reading this blog on an iPad or an iPhone, tell us what you think about how it looks. Go ahead and leave a comment!

The iPad 2 changed my mind

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:00:34 +0000

Last Friday (March 11th) I was in front of my computer a few minutes past midnight. Even though I am usually up fairly late, that was a new level in “lateness” for me.

I was up that late so that I could go online to apple.com and order an iPad 2. Having stood in line at the Pleasanton Apple store when the iPhone 3G came out, I was determined to never stand in line in line again for a piece of gear. I was in line for 6 hours then … met some nice people, and decided that the iPhone 3G was the best phone that I have ever owned. But, no more lines, ever. Sorry Mr. Jobs.

Apple initially said that online ordering would begin at Midnight, but later moved it to 1 AM. Ever the eternal optimist, I was online at midnight trying it out. I got through at 12:15 and placed my order. I was promised delivery within a week and thought that was a good deal. While I was online I also ordered the HDMI video adapter as well as the VGA Video adapter and one of the cool new magnetic covers.

The VGA adapter arrived on the 14th, the HDMI adapter arrived on the 15th and the iPad arrived on the 16th. I am still waiting for the cover, which should arrive on the 21st.

Longtime readers will know that I did purchase an iPad last August, but returned it 14 days later because it did not fit my needs. Since my business has me making presentations and teaching classes that require the use of a LCD projector, I really needed the ability to have the iPad output whatever was happening on its screen to the external projector. The original iPad could not do this, it was only capable of outputting Keynote presentations and Photo slide shows. This wasn’t the fault of the hardware, it was a limitation of its operating system, IOS. There were a few other issues for me as well, mainly revolving around the fact that Keynote presentations created on my Mac did not render properly on the iPad. Transitions didn’t work the same and some fonts were replaced with others. All of these issues combined created a deal killer for me, so I took advantage of the 14 day return policy and took it back.

I doubt that I’ll be returning the iPad 2 though. For one, the IOS now permits me to show everything on its screen, no matter what app I am running, on my flat panel TV using the HDMI adapter, and I can use the VGA adapter with my LCD projector to give my presentations and classes.

One small gripe remains for me though, Keynote still does not recognize the full panoply of desktop Keynote transitions and builds, nor does it recognize my favorite font.

The prospects of leaving my Macbook Pro at home when I do my next presentation is exhilarating though! As good as the MBP is, it’s heavy and I’m not getting any younger. I am leaving for a one day business trip this week and will NOT be taking the laptop. Instead the iPad 2 will be going, because it now can do everything that I would have needed my laptop to do…search websites, build Facebook Custom Fan Pages, read and send email, read my RSS feeds, and of course show my Keynote presentations!

Got to run now as I have quite a few Keynote presentations to convert for iPad use!

RedLaser puts money in your pocket

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:00:43 +0000

Yesterday I went shopping with my two grandsons. They had received some Best Buy gift cards as Christmas presents and those gift cards had been “burning a hole” in their pockets ever since.

The oldest grandson had no trouble picking out what he wanted which was a WiFi adaptor for his xbox 360. We looked at some generic USB WiFi adapters but finally settled on the Microsoft one designed just for the xbox. Because we bought an open box unit (it had Best Buy’s 30 day like it or bring it back warranty) we actually saved some money, which allowed him to buy some “points” to spend in the xbox Marketplace. Once he was done he was ready to head home and hook everything up. Not so fast…younger brother was struggling.

Youngest grandson not only had the Best Buy gift card, he also had a GameStop gift card. His struggle was the fact that he wanted some games for his DSi XL hand held game console. Best Buy had tons of games to choose from, but as the frugal brother, he was concerned that he might be paying too much at Best Buy. He knew that GameStop was just across the parking lot and his plan was to pick out what he wanted and then go back and forth to comparison shop.

You may be wondering where I am going with this, so I’ll cut to the chase. As much as I love hanging out with these two guys, I wasn’t thrilled about making several roundtrips between Best Buy and GameStop. Then I remembered that I had the RedLaser App on my iPhone (Sorry Windows Phone, Android and Blackberry users).

As he decided which games he wanted, I scanned them with RedLaser to see if there was a lower price anywhere else. He not only thought that it was very cool that I could do that (thereby raising his old grandfather higher in his estimation) he was also reassured that he wasn’t spending too much for the game. I wish that I had his appreciation of money when I was his age!

Red laser is available free in the iTunes App Store, but you can get much more info here at the website http://redlaser.com/. There is also a YouTube video to watch if that’s how you roll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_hFGsmx_6k

Here is what RedLaser Has to say about their app:

RedLaser is a barcode-scanning application for comparison shopping and finding product information using a mobile device. The state-of-the-art barcode scanning technology was created specifically to deal with non-autofocus cameras, and continues to evolve with innovative mobile visual capabilities. The RedLaser application has been downloaded over 4 million times. RedLaser is an eBay mobile application.

It’s free and it’s a pretty darn good tool to use whenever you go shopping. And it’s yet one more reason why you would only get me to give up my iPhone by prying it from my cold dead fingers!

What’s your favorite iPhone app?

Review: Gorillamobile for iPhone 4

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:00:25 +0000

Regular readers will know that I am completely enamored of my iPhone 4. I have yet to have it let me down when I need it to do something for me. Even on AT&T’s reviled network it still performs well. (When AT&T is absent I just fire up my Sprint MiFi and connect via wifi).

The inclusion of two video cameras (a front facing VGA camera and a rear facing HD camera) coupled with iMovie on the phone was icing on the cake to me. But, i have been frustrated with finding a way to mount the phone on a tripod. Apple did not engineer in an elegant way to mount the phone on a tripod.

A few weeks back I found out that Joby, the San Francisco based manufacturer of the famous Gorillapod camera accessories had released a Gorillapod especially for the iPhone 4. Of course I ordered one right away!

Watch the short video below to get an idea of what it can do. After the break, I’ll give you my impression of the Gorillamobile.

I think this is a great device for when you are shooting movies, with either camera and in landscape or portrait modes. But, I am not too impressed with it as a tripod for taking still pictures. That’s because there is a bit of wobble in the head that is noticeable when you press the “shutter” button on the screen to take a still. It’s not a big deal in movie mode because you can always edit that part out with iMovie.

Other than that, this is a keeper! Well worth the $39.95 I paid for it. And they shipped it for free to boot!

Why I returned my iPad

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:00:17 +0000

According to a good friend, and fellow technology aficionado, I caused hell to freeze over a few weeks ago when I bought a 64 GB 3G iPad after publicly stating that I was going to sit this one out, (http://realtytechbytes.com/why-i-am-not-buying-a-ipad/).

There were a couple of really good reasons for doing this, not the least of which was that I was asked to teach a class on the iPhone and the iPad! I have owned iPhones for the past 2 plus years and and know that platform inside and out. But, my knowledge of the iPad was limited to what I had read on blogs, the mainstream press and from lurking on a real estate apple products user forum. In order to deliver a good presentation I figured that I really needed to get my hands on one.

I looked into renting one for two weeks and was quoted a price of $500.00! Seriously? I don’t think so. Then I remembered that Apple has a 14 day return policy, subject to a 10% restocking fee.

So, I found myself at the Apple store at the Stoneridge Mall one day, and before I knew it, I was out the door with one! I have to tell you that it is one sexy and seductive piece of technology! I can see why people rave about it. What I can’t see is why people put up with it’s considerable shortcomings.

The device is designed to “fit” into the space between laptop and smart phone. And for some people there is a genuine need for such a device. But, after using it for two weeks, I can honestly say that my iPhone 4 got more use and was able to handle more business situations than the iPad!

The iPad does have the gorgeous display going for it. The size is nearly perfect for reading, viewing pictures and watching videos. And, if you get the Flipboard App (If you have an iPad you REAL, REALLY want this app) you’ll spend hours staying up with your social graph using the astonishing magazine style interface. The app is free in the App Store, just search for it by name. (Or click here to go to http://www.flipboard.com/)

But, here is the main gripe I have with it. I wanted to use it to do presentations in a class environment. I use an iMac or a MacBook Pro to create my classroom materials by running Keynote, Apples PowerPoint killer. I bought the Keynote App for $9.99 from the App Store and figured that I could easily transfer my existing Keynote presentations to the iPad. Not so fast! You can transfer files via iTunes when the iPad is connected, or you can email them to yourself and then open with Mobile Keynote. But, for some reason known only to Apple (Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field strikes again) the mobile version of Keynote and the Desktop version are not completely compatible! Fonts, themes and more just don’t come across very well, unless your presentation uses the basic ones that are common to both platforms.

Another gripe is that Apple has locked down the platform so that I cannot take video out of the iPad (Even using the iPad video to VGA adaptor) and display it via a projector. That was a real killer for me. It turns out that the video to VGA adapter just shows videos or pictures, not the screen of the iPad.

Other small annoyances like no camera (my iPhone 4 has two), no ability to actually access the file system via USB, ties to AT&T and the fact it is too big to easily carry around (it won’t clip on my belt like my phone) just finalized the decision to return it.

My final conclusion, echoed by others, is that this game changing device is perfect for personal consumption of information, and not so good for content creation, unless you are willing and able to live within the narrow box that Apple has defined.

So, on Wednesday it went back to Stoneridge. The blue shirted Apple minion at the door was astonished! “What, you dare to break the reality distortion field?” “Ummm, yes, I do. Gimme my money back.” And so it went.

You’ll be happy to know that all is well in Hell these days, the freeze is over.

But that Flipboard app keeps singing it’s siren song to me…and I hope that the wizards at Apple are listening to all the complaints and are building the v2 model as we speak.

Why I am not buying an iPad

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 10 May 2010 02:00:39 +0000

Are you caught up in iPad fever? Is every one you know buying one and you are feeling left out? Well, bunky, you are not alone.

I was feeling the same way, even though I had made up my mind to wait it out until the second version comes out. But the constant onslaught of reviews, posts, pages, tweets and other new media ramblings and musings was starting to have it’s way with me.

It got to the point that I was almost convinced that I had to have one. Then I remembered that I had a Motion Computing LE1600 Tablet PC sitting in drawer. I’ve had this for a few years and only ever fire it up when I want to demonstrate why tablet computers are not a good deal for real estate agents! I’ve never really used this machine because I found it awkward to use the pen device to input information into the interface. I prefer a keyboard, even though I only use two fingers to type! Go figure.

My idea was to wipe off my personal info, restore it to factory condition (I still have the original packaging and documentation) and offer to trade it for an iPad on Craigslist. I am sure that there is someone out there who bought an iPad only to find out that it won’t really do what they wanted it to do. I thought that maybe they’d like to trade for this full featured Windows XP machine.

But, then I thought WHOA! What are you thinking? I already know that the iPad will not access our antiquated MLS system here in the San Francisco East Bay, it requires Internet Explorer in order to work and the iPad cannot run Internet Explorer. (For the record, I am a Firefox user and only use IE to access the MLS). Then I remembered how often I like to work with two or three programs running at a time, like Windows Live Writer, Word, my browser and so on. The iPad has limited ability to multi task so I wouldn’t be able to work in the way that I have become accustomed.

I also remembered that I do have the external keyboard for the tablet that allows me to use it like a laptop. I know that the iPad can be equipped with an external keyboard, but at additional cost.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the tablet PC could do everything that that the iPad could do except for running apps (No need for apps when I have the actual software already). The iPad can connect via built in 3G but I don’t need that as I have a Sprint MiFi which will give me that functionality. My tablet weighs 3.2 pounds which is twice what the heaviest iPad weighs. Th iPad is reported to have a long battery life of at least 9 hours. I am sure that the tablet won’t even come close to that.

The tablet has a slew of in/out connectors as opposed to the iPad which only offers the dock connector. In all ways, the tablet is a better computer that can do more the iPad. Knowing all of this, I brought the tablet out of storage this morning, and I have updated all the software on it and I am using it to write this blog post. I still might want to trade it for an iPad, but the fact remains that this device will perform much of what the iPad can do, some things the iPad cannot do, and it will tide me over until until Version 2 of the iPad shows up!

So why is it that I still want the iPad?

How about you? Are you feeling the pressure to buy an iPad?

There is not one word about the iPad in this post!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:00:23 +0000

As I write this post it is Easter, so Happy Easter to those of you, like me, that celebrate it. Since this is a day that I reserve for family, this will be a very short post.

A few weeks ago (http://realtytechbytes.com/idxworth-itor-not/) I asked for your help by filling out a short survey…out of over 1200 readers I only received 12 responses! So, please take a few minutes to fill it out.

If you wish to receive a copy of the survey results when I am finished gathering results, please leave your first name and email address when you complete the survey, otherwise you can remain anonymous.

I am not sure what results I will get, but I am sure that they will be interesting to any agent who is spending money on IDX or who is contemplating doing so!

Please go here to take the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RBT67CK If you are having trouble taking the survey, please email me by using the contact form at http://realtytechbytes.com/contact-me/ and let me know.

And as promised, this post did not contain one word about the …!

My impression of MacWorld 2010 (and a deal for you!)

Jerry Kidd — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:47:53 +0000

I went to MacWorld 2010 in San Francisco on Thursday. This being the first year that Apple wasn’t going to be present, I wanted to see if the show would be better or worse that what I saw last year.

Being a relatively new convert to Macs (and an iPhone user since July 2008) I don’t have a lot of experience with the show. I did attend last year and was planning on attending in 2006 until a health issue derailed those plans. So, I really only have the one year to compare with this year’s show.

As my friend and uber Mac geek Ira Serkes puts it: “It was iPhoneWorld, not MacWorld”.

And I would have to agree.

There were tons of displays on iPhone apps and accessories. And tons of booths selling massage, chairs, luggage, clothing, bling and a myriad of things that made me go “hmmm”.

But, precious little software or hardware that was specific to either my iMac or my MacBook Pro.

There was one ray of sunshine, however. VMWare had a booth there and I stopped in to see them. I was having an issue with the VMWare upgrade that I did on my MacBook Pro and was hoping that they could shed some light on the issue. While I was waiting to speak with Amitabh Chakrabarty (The guy who knew the answer for me) I was asked about my usage of VMWare Fusion and was subsequently videotaped giving my answer (Maybe I will finally get discovered by Hollywood!).

After the taping and after the Q&A with Amitabh, I was offered a mystery coupon good for 5%, 10%, 50% or 100% off the purchase of VMWare Fusion 3. You simply go to their online store, place an order and then put the code in at checkout to see what discount you will get. Or, you can opt for a guaranteed 15% discount.

Since I already have a license for all three of my Macs, the coupon wasn’t worth anything to me. But, then I thought of you! I asked him for some coupons to give away on my blog and he gave me three.

So, here is the offer, On Monday (2-15-10) I’ll pick three people who leave a comment on this post and tell me why I should give them the coupon to receive one of the coupons. I’ll base my decision on the quality of your comment. In other words, a one line “I want one” comment is simply not going to cut it!

Since the coupons expire on February 19th, you’ll have to get on this right away! The retail price of VMWare Fusion is $79.99, so depending on the level of discount you end up with, this could be worth $3.99, $7.99, $39.99 or $79.99. Or you could take the guaranteed 15% discount, in which case the coupon is worth $11.99.

Not a bad deal for a few minutes of typing is it?

True Confessions of a Windows user in a Mac World – Part Three

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:42 +0000

In the first part of this series, I told you how I came from the PC world to the Mac world. In the second part I told you about the “gotchas” that are part of the process. This week I want to tell you about why it’s all worth it.

Aside from the very obvious design factors that Apple brings to the table, why would I want to pay more for a computer from Apple than I would for one that runs Windows? There are a number of answers to that question, but I’ll start with security.

You KNOW that you have to run anti-virus software on your PC don’t you? And you know that you have to keep it updated daily, don’t you? And you know that if you fail to do that basic preventative care that you WILL get an infection don’t you?

I don’t have to do that with the Mac. I do run antivirus on the PC portion of my Mac, but I run the free program AntiVir. I don’t need expensive AV products on that virtual PC because I ONLY use it for WinForms and MLS access. Every thing else is done on the Mac side of the fence. Some people say that it’s only a matter of time before virus writers learn how (or take enough interest in doing so) to write Mac specific viruses. I don’t really agree with that thinking as I believe that the UNIX operating system that OSX is built on is inherently a safer system to run.

The Macs also have Time Machine built in. Time Machine allows me to connect an external USB hard drive to my Mac and it will create a backup of my hard drive and then every time ANYTHING changes on my computer, it adds the change to the backup. It keeps the backups in a format that allows me to find anything I want going back as far as the capacity of the drive will allow. And it does so in the typical easy to figure out and use Mac interface.

Speaking of the Interface, it is truly easy to use. Apple has a very complete and nice series of videos on it’s website that you can look at when you need to learn something new. Most everything is intuitive and I haven’t been stymied for long when trying to figure out something new.

It comes with some pretty amazing software that handles my email, web browsing, contacts and calendar items. Of course iTunes and the whole iPod (and iPhone) experience on a Mac is so much better than on the PC side of the world.

I purchased Microsoft Office for the Mac so I could get Entourage, which is the Apple equivalent of Outlook. Guess what? It’s better than Outlook! I use it to connect with my company Exchange server. All of my company email, contacts and calendar items seamlessly sync with Exchange. The interface is easier to use than the one that Outlook provides.

I also purchased iWork 09 which gives me Pages, Numbers and Keynote, the Apple equivalent of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Although Word and Excel are more powerful than Pages and Numbers, Keynote beats PowerPoint hands down in terms of what it can do and the ease of doing it. I paid $129.00 for it and that allows me to install it on all three Macs. Try that with MS Office for Windows.

I believe that the agent of the future is going to have to learn to communicate using video and audio in ways that we don’t use today. Video and audio emails are so much easier to accomplish using the Mac than they were on my Windows PC. The hardware and software on the Mac is designed to work with each other and it shows in the ease of use. Said differently, it just works, every time.

Putting together multi-media presentations can be described as fun when done on a Mac as compared to doing the same thing on a PC. I often work in Keynote, save the completed presentation as a movie, drop it into iMovie, create a soundtrack in GarageBand, take the sound track and drop it into iMovie with the Keynote file and create a movie with sound and graphics that can be uploaded to a video sharing site on the Internet or emailed to clients. All done by dragging and dropping…

Finally, there is less clutter on my desk. The iMac is fully self contained. There is a power cord, an Internet cord, a keyboard cord and the cord to my external backup drive. Everything else is built into the iMac. No more separate display and big clunky box.

So, for all of those reasons, this is one PC guy who is now a Mac guy. How about you? What are you running? Mac or PC? And why? Let’s hear from you.