RealtyTechBytes.com » Product Reviews

iPhone 3G pet peeve solved!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:00:27 +0000

I was one of those people who stood in line for over 6 hours in July of 2008 to buy the iPhone 3G when it came out. I wasn’t happy to do it, but I endured the wait because the reward was so worth it.

Then Apple came out with the iPhone 3GS. It had a feature that I really wanted and that was the ability to shoot video with the built in camera, something the 3G lacked, even though it’s camera and hardware was completely capable of doing it! I didn’t rush out to get the 3GS because I wasn’t “seasoned” enough in my contract with AT&T and would have had to buy my way out the contract so that I could enter into a new one with AT&T for the new phone. I wasn’t willing to do that.

There was another option for me to be able to shoot video on my iPhone 3G and that was to “jailbreak” my phone. Jail breaking a phone is the process of installing some software that allows you to install other software that permits the phone to do things that Apple and AT&T did not want done. Like shooting video!

The problem with jail breaking a phone is that it possibly violates the warranty and the possibility of “bricking” the phone is very real. “Bricking” is a term used to describe the phenomenon of rendering your phone unusable and irreparable. Even as geeky as I am, I didn’t want to risk that. So, I contented myself with the thought that I had to stick to my Flip camera for mobile video. I like the Flip and and have used it frequently. but it means carrying another device all the time.

I just ran across the answer to problem. Ustream has released an iPhone app that will allow my iPhone 3G (and the 3GS) to shoot live video and upload it to their website and make it available to be watched by others and embedded into my blog or Facebook page.

And, it’s FREE! It’s called Ustream Broadcaster and you get it at the iPhone App Store. You’ve got to have iTunes installed on your computer to get it.

They have a very extensive help page to get you up and running so you should be able to get this done in short order.

So, problem solved, angst with the iPhone reduced, but not gone. (When can I tether my iPhone to my laptop? Come on Apple and AT&T, get with it!)

How might you use this feature? I’m thinking it makes for a great tool when out on tour. If you see something your client might like, whip out your phone, shoot a quick video and Tweet about it or load it to your Facebook page (Both features are built into the app) and let your client know.

How are you going to use it? Share your ideas by leaving a comment.

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iPhone 3G pet peeve solved!

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Tech Tuesday…

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:00:22 +0000

What’s next…Weird Wednesday? Beat’s me, but in “honor” of all the shopping madness that we are experiencing this weekend, I wanted to share my favorite starting point with you. I like this site so much that I have made it my browser start page. It’s http://www.AllMyFaves.com.

The idea behind this gem is that you can find almost any website that you might need from one convenient location.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, so go ahead and click on it so that you can explore around the page. Each website has it’s own “chicklet” style icon, and clicking on one will take you to thee corresponding web site.

The categories run down the left side. Each week they feature some interesting sites. You can browse past weeks featured sites by clicking on “Weekly Faves”. You’ll be able to lose an entire afternoon if you aren’t careful!

In addition to the US version, there are versions for the UK, Canada, Brazil and India.

One more thing I want to tell you about is my Amazon store. I write about a lot of products in this blog. I use all of them myself (or I wouldn’t write about them). I buy them from my own funds, and I am not paid for writing about them. I like it that way and you should too.

However, I am frequently asked where to get the things I write about, so I created an Amazon store where you can go and buy them. Obviously many of the products can be bought elsewhere, but the Amazon name is one that I trust and feel comfortable in promoting. If you go to my store and buy something, I will make a small commission. The commissions range from pennies to dollars, depending on the product. I will not be getting rich quick from this store, but any purchase you make in my store will help to defray the costs of hosting this blog. And for that I would be grateful. You can get there by clicking this link (http://realtytechbytes.com/my-amazon-store-books-and-tools/), or by clicking the “My Amazon Store - Books and Tools” in the top navigation bar of the blog.

That’s it for me this week. I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Own your own mobile WiFi hotspot

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:44:03 +0000

As real estate agents we have learned how to work away from our offices and to provide our services wherever the customer happens to be, at their home, their office or even at a local coffee shop.

One of the factors that has contributed to that mobility is the nearly ubiquitous presence of WiFi. Although though WiFi may be present, in our customer’s homes it is not prudent to connect your computer to a customer’s network. The reason I say it’s not prudent is because you open yourself up to catching a virus that may be on their network, and you surely open yourself up to being accused as the cause of any future problems the customer may experience on their network after you disconnect and leave.

This is where the AirCards came into play. You purchase such a card from Sprint, Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile, subscribe to a data plan and use the “card” with your laptop to access the cellular data networks. These work pretty well, allowing you to plug in the card, fire up the connection software and eventually open your browser or email client. If you are in a location with your client that does not have WiFi available, or if you didn’t want to use a WiFi signal that may be available, this was your only solution up until very recently.

If you wanted to share your AirCard connection with another person, this was not possible…they would need their own device, or you would have to disconnect and physically move the device to the other computer. Then install the proprietary connection software on the other computer before they could use your AirCard. When they were finished, you had to retrieve your device or risk losing it.

Enter a new breed of device called a Cellular Router. These devices allowed you to plug your AirCard into the body of the device. It then used the AirCard to establish a connection to the Internet and then it would transmit a WiFi signal to multiple nearby computers. This was a good workable solution that would solve two problems, namely working in an area without WiFi and being able to share the connection with multiple computers simultaneously.

Although it is a good solution, it requires two devices, the AirCard and the Cellular Router. You could pay upwards of several hundred dollars for the router plus the cost of the AirCard and it’s monthly data plan.

Recently Novatel has released a credit card sized device that combines the AirCard and the Router into one device. As of this writing, it is only available on the EVDO network which is the one utilized by Verizon and Sprint in the US. Novatel has also released a model which will work on the HSPA network used by AT&T and T-Mobile, although I have not seen it on either carrier’s website as of this writing.

After examining both Verizon’s and Sprint’s offerings via their websites, I opted to make the purchase of the Sprint unit, but bought it through http://3Gstore.com. They are authorized agents for both Verizon and Sprint and have posted reviews of both the Verizon and Sprint versions. It was their opinion that the Sprint version was the better implementation of the two (and buying the Sprint version through them was nearly $50.00 cheaper than the same thing at the Sprint website) so I purchased the Sprint one on a two year contract with a 5 GB per month data plan. Overage is billed at .05 per MB which is less than Verizon’s overage charge according to 3GStore.

So, what’s the point? For me it’s convenience. I get to carry my own private mobile hotspot that I can share with up to 4 others if I wish. It will provide WiFi to my Windows machines, my Macs, my iPhone and any other WiFi enabled device that I wish to share it with. It has a battery rated at 4 hours, can fit into a pocket or purse and does not need to be physically attached to the computer. This means that I just open my computer and connect to it’s signal as I would any other WiFi enabled hotspot. In other words, after the first time connection my computer “remembers” the device as a trusted hotspot and just connects. No fussing around with an AirCard and the connection manager software. Connection speed is a maximum throughput of 3.1Mb/s download and 1.8Mb/s upload. It is also GPS capable which will make it work with location aware websites and services. I can see this being useful with the mapping services that I tend to use.

For the security conscious among us it comes with high level security including WPA2-PSK, WEP and SPI Firewall. The User-replaceable Lithium-Ion battery provides up to four hours of run time and 40 hours standby. It’s vital stats are 3.50”x 2.32” x 0.35” and weight: 2.05 oz.

The final “kicker” for me was that with this device, my iPhone running Skype will be able to make and receive Skype calls on the Verizon network. I now have a phone that should work for me even if the AT&T network is down.

Can you imagine using one of these at an open house? Or allowing your client to access the Internet while you are driving around in your car showing houses? I think this is another device that will streamline the way that we do business and will also be a differentiator that further divides the connected agent from the technophobes.

Have you got one of these? If so, leave a comment and tell us how it’s working out for you.

Announcing the all new ePro Course

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:00:41 +0000

Many of you know that I am an ePro Certified Trainer, and as such I have been able to offer you a $25.00 discount when you sign up for the National Association of Realtors® ePro course.

I have always felt that having an ePro was a very smart move for all Realtors® for a variety of reasons and have urged all practicing real estate agents to obtain one, even if you already were an expert in using technology in your practice. However, in recent months the ePro course has come under fire because some pundits have felt that it was behind the times as regards the new social media tools that are all the rage today.

There may have been some truth to their allegations, although in my opinion, the basic course was and continues to be a sound platform for all agents to build on. The modules on effective email use, Internet marketing, hardware/software needs and planning are just as relevant today as when they were first written

But, John Reilly, one of the Principals at InternetCrusade, announced on Friday, July 17th, the release of the newly formatted ePro Course and the launch of the all new “Web 2.0 and Social Media Course for Realtors®!”

Here are some of the highlights of the new program:

Introductory pricing for members of NAR until October 16, 2009
(Existing ePros get special pricing on the new Web 2.0 course)
Included in that price is the new “Web 2.0 and Social Media Course”
If you attend a workshop that I put on you will receive 8 months to complete the course instead of the normal 6 months
They continue the offer of a free website for 90 days via Point2 for anyone attending one of my workshops.

As always, the workshops are free to attend and just for attending you will receive the free (for 90 days) Point2 website along with other valuable information that is sure to help your business…even if you don’t sign up for ePro.

Given that the introductory pricing is the lowest that I have ever seen for the ePro course, and that you also get the “Web 2.0 and Social Media Course for Realtors®” along with the free (for 90 days) Point2 website, I can’t see why you wouldn’t attend a workshop.

Just one little factoid for you before I go, NAR’s most recent Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers (free download for NAR members, click here – requires sign-in) tells us the following three facts:

61% of all homebuyers were between 18 and 44 years old
41% of all homebuyers were first time buyers
86% of those first time buyers were between the ages of 18 and 44

People in those age brackets are very comfortable with using social media tools and they have an expectation that their Realtor® will as well. Even though you may think that your clients don’t use those tools today, are you quite certain that they won’t in the future? If you plan on being in the business for any length of time you can be certain that your future clients will want this level of communication from you.

I hope to see you at an ePro workshop soon!

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.

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

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:03 +0000

Last week I confessed that I am mostly a Mac guy these days and told you how that happened to me. This week it’s only fair to tell you that the journey was not without issues, some of which are still with me.

The most obvious thing that I had to deal with was learning a new operating system. Mac OSX is NOT Windows. Things that I had grown used to in Windows either are done differently or not all in the Mac. I am very dependent on the right mouse button in the Windows world. In the Mac world it is not used that much, although it is supported. The iMac came with the “Mighty Mouse” which can do both left and right clicks, although the right click feature is turned off by default. Once you know the trick it’s easy to turn on, but I didn’t discover how until after I had purchased a standard two button USB mouse at the office supply store. Oh well.

The other “gotcha” is that most of our Multiple Listing Services need Internet Explorer 6 or 7 in order to have the availability of ActiveX controls. That’s a fancy way of saying that the MLS relies on some additional software that will only run on Microsoft Windows. Back in the day when the old school MLS software providers were developing MLS software, ActiveX seemed like the way to go. Today they could also accomplish what they need to do by using cross platform methods like Java. Will they do it? I don’t know, so if you are on your local MLS committee start moving for the change.

Also, our friends at WinForms (ZipForms) require ActiveX controls so that their FormsViewer software will work. CAR Directors take note!

Both of these would be deal killers for real estate agents wanting to use a Mac if it wasn’t for the ability of Macs to run Windows.

If you recall, last week I told you that I started my wife off with Parallels on her iMac. This worked reasonably well, but she did have the occasional issue with something not working quite right and I was often called upon to solve some obscure problem. So, when I got my MacBook Pro, I installed VMWare Fusion and when I got the iMac, I did the same. I eventually took Parallels off and installed VMWare Fusion on her iMac as well. Anybody want to buy my Parallels license?

So far, for both of us, VMWare has proven to be the more stable of the two products and is the one that I recommend.

Neither of these products is free however. You will need to plan on spending another $79.99 for VMWare (Parallels is priced similarly).

You will also need a full copy of Windows XP. (Or Vista. Both will work) This can be as much as $300 depending on where you buy it. Then you have to install VMWare and then install Windows. Both processes can be daunting if you have never done them before.

Additionally, you could “clone” your existing XP or Vista machine using the free VMWare Converter software. This process copies every bit of your existing machine and turns it into something that VMWare can open and run on the Mac. It copies XP or Vista and every file, picture, program, shortcut and link as well as any problems that might exist on the PC. Parallels has a similar program although I never did get it to work.

So, unless you are adept with computers, the setup might best be farmed out to a technician who is knowledgeable and proficient with both PCs and Macs.

Once it is all set up, you now have two computers in one machine. The native Mac running OSX and the virtual PC running Windows XP or Vista courtesy of VMWare Fusion.

When you need to run WinForms or need access to the MLS, you have to start VMWare and then start the virtual machine. Windows starts and you can then run all the Windows programs that you have installed. No problem if you cloned your old PC. If you didn’t do it that way, you’d have to install Office and any other Windows program you want. The virtual PC can use the Mac’s Internet connection, printer, speakers, camera and almost any other USB connected device. Pretty sweet!

In Part Three I’ll talk about some of the reasons why I believe the Mac is the way to go for real estate agents.

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-three/

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

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:00:41 +0000

It’s true. I am now (mostly) a Mac. I have been a Windows guy since 1986 when I bought my first PC, an IBM XT Clone. It ran DOS 3.1 and had an amber monitor. I used that computer to catapult my fledgling real estate business into the top 10% of my office within my first 18 months in the real estate business.

And I never looked back. I went from PC to PC, always getting the latest and most powerful PC on the market. Except for my laptops, I always built my own PCs from components and in the process gained a really in depth knowledge of computers and how they worked. I knew about Macs but also “knew” that they weren’t meant for any serious business. I even rented time on a Mac Classic at the local print shop to learn how to do flyers on it. I was honestly baffled by the mouse and the user interface in general and never went back.

Along the way I obtained three increasingly complex certifications from Microsoft that further expanded my knowledge and cemented me to the Windows platform. Whenever any one new to our business would ask about the type of computer to buy, my answer was always the same, a Windows PC from a reputable manufacturer.

In the last few years though, a crack has been appearing in my Windows armor. It started when Apple announced that its operating system was going to be built upon UNIX. This meant that users of Macs would have better security and stability available to them as UNIX is the operating system used by many large businesses to run their operations. But, UNIX is not user friendly to say the least. The magic that Apple applied was to layer their wonderful user interface over the UNIX background and in so doing, brought UNIX to the masses. The user of a Mac has no idea that they are actually running UNIX. Apple did a superb job on bringing together an industrial strength operating system with an award winning graphical user interface.

The crack widened further when Apple announced that it was going to change the hardware that they used to build their products to the same hardware used in PCs. That meant that the Microprocessor was going to be of the Intel line instead of the Motorola Power PC line. This was huge, in my book, as it meant that it would now be possible to run Windows on a Mac. Up until this point if you wanted to run Windows programs on a Mac, you could do so, but at an enormous penalty in terms of speed, as the software had to “translate” the software into to something that the PowerPC processor used in Macs could understand, and then translate the output back into the Intel based Windows software. This caused these programs to run extremely slowly.

The final split occurred for me when I learned that it was possible to run both Windows and Mac operating systems and all of their programs side by side on a Mac by using virtualization software. Virtualization software by Parallels or VMWare creates a “virtual PC” on the Mac’s hard drive. A virtual PC exists only in software and is invoked by merely clicking on an icon on the Mac. The virtual PC can co-exist with the Mac allowing you to switch between Mac or PC with the click of the Mouse, or it can take over entirely. It can also be put to sleep where it waits to be called to life. When it’s not in use it claims no resources and when it is brought back to life it does so immediately without the painfully slow Windows boot up process.

The Mac can be “taught” that certain things should always be run on the Mac side or should always be run in Windows. If you click on something that should only be run in Windows, the virtual PC starts and the appropriate Windows program runs! It’s like having two computers in one. How cool is that?

So, I began my move to the Mac. I started by buying my wife a 24” iMac in October of 2007. I installed Parallels on it for her and then installed Windows XP Professional (although XP Home would have worked as well for her).

Then in January of 2008 I bought a 17” MacBook Pro for my self and installed VMWare Fusion in it as well as Windows XP Pro. Finally, when my home desktop computer began to show signs of obsolescence I replaced it in April of 2009 with a 24” iMac. I installed VMWare Fusion and Windows XP Pro on it. In fact, I used the software from VMWare to install an exact copy of my old Windows PC on the Mac. Wow! Who knew that you could do that?

So, my move is nearly complete. I still have a Vista Windows 7 machine in my office and my tablet and convertible laptops are XP machines. I just bought my wife a new Asus EeePC 1000HE Netbook, as Apple has not entered the tablet or netbook markets.

So, what is the experience like? That will be the topic of next week’s post! Stay tuned.

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-two/

The best free file storage (and sharing) tool you have never heard of

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:00:21 +0000

One of the best free tools on the web that you probably have never heard of is drop.io. Drop.io is a simple file storage and sharing site that you access with your web browser. You can upload up to 100 MB of files (for free) and share the customizable web address with any one that you choose. They will be able to navigate to the drop and download files, add files, comment on files or delete files depending on the permissions that you assigned when you created the drop.

You can also fax files to the drop, call it’s private phone number and leave a voicemail message that can be listened to by anyone accessing the drop, or even hold a conference call using the drop’s built in conference calling feature. A recently added feature allows you to conduct webinars through the drop.

The drops are anonymous, meaning that you do not have to provide a name or email address to create one, although you may wish to do so to ensure that the folks at drop.io can assist you if you forget the name you gave your drop. (This means that there is no need to log in to the drop to view it) The only way to find your drop without their assistance is by remembering the name you gave it…the drops are not indexed by any search engine! You can password protect the drop and ensure that casual passersby cannot access the drop.

The major complaint that I have heard from people is that they can’t understand how to use drop.io, so I have created a video to take you through it step by step. Take 15 minutes and follow along. I think that you’ll be amazed at what it can do for you and all for free to boot!

Evernote, your online and offline brain

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:20:54 +0000

I’ve written about Evernote before, ( http://realtytechbytes.com/information-overload-solved/) but I wanted to give you an updated posting on it because several people have told me that they do not understand what the big deal is all about.

Instead of typing 500 words, I thought I’d just do a short (8 minutes) video on it for you. This way I can show you a few of the features that I really like.

I hope that you like it!

Your next Laptop is a NetBook

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:59:07 +0000

If you are in the market for a new computer you may want to give some serious consideration to the newest generation of computers, the netbook.

What is a netbook? Although there are some differences of opinion, a netbook is generally considered to be a notebook style computer that has a screen size from 8” to 10” (diagonal measure), weighs less than 3 pounds, has 1 GB of RAM, either a solid state drive or a traditional hard drive, and has WiFi, webcam and microphone built in. They generally run with an Intel Atom processor which is much less powerful than what you find in mainstream laptops or desk top machines.

In non technical terms, this means that you can have a lightweight, small computer that is perfect for email, web browsing, MLS access (Windows versions only), Skype video calls, Instant Messaging, watching online videos and light computing tasks. In other words, a perfect machine for the real estate agent on the go!

When you factor in the cost, generally less than $500.00, you come up with something that will be hard to beat!

Some of the downsides are that the machines are not powerful enough to do any video rendering, photoshopping and anything that requires lots of RAM and powerful processors. The small screens and smaller keyboards can be a problem for the visually impaired or the expert touch typist. For a hunt and peck guy like me the keyboard isn’t a problem.

This is a rapidly changing market, but currently the brand leaders are MSI, Asus, HP and Dell. Here are some links to product reviews so that you can compare the different models for yourself, ZDNet Reviews and PCWorld Reviews

But for our purposes I would recommend the following specifications:

Intel Atom Processor
1 GB RAM (If you can get 2 GB, go for it!)
160 GB Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows XP Home or Vista Home
10” Screen
WiFi
WebCam
Built-in Microphone

You won’t want to run Microsoft Office on these machines, but Google Docs or OpenOffice offer Microsoft Office compatible free applications that will handle all of your normal word processing needs. And if you get a machine with Microsoft XP or Vista installed you’ll have no trouble accessing the MLS. (Many of these machine also have Linux as an operating system option).

Check out netbooks before buying a new laptop…you could save hundreds (or thousands) of dollars.