Some Apple fans no longer on speaking terms with Siri | 0 Comments
By brian on 02-22-2012 08:22 PM
Siri is easily the most touted feature of the 4S, Apple’s best-selling iPhone ever. And there’s speculation it might be a feature in the next version of the Apple iPad, expected to be unveiled in early March. So four months after Siri’s debut, we wanted to see how consumers are taking to the talking assistant. Is it a must-have addition they couldn’t live without, or a novelty that seemed fun at first, but now is barely used?
USA Today recently reached out to an unscientific sampling of readers to find out, and the verdict is 50-50. Some people absolutely love it, while others say they are no longer on speaking terms with Siri. Ken Burke of Vancouver, Wash., says he checked in with Siri at the beginning because it was fun, but he bored with it quickly. “I can count on one hand how many times I have used it in the last three months.
Apple, which declined to comment on this story, has not released specific numbers for sales of the iPhone 4S. But some 187 million iPhones of all stripes have been sold since the device’s 2007 launch. And in the quarter that ended last December, Apple sold a record 37 million iPhones. Verizon Wireless and Sprint now sell the phones in the U.S. in addition to AT&T, which was once the exclusive U.S. carrier. When Apple introduced Siri, it made a point of saying the feature was in “beta,” and says on its website, “We’ll continue to improve it over time.”
Gary Earl, from Nashville, says he uses Siri so much — as many as 30 times a day — “my 8-year-old boy has been telling everyone I have a new girlfriend.” He uses it for reminders, Web searches and setting his calendar. an Neves, who lives in New York but hails from Brazil, finds it “annoying” when he asks Siri to dial a family member, “and it says I found five restaurants close to you.”
Ginny Geer of Memphis says she has to repeat her request to Siri too many times and ends up “just typing in a phone number or looking something up for myself. I had a sassy teenager, I don’t need a sassy phone.”
Competing phones based on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating systems have speech recognition as well, “but they’re not nearly as refined as Siri is,” he says. Siri may be ground-breaking and the most widespread use yet of voice search, but for consumer Eric Casperson of Houston, it still has a long ways to go. While he uses Siri occasionally for reminders, more often than not, it’s just “a fun toy,” he says. “Good to settle a bar bet, asking her to do the research for you.”
Source: USA Today
What are the best apps for your new Tablet? | 0 Comments
By evp on 02-22-2012 08:13 PM
You have just received your shiny new Android Tablet and now you’re wondering what to do with it. Once you’ve played with your settings and set up your email account that next best thing is to head to the Android Market.
In the Android Market you can browse apps, music, books and truly customize your tablet for your needs. The hard part can be deciding which apps are helpful and which are a waste of time. Since Android is an open source platform new apps are created daily with some 400,000 apps to chose from. USA today can up with a handy list of the 9 must have apps for your Android Tablet. Check em out:
- Dropbox
- Double Twist with AirSync
- HootSuite
- Evernote
- Apps Organizer
- Advanced Task Killer
- Skitch
- Google Reader
- Amazon Kindle
-Source Liz Patt- USA Today
EVP knows BYOD | 0 Comments
By evp on 02-17-2012 08:21 PM
The Employee Value Program (EVP) has been offering cellular discounts for years and helping your employees save on their personal wireless bills. We also want to help with your company wireless bill and reducing any overspend. EVP has seen more companies trending towards a BYOD platform and we want to make sure you are prepared if your company is moving in that direction. Whether your company provides devices for their employees now, looking to open up a new account or just want employees to get corporate email we have solutions for all your needs.
What is BYOD? BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device. This refers to employees bringing their own cell phone or tablet and getting company email on their personal device.
What are the Benefits? BYOD is a great option for companies with multiple branches or teleworkers to make it easy to manage cell phones across multi locations. While most companies do provide a subsidy back to the employee on the monthly service; BYOD still saves the company money in equipment cost and overages charges. Allowing employees to bring their own device has proven to increase employee satisfaction and free them from carrying around two devices.
What are the risks? We have seen many organizations that move to a BYOD platform and quickly realize that employees are already accessing company email on their personal device without corporate approval. The question isn’t about allowing or denying access, but how to manage it. It’s important to know that there are still come limitations to device management and not all devices will be compatible.
What can I do to make sure my company is protected? The answer is Mobile Device Management (MDM). There are multiple software programs to help companies manage their devices and control company information pushed to employees devices. By controlling and protecting data settings for all mobile devices in your network, MDM can reduce cost and risks to your company.
Contact EVP with any questions and we can connect your with a Mobile Device Management expert to help protect your company.
How To Use Pinterest, The Hottest New Site On The Planet | 0 Comments
By brian on 02-15-2012 02:57 PM
Pinterest claims to be the fastest growing website ever, and you should be paying attention to it.
But what is Pinterest, anyway? It’s a website where people post cool pictures inside specialized pages called Pinboards—topics like art, cars, tasty food, and any other categories you can come up with. Want to get in on the fun? As always, our friends over at the Business Insider have put together a user friendly, step by step tutorial. Click below for more information…
A new Sprint Direct Connect to add to the line up! | 0 Comments
By evp on 02-08-2012 08:52 PM
The Kyocera DuraPlus, is coming in 2Q
With Nextel on it’s way out, Sprint is getting ahead of the game and creating an impressive line-up of rugged Sprint Direct Connect handsets that are sure to satisfy the direct connect hunger. The newest device coming soon to the line-up will be the Kyocera DuraPlus. The DuraPlus boasts military-grade durability and an embedded LED flashlight in a candy bar form factor. It will be available the first half of 2012 and the price is TDB.
“Kyocera DuraPlus is the ideal device for use in the construction, public safety and utility industries that demand devices that stand up to tough work conditions while delivering industry-leading push-to-talk capabilities and Sprint 3G data speeds,” said David Owens, vice president-Product Development. “This device is a dynamite addition to our Sprint Direct Connect portfolio.”
Similar to its predecessors, Kyocera DuraMax and Kyocera DuraCore, Kyocera DuraPlus can take the abuse of harsh working conditions. It’s certified to Military Standard 810G for resistance to dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, humidity, blowing rain and water immersion (up to 30 minutes in up to 1 meter of water).
The embedded LED Flashlight, with a dedicated button helps users look for house keys in the dark, navigate a power outage or change a tire on a dark road. Also unique to Kyocera DuraPlus is a remote speaker microphone jack allowing customers to use their phone with heavy duty remote speaker microphones. Additionally, it features an external charging port that enables the device to be used with a single or multi-bay charging station (sold separately). This is very helpful for businesses who issue devices to shift workers, such as shuttle drivers or security personnel.
“Kyocera designed DuraPlus with demanding industrial and enterprise customers in mind,” said Eric Anderson, senior vice president and general manager of Sales and Marketing at Kyocera Communications. “Simple things like an LED flashlight, multi-bay charging, freestanding operation and the ability to use application-specific accessories go a long way toward better productivity on the jobsite and out in the field.”
Chrome comes to some Android phones, tablets | 0 Comments
By brian on 02-08-2012 03:12 PM
Google’s Chrome Web browser in Beta is available for Android phone and tablets users — but for now, that is going be a small number of them who have the latest version of the Android operating system, 4.0 (also known as Ice Cream Sandwich), on their devices. The spare, uncluttered browser has a growing number of users.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice-president of Chrome and Apps, said in a blog post that “like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized Web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.”
Among the features of Chrome for Android, Pichai said, is that users can:
- View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome) — picking up exactly where you left off.
- Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you’ll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.
- Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.
Right now, only about 1 percent of Android users have 4.0 on their devices, according to the Android Developers website. The vast majority of Android users have versions of Android 2.7 or earlier.
If you are one of the lucky 4.0 folks, Chrome in Beta is available for download from the Android Market. If you’re not, there’s no word from Google on when — or whether — Chrome will be adapted for pre-4.0 users.
Source MSNBC
Google Docs offline comes to Android, but no editing allowed | 0 Comments
By brian on 02-02-2012 04:37 PM
Google keeps taking tiny steps toward creating a full-fledged document creation and editing experience to users of computers and mobile devices. Recently, Google unveiled an HTML5-powered app for the Chrome browser that lets you read documents offline—but not edit them. Yesterday, Google brought the same offline viewing capability to Docs for Android, but again without the ability to edit documents and then sync the changes once an Internet connection is reestablished.
Once you’ve updated the Docs app for your Android phone or tablet, you can select individual documents that you want to make available offline. The document is downloaded and it will then be available in a list of offline documents. Once you’ve granted a document offline status, though, the offline version will be updated automatically when you connect to Wi-Fi.
Google provides some more instructions on how to use offline Docs for Android. “You can make an item available offline while you have an Internet connection. You can also request to make an item available offline when your device is disconnected from the Internet,” Google said. “The item will update the next time your device regains Internet connectivity.”
Unfortunately, Google noted that “offline editing isn’t currently supported,” and hasn’t yet said when it will be offered. In September, when the company introduced offline Docs access for Chrome, Google said future versions of the browser would support offline editing, but we’re still waiting for that to arrive as well. On the plus side, Gmail’s offline mode in Chrome can work somewhat like a regular mail client, allowing you to reply to e-mails offline and have them sent automatically when an Internet connection is established.
Source Ars Technica
Finally an affordable Tablet! | 0 Comments
By evp on 01-31-2012 03:33 PM
Coming soon is the new ZTE Optik™ launching on the Sprint network. The Optik will be a great device for someone that is interested in getting a tablet, but not wanting to spend a fortune. This tablet is set to launch at $99 with an agreement or $349 with no contract with a variety of rate plans available.
The ZTE Optik™ combines 3G mobility with Wi-Fi speeds to deliver the connectivity you need. This device also delivers Android 3.2, Honeycomb OS and provides access to over 250,000 Android apps. The Optik offers an enriched multimedia experience on a 7 inch all-points capacitive touch screen, browsing on flash-embedded web sites and an amazing dual camera. Other features include:
- Mobile Hotspot-supports up to 5 users
- 4000 mAh battery
- 1.25 GHz dual core processor
- Dual cameras-5.0MP rear facing and 2.0MP front facing
- Stereo Speakers
- MicroSD capable, supports up to 32GB
Update to the Sprint discount policy | 0 Comments
By evp on 01-27-2012 09:18 PM
Beginning 2/1/12 the employee discount will only apply to the primary lines on share plans. In the past the discount was applied on secondary lines for Family and Business Share plans, but soon only the primary line will receive the service discount. While this may come as a shock for Sprint users this new policy change falls in line with the other carriers. You can read more directly from the carrier at Sprint Invoice.
For more clients this will not make much of an impact your the monthly bill and Sprint is typically the low cost leader for messaging and data plans. The link also gives a handy tool to compare the rate plans and value to other major carriers.
Laptops not getting as much internet lovin’ as they used to | 0 Comments
By brian on 01-26-2012 03:49 PM
