Author Archives: eddiehcomputerman

Get a Grip on Being Fly! The new Flygrip for mobile devices!

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I recently had the privilege to attend CTIA 2012 in New Orleans recently and what I walked into was Smartphone accessory world! Tons of manufacturers were there trying to decorate your phone with the latest and greatest technology from chargers to cases. But one product stood out; not just here but worldwide! Featured on the May 11, 2012 Today show with Kathie Lee and Hoda, the FLYGRIP stole the show as the top accessory for the Smartphone! Let me explain to you how it works…

THis is how you hold the flygrip Using a 3M adhesive, you stick the Flygrip onto either your phone directly or to your case. Once installed, you can use the Flygrip 3 ways; First way is to actually hold it in your hand. Using your middle and ring fingers (don’t worry. They have 3 sizes to choose from), you can have the Flygrip between your fingers to “hold” your phone in place. It is perfect for navigating the screen using your thumb or when your hands are tired. In fact, many doctors agree that prolonged gripping of your phone can lead to early stages of arthritis! That is one way to use it. Now, if you take the clip and tuck it under a groove in the device, it becomes both a portrait AND landscape kickstand! No more teasing from HTC EVO users that already had a kickstand. It works great either way, allowing you watch movies or keep track of the sports scores without having to prop your phone up against something. And when you are done with the device, it folds up nicely, right to about ¼ inches which means if you have a holster you enjoy placing your phone in, as long as it is wide enough for an additional ¼ inches, the phone will still fit just fine!

There are both pros and cons with this wonderful product. On the great side, its customizable. From colors to design, you can make your Flygrip look like pretty much anything…in fact even Lady GaGa has a customized version of her own Flygrip! There are 7 colors to choose from along with the ability to add stickers to the device to give it your own personal touch. The next big pro of the Flygrip is its diversity. Heck, using 2 Flygrips you can even keep a 9.7 inch iPad in place. I have already seen these used on Iphone, Androids, Kindles, Blackberries, Tablets, and even feature phones. The third great thing about this is that what when you have it on, it is almost impossible to either drop your phone or have it knocked out of your hands (which has happened to me a few times) The only grip I personally had with this was the adhesive. It is permanent so it takes a little butter knife and tugging to get one off, and they only give you one additional adhesive…which means you only got 2 shots to get it installed correctly so make sure you REALLY want this directly on your phone or your favorite case.

We are all happy using our Flygrip!

All in all, I love this product. The reps at CTIA were very friendly and helpful explaining the benefits of the product and the ways to use it. (Thanks Abbie and Chih Chin!) I truly believe this will be a staple product for Smartphones for years to come!

Tab! You’re IT! A History of Tablets By: Eddie Hines

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Tablet history
I think we have to start this history in 2003 with Microsoft’s rendition of the tablet. Up until then, people only thought of the laptop as the only mobile device you needed. Yes it was heavy; but it was portable and allowed you to access the internet. And yes the battery life was only about an hour, and yes, it ran a slow operating system, and yes it was hard to keep it from breaking, but hey is that not what $1000 was for? Well Microsoft had a concept that blew a lot of people away…make the screen able to be drawn on using the same style their Pocket Pc uses and make the physical keyboard an option rather than an accessory! Thus the Window XP Tablet PC edition was born!

The first of the hybrid Tablets emerge

THis was one of the first Windows XP tablets released

With the weight being half that of a laptop, battery lives going up to 4 hours, and more mobile options to take advantage of, people seemed to be satisfied with the newest entry to the mobile market…that was until February 10, 2009. That’s when Apple, 2 years removed from their introduction of the Iphone, created a new concept…a lighter, faster, more battery efficient version of the IPod touch, calling it the iPad! At first, nobody cared. It was expensive, non upgradable, with limited software options. But that’s when the marketing blitz began. Apple actually gave their iPad to key celebrities, business companies and key personnel for free! That was the perfect strategy though. Combined that with the great commercials Apple launched and told people the possibilities they could do that the Windows Tablet could not do. It worked. The iPad ran the same type of apps the Iphone did, but with a bigger screen. They had a 3G option. It gave you the option of using the data port for multiple accessories. It powered on quick. It powered off quick. AND it lasted up to 10 hours with the ability to upgrade the OS for free! Sales skyrocketed over the next 6 months, while the Windows tablet went the way of the dinosaur. In fact, Apple can say they reinvented the Smartphone…and the tablet!
Tablets vs. Smartphones
Ok people as if I own a Smartphone, why would I need a tablet? That’s a great question. And if you enjoy going blind with that small text, lower battery life and small screen apps, keep on using it. But for the rest of us, the iPad and Android Tablets opened the door to a whole new way to run apps. The screens were large and vivid, whether it was a 7 inch, 8 inch, and a 9.7 inch variety, users were able to now read E-books with ease, use the bigger virtual keyboard to write emails, and let you keep the device on for up to 10 hours. Combined with the multimedia explosions of Hulu and Netflix’s ability to watch full screen shows and movies, the tablet was the hottest technology to buy to take the burden off of your Smartphone, or feature phone if you still have one of those!
A new device has recently come out called the Galaxy Note, which is the most controversial phone ever. Why? Its 5.3 inches!!!! People don’t know whether to call it a Smartphone or a tablet. In my option, anything over 4 inches should not have voice phone capabilities because after that, holding that to your head is just a little strange.

Tablets AND Smartphones
The other people ask; if I own a Smartphone, why wouldn’t I also use a tablet? Another great question! With the technologies like Bridge (RIM’s Blackberry Playbook shining feature), users were now able to buy just the WIFI versions of the tablet, and use their Smartphone to “tether” their data plan over to their Tablets for anytime data access. I myself, jail broke my IPhone 4 to give me the ability to tether my plan to my IPad 2 so I can move freely around getting on the internet not needing to be in a WiFi hotspot any longer. It saved me the extra $100 I would have had to pay for the 3G version of the IPad. I hope that AT&T and Verizon decide to make this a non jail broken option…but since they want to sell the 3G and soon, 4G IPad and tablets, that won’t happen.
Another advantage of having both is that you can now clean your Iphone or Android of all that data you can now put on your Tablet. That allows you to not need all that space. For users wanting to buy both, but the 16 GB Iphone or Android, and a 32 GB IPad or Android Tablet, and you are all set.
Tablets vs. laptops
The final group of people asks; if I have a laptop why would I need a tablet? I would ask those people, if you had a tablet, why not sell your laptop? And here’s why… Ever try to get through the airport with your laptop? You have to turn it on, wait for it to boot, and then power it down all the way to avoid errors. With the tablet, you press one button for instant on, and the same button for instant off. Heck with the IPad 2 smart covers, you just life the cover up and down and you are through security. The price of a laptop too has fluctuated from $400 to $1000 but you get what you paid for. I enjoy the prices of the tablets, ranging from $200 to $800, giving you the same and sometimes more for your buck than the laptops or the net book options out there.
Do I even have to mention the health benefits of owning a tablet? It’s WAY lighter and easier to carry around. My chiropractor friend agreed that people that exchanged their laptops for tablets, even if they use a rolling case, saved a ton of wear tear on their spine over the course of a year. A tablet is also easier on the eyes thanks to the increased display technologies too expensive for laptops.

Conclusion
In 2012, experts estimate that tablet use will surpass laptop use by 2015. Walking around the airport, I see so many IPad and tablet users who did not even know what it was only 2 years prior. That shows how many people desired just a lighter laptop for a fair price. And these same people also use Smartphones just as much. Again thank you to Apple for not just declaring Microsoft the winner of the Tablet and took a huge risk to reinvent it. Go and pick up yours today!

RIM Shot!

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Let’s look back at 2007 BEFORE the IPhone craze began…RIM’s Blackberry was the #1 manufacturer of smart phones, Palm ran the PDA world, and Microsoft was actually competitive in both arenas. Everyone wanted a dedicated mail server delivering quick emails and little else with their phones. They did not care much about touch screens, apps, or even advanced features. They wanted a phone that works that they can email people quickly using their QWERTY keyboards. That was then…this is now.
Since the IPhone and the birth of the Android Smartphones, the focused has shifted from the business community to the casual consumer buzz. Nowadays, people want fun apps, visual voicemail; quick text messaging and even on-screen keyboards to give them more screen real estate. Blackberry was pushed to the curb faster than that guy Lou Gerrig replaced on the Yankees! What did blackberry initially do to respond? NOTHING! They just kept making the same phone, with the same design, using the same mail servers. They had their niche, the corporate world and they were very confident things in that area were not going to change. Then Apple shifted their focus.
Since 2010, Apple products have increased 500% or more in the corporate sector, whether it is the IPhone, the iPad, or both. Apple has refocused their strategy to appease the corporate world, starting with MS Exchange support, business orientated apps, better messaging features, and more affordable solutions for bulk purchases. The phone carriers have helped them along, offering better subsidized phone offers, better minute plans, and more data plans companies can afford. RIM has tried to tell the world that you need Blackberry Enterprise Servers over MS Exchange due to reliability, but that all changed once the BES went down for over 2 days back on October 12, 2011. Once that happened, companies panicked and cancelled their BES systems and signed right up with Exchange servers. That pretty much eliminated the need for the blackberry; so many companies just ordered an Iphone or an Android device and moved their corporate email over there. This spelled doom for RIM in general, with many rumors spelling their ultimate demise and takeover ran wild over the internet.
RIM changed their tune in just the past 6 months with extinction on the horizon. They first started with created their first ever touch screen device in 2008…the STORM which ran on the Verizon network. It was met with marginal success so they created the STORM 2 in 2009 which was a total flop. They then created something nobody thought they ever would in 2010…a hybrid touch screen/physical keyboard phone called the TORCH, which ran on the AT&T network. It was a total hit and gave the RIM Company a new breath of life. That still did not satisfy the bean counters, who wanted RIM to begin penetrating the tablet world as well. They introduced a new tablet, the Blackberry Playbook, which gives the consumer all the features of the IPad for a more reasonable price. On February 21, 2012, the second rendition of their OS, version 2.0 will be debuting all over the world which will give Android compatibility and Kindle support! They also updated their other blackberry phones’ OSs several times, emulating more the iOS and Android systems than their own Blackberry brands. Their recent update, allowing touch screen phones to be their main product, I feel is their last ditch attempt at survival before major decisions have to be made on their future. Will it help? Who knows, but as long as the brand is prominent with major companies like Delta, they won’t go away quietly!

2 Years into Windows 7 and you still have not upgraded?

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By Eddie L Hines…Founder of ComputerMan!  PC Services

 

By the time you read this article, Windows 7, the successor to Windows XP and replacement for Windows Vista will be going to be 2 years old. People, however are still humming along with their Windows XP machine saying “Why should I upgrade? XP is working ok for me”!  The truth is, people are going to be skeptical to want to because of all the growing pains it took to learn Windows XP. In fact, people still don’t know how to use XP without a book or a geek by their side showing them what to do.  For businesses, it does take 2-3 years to migrate their entire company from one Operating system to another, with lots of testing and compatibility checks.  But you have at most what? 3 computers? With the price breaks Microsoft is now offering for multiple computer households, you wont have to break the back to upgrade.  But maybe you fall into one of the three categories below which is contributing to your hesitation…

Let’s break down first what I believe to be the computer knowledge percentage theory, and then I will let you know how Windows XP and “7” fit into that theory. Let’s say 100% knowledge represents everything there is to know about computers (computer genius). These people probably work for a computer company already or hacking into another one. Now let’s go in the other direction…

33 percenter (Computer illiterate) – This person only knows how to turn on the computer (sometimes), run a few applications they use most often, go to a website, and maybe push the start button. They are not capable of most things beyond the basics, modifying their PC environment, troubleshoot simple problems, or get into safe mode if needed. In fact a way to tell a 33 percenter is to ask them where the desktop is. They may even say the computer is sitting on it. These people are more likely to swallow their pride and have a pc tech come and do all the maintenance and repairs on the PC.

66 percenter (Computer Savvy) - This person is a little bit better. They can do light troubleshooting, install or uninstall applications, modify their settings themselves, and go into safe mode to diagnose a startup issue. They sometimes do their own maintenance but some of the more sophisticated problems are over their heads. Some of this group can actually get into the control panel, but only understand about 5 of the 20 icons that are on the screen. Don’t trust these people with advanced topics, like network troubleshooting or the event viewer. They are more than happy to call a tech for that!

85 percenter (Computer Guru) – Now we are getting into my territory. These people know how to repair simple to difficult computer issues as well as creating solutions to problems that are uncommon. They can setup networks, troubleshoot BSOD issues, hardware errors and advanced internet setups. These people, when they have the power, are able to teach the 33 percenters how to use their computer more efficiently, and the 66 percenters how to have more confidence in what they already know. By allowing the less fortunate people are the people they serve. The 85 percenters are a godsend to this new world of technology.

Now getting back to my main topic, Windows XP was designed for the 66 percenters and up. The so called wizards in the computer settings were not designed for the simple minds of the 33 percenters to grasp. In order to change your wallpaper, there are 3 ways to do so, but XP never shows you exactly how to do it. You would have to know to right click an empty area of the desktop, and click properties. 33 percenters don’t even have a chance! And forget it if you do get an error…the instructions on how to diagnose it might as well be Japanese to you.

Which is why Microsoft corrected this problem by creating…
Windows 7. The OS WAS designed finally for the computer illiterate in mind. Now when you want to change the wallpaper, right click the wallpaper itself and select personalize. There you can change it to whatever you want using the easy to see and understand menu that’s provided. And let’s say you wanted to connect a remote printer to your computer. In XP you have to be a genius to manually set the IP address along with the advanced settings on how the printer will print once it gets the data from your computer. With “7”, you have 3 steps…select PRINTERS from the NEW start panel, select ADD PRINTER, and yes connect it from a network. The PC automatically searches your network for any printers it finds. That’s it! As long as you have the driver CD that came with the printer (with newer models that is no longer needed), then you are ready to print a test page and begin using your printer. This also goes for wireless adapters, mobile devices, and MP3 players.

Here is a bonus…if you purchase the business version on Windows 7; you get a free copy of XP that will run in emulation mode within Windows 7. This means that if you have any applications that only run on XP, you can still purchase Windows 7 and run those apps in an XP only environment!

So before you say poo poo to moving on to Windows 7 this fall, ask yourself, what percenter are you?

 

The Power of Facebook

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By Eddie Hines

 There was a recent article written recently about what would have happened if Facebook existed on September 11, 2001.  I would like to expand on that by asking, How much power have we put into Facebook?

Facebook was created of course by Mark Zuckerburg in February, 2004 (Awesome movie, “The social Network”, if you want more details on its rise).  What Facebook started as and what it is now is now light years apart.  There is another social networking site, LinkedIn, that specializes in business contacts and networking, yet one of my friends straight out told me, “I can get more contacts to get a job on Facebook than I could on Linked In!”. Why? Well let me show you how…

The first thing Facebook gives you is access—to people, businesses, celebrities, and opportunities.  With the popularity Facebook provides, businesses are now using Facebook to lure people into their brick-and-mortar businesses using the “Like” process, created “fan” pages and offering discounts for being a part of their Facebook Community. Plus they get instant feedback from the customer on how to improve their products and services, and provide free marketing and advertising of the new services and products they want to promote.

The second thing Facebook provides and connections! Before Facebook, if you wanted to connect with your old classmates, you had to pay a ton of money to be a part of an Alumni group, and then fly to where your hometown was every 10 years or so just to see how time has treated all your faux friends.  Not anymore!! Now you can peek in on the lives of your old classmates as much as you want; as long as they “friended” you on facebook. This way you can talk to them as much or as little as you want without having to travel anywhere. This method saves so much time and money from being disappointed at what you see.

Another thing Facebook now provides is protection.  Before Facebook, if a person dropped off the face of the Earth, It would take days to find them, God forbid.  With Facebook, if you use the “Places” feature, people can now know where you are at and if you stop communicating on Facebook for a while, people now will know if something actually went wrong with you.  18 months ago, someone was in trouble—they were kidnapped and taken to an abandoned warehouse far from civilization.  What the criminals did not count on though, was that the victim had her phone on her that had Facebook on it.  All she had to do was wait until she got a carrier signal, then popped on Facebook, updated her status with the situation and told everyone where she was using the location tag…the police followed the tag right to the warehouse and the perpetrator got arrested…with nobody getting seriously hurt! The power of Facebook!

In my opinion, Facebook is one of the greatest inventions of communications ever designed!  So the next time someone says “you are on Facebook too much”, they should thank Mark for creating a great tool. It just made this huge world just a little bit more intimate tonight!

How to make your PC last longer

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Whether your computer 1 day or 10 years old, these next 10 tips can help your biggest technological tool last much longer. I always recommend backing up your data just in case, but if you follow these tips the chances for disaster will greatly decrease.

1. Once every 6 months, take a air gun to the inside of the PC. Dust and animal fur/dander can destroy a PC. You know it only takes 30 volts to electrifry your computer so make sure that when you open your computer, take an air gun and blow out any dust that exist on the system board and the fans that are in the computer. This will literally lower the temperature of the computer, making it last longer.

2. Make sure your PC is not on the ground, especially carpet. Place it at least 3 inches above the ground. Many computers that overheat and die were on the floor for years with tons of dust in it. Just elevate the computer on a chair, a stool, or a table, and that will solve that issue.

3. Make sure you have the latest drivers for all hardware you have installed. This may require a little work, but it helps. For every piece of hardware they is software that sometimes get corrupted and the manufacturer knows that. They will let users know of the update but not you directly! You have to bookmark the websites of all the manufactures and monitor them for any updates.

4. Know what anti-virus you have installed. I cant stress this one enough. There are so many fake programs out there claiming to be an antivirus program getting rid of problems, when all along they are tricking you to click on their links to doom! When you know what you already have, you wont be tricked into installing something you don’t want.

5. Don’t eat or drink near your computer. Food and drinks can short circuit a keyboard, a laptop or anything electronic. That’s why the dining or kitchen table was created. Use it!

6. Keep kids away from your computer. Kids can navigate to websites you don’t want to be at. Make sure you installed internet security that prevents them from going to unauthorized websites or installing naughty programs.

7. If you see even a hint of something wrong, have it checked out immediately!! Don’t let your pride bring you down! Call someone if you notice anything out of the ordinary, like a slower response time, pop ups, blue screens or browser issues. Better to be safe than sorry especially where your data is concerned.

8. Only add new software or hardware from well-known companies. Hardware that cost $10 when the average cost is $50 is trouble written all over it. Faulty hardware can destroy a computer so make sure you know where you programs or hardware is coming from. Pirated software can also mess up your pc with unknown errors and viruses so buy your software from either the manufacturers website, the store, or your ComputerMan. You may save some cash in the short term, but you will be killing your computer over the life of your purchase.

9. Windows 7. If your PC is able to, upgrade your computer to the latest operating system. Windows 7 is not only the most stable OS to date, it is easier to use, maintain, and run even if your computer skills are at a minimum. If your pc is too slow to run Windows 7, then make sure you have the latest software updates installed on Windows XP using Windows Updates. A lot of issues that you may have may already been addressed long ago, but you just did not know. This includes Java! Java is the biggest vulnerability in computers that viruses can attack, so make sure you go to www.java.com and download the latest version of that software.

10. Don’t overtax your computer. Giving your computer more work than it can handle is not a good idea. If you do, it just increases your chances of a total meltdown. You are better off spending the money to get a bigger hard drive, more RAM, or more ports to plug all your peripherals in.

There are many more ways to extend the life of your digital best friend, and I will point them out in the future, but if you do have any questions or need service on your computer to address any of these issues, you can always call, the COMPUTERMAN!

To IM or not to IM?

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Remember the days when if you wanted to talk to someone you would see them face to face, or call them on the phone?  When you did you got an immediate reaction to whatever you said to them and you also knew they tone they were speaking in to indicate if they were genuine or sarcastic.  Well with the advent of email and now text messaging you really have no idea what the words means that are coming out of the persons mouth you are chatting with.

I recently ran into an issue where I was chatting with someone on the IM and freaked them out because even though I was asking legitimate questions about solving their computer issues, they misconstrued it something else because all they saw were the words I was typing, not the tone I was speaking in nor the emotions I was feeling.  This could all be avoided by following some simple rules when it comes to Instant messaging, or IMing someone.

First lets introduce the main players in the IM game

1.      AIM 9.0

2.      Yahoo 9.1

3.      Windows Live Messenger 10.1

4.      Skype 4.0

Now you have to learn what emoticons are. They represent emotions that you can use characters on your keyboard to represent. For example

: ) is saying I am smiling or happy

: ( says I am sad

;) says I am winking at you…usually deals with romantic flirting

: O says I am shocked at what I just read

LOL means laughing out loud

ROFL means rolling on the floor laughing, apparent you have a good sense of humor

There are hundreds more from within the chat programs themselves or you can do a Google search on the topic to learn more.

If you don’t specify the intention and tone of your words you too may be misinterpreted so much they may just log off to get away from you!

My Experience in running the Droid…on a Windows Mobile Phone!

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Have you ever worn a friend of yours outfit just to see what it would feel like to be them for a day? Well

the Touch Pro 2 owners are getting that experience now…with a unique opportunity to run the Android 2.1 OS on their Touch Pro 2 Windows Phone. Thanks to developers named XANDROID, they have developed a temporary way for you to actually run the Android OS on your Touch pro 2…an unfinished version of course…for you to see just how the other half lives.  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=627997

To start off, you have to install an 86 MB cab file onto your storage card.  This will then create a folder on your card that has all the files needed to boot the Droid on your phone, including creating a shortcut to launch it. In the past the install was so primitive, you had to create your own shortcut of haret.exe yourself which was tedious and frustrating.  After you launch the software the first time (it takes about 3 minutes to boot) you will then get a chance to calibrate the screen. Be careful at this part because if you don’t do it right, you can’t navigate the screen at all and you will have to start all over! Since this is a one-time thing, you don’t have to worry about it after the first boot. After that, you will be presented with a setup screen similar to the Droid’s counterpart. Enter your Gmail info and setup wireless (which now works except for WEP connections) and you are now ready to run!

With this rendition of the Droid, there are some omissions the developers are still working on.  There is no sound…at all, but you can hear phone calls and speak very clearly into the microphone.  Dialing defiantly works fine, along with navigation of the Home screen.  Similar to the Droid, you get 3 home screens to add widgets or shortcuts onto, as well as the ability to download software from the Market (I would not download things you have to pay for just yet). The software load and movement is rather quick and the ability to customize it makes it shine very well.  However don’t try to charge the device—that still is flaky, or try to put the phone to sleep.  Even though there is an option to do so (just press the END key on the phone) it does not totally go to suspend mode, just screen off. This method still drains the battery so be careful.  There are other buttons on the TP2 that trigger the appropriate Android function, like the back key, the menu key and the dialer key.  There is even a task manager (executed my pressing the power button) and double functions for most of the buttons. The volume buttons would work if there was sound, and the ability to reset the phone back to Windows is now active by holding down the END key for 3 seconds.  Other things that are not ready for prime time yet are…

  • BT
  • GPS
  • Camera
  • Open gles: using software rendering for the time being.

All in all, they are doing a wonderful job so far.  They are far from finished, but soon you will join the likes of the MacBook Pro and have the unique power to dual boot your phone to Android…or Windows (Maybe a WinDroid???)

HTC…What are they doing RIGHT?

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This week at CTIA the buzz was all around HTC as they announced 5 brand new phones in the previous 2 months; the latest at CTIA itself! I was so fortunate to be able to talk with Keith Nowok, Media Relations Coordinator for HTC to explain how this success is affecting the company.

The 5 newest devices, The Desire, Legend, Mini HD, HD2, and the Evo 4G all have one thing in common…they are gorgeous and powerful! Keith explained that the goal was to bring the user closer to the device and not the other way around. He commended Apple on the innovation of the IPhone, but noted that it was one shape, one size, 2 colors, and limited personation. Their devices however, allow the user to make the phone their own, with different color variations, different styles, and even different flavors of Operation Systems. Currently, HTC manufactures phones that have Windows Mobile software, Google Android software, and BREW Symbian software in it. That’s not all. HTC has also created devices that got rebranded by other companies such as HP, T-Mobile, Palm, I-Mate, and even Sony! Their aggressive approach to market penetration is second to none and with the great relationship they have with the carriers, I don’t see them slowing down soon.

Marketing is a key to the success of HTC, Keith noted. Having the ability to show themselves as HTC and not hide behind another brand helped a lot, but it was not all about that. He wanted the user experience as top priority when creating the phones. Even though some of the phones are not selling as well as others, HTC never gives up on a device or a carrier, as they just pumped out the new Sprint 4G Evo on March 23, 2010 as the first phone to run Google and have WiMax service built in! They not only outshined the IPhone, but Verizon as well, as they beat them to market as the first 4G device to be sold to consumers (Their release of the Evo is slated for summer 2010).

No longer hiding in the shadows, HTC is now the most recognized phone manufacturer in the world next to Apple. Keith mentioned that once he tells people who he works for, they let him know how great the product is (after they notice the HTC logo on their phone!) I for one love HTC and the success they have had in the past 15 years. From the Compaq Ipaq in 2001 to the first PDA Phone for a major carrier in 2002, to their industry changing 4G Evo today, HTC is leading the charge over the completion in innovation, design, and function. HTC stands for High Tech Computing, but they also should be called “Happy Trails, Competition”!

Which Phone OS is the most popular now?

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I am writing this from the show floor of CTIA Mobile Life 2010 in Las Vegas. The main question I wanted to learn here is which phone; blackberry, Iphone, Windows, Palm, Symbian, or Google is the phone that most people are using today. Now you may ask, why at a convention? Just ask regular people on the street! Ah, but there is a method to my madness! You see, these people NEED a reliable versatile phone to do their daily work, so they will only use a phone that they trust. This is the perfect place to see what phone they rely on for business and pleasure. What I am going to do is walk up to as many people as possible and just ask them to show me their phone(s). I will tally them up and at the end of each day I will summarize what the trends are. To recap from last year, Blackberry hands down was the overall winner, almost 2-1 over Iphone and Windows Mobile, although Android (Google) phones were just getting started and the new Palm WebOS did not even exist yet. So without further adieu, here we go!

The Blackberries and Iphones stole the show! I had about 60 people answer my poll, and it was almost split between the IPhone and the Blackberry, although Android did have a few more phone users than expected with 7. The sad turnout was the Windows Phone and the Palm. Outside of the Microsoft and HTC areas, only one person was using the Windows Mobile interface, and that was an HTC Ozone, which is a non touch screen Smartphone! Not one person I spoke to had any Windows Mobile device that was a touch screen. That was light-years from last year where people were using the touch pro 2 and the Dash phone. Palm however not only had few users (2); they both gave it bad reviews, from lack of ease of use, to clumsy interface.

The IPhone users gave the Phone thumbs up, although they gave AT&T thumbs down. One person noted the International texting for the IPhone was superior to other phones. The IPhone scored in interface, ease of use, apps, and design. They complained though about the soft keyboard, the lack of multitasking, and navigating through multiple email accounts.

The Blackberry users were a very interesting bunch. Many of them were handed blackberries to them from their company. About half the people would have paid for it anyway, while the other half wishes they had another phone. People liked the secure blackberry server, the easy email application, the versatility and the fast service it provides (with Verizon users scoring this high). They still don’t like the browser, the voice dialing, or the small keyboard. The Storm users did not like their keyboard at all since it is a soft keyboard.

The lone Windows phone user liked the Exchange server compatibility along the browser he used. The interface he noted needed work (HTC has fixed that problem already). The Android users liked the widgets and User Interface and the easy to use email, and not one person had anything bad to say about it. But still it’s only a year old and it will take time for corporate users to begin using it like the IPhone.

I feel next year at this time these numbers will be drastically different. Windows Phone 7 series will have been launched, Verizon’s new phones from a fruit company should have been released, and Google phones will have another year to mature. That said, companies will still have people use blackberries for work purposes. But when work is over…