I haven’t had a home phone in about 6 years, since I went completely to using my Moble phone as my one and only phone. I don’t miss having a home phone, but now that I have started to really use Skype (www.skype.com) I have really gotten into having a “home” phone again.
I know that there are other programs out there that do about the same thing, but the video quality is excellent and you can conference call (without the video) on Skype too. It is all for free if you and the person you are “calling” have skype accounts. I am really trying to make everyone I call get a Skype account so that when I’m home I can call them on Skype and see them too if they have a webcam.
It isn’t like the old days where you only got one frame every 20 seconds or so. Now it is full motion video and the quality is very good (for video calling). The only problem I have is that you can’t video conference. If you have at least a microphone and speakers you should really check it out!
I really hate the new Microsoft commercials. I don’t know if you have seen any of them, but PLEASE!! I’m not sure if Microsoft is ever going to get a clue. They continue to try to beat a dead horse, saying that you must know that I’m definitely not a Mac lover, I’m a PC through and through.
Microsoft really needs to drop their ad agency and admit that they made a mistake with Vista. It isn’t any better than XP and the product thing with multiple products is confusing. The average consumer doesn’t understand enough about the differences between Home, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate to determine a reason to purchase anything other than the cheapest. Nor do they even understand why they need to upgrade to Vista from XP. The commercial with the “New” operating system (which is actually Vista) is SO DUMB! Add to that the “I’m a PC” commercial that makes me think that I don’t want to be a PC anymore. And don’t get me started on the Bill Gates and Sienfeld thing.
Please Microsoft open up just a little and start letting others contribute to your platform, or at least find some real innovative things to put into a new OS. Keep that new OS to one or two products. Finally get a new ad agency that will market your product so that we can talk about how funny and exciting your commercial is about your new OS.
I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron. I usually work from my desktop, but wanted a little flexibility when I wasn’t at home. The base model came with a few good things, but I definitely wanted to upgrade some things like the Digital screen, integrated webcam, and of course integrated bluetooth and travel mouse. Three months out I can’t be more please with my purchase. Of course saying this you have to realize that this model isn’t your rough and rugged type laptop. I use it for around home and when traveling. It is not my primary computer so I haven’t loaded a ton of programs on it either. I have the basics. Office 2007, ftp program, Microsoft WebExpression and Skype. So far so good. Even running Vista doesn’t slow me down. It has 3 gigs of RAM and a 250 hard drive. For a portable backup PC I’m very happy.
Had lunch with a friend of mine today. Asked him if he was doing any marketing on Google for his mulit-million dollar business. He was not and didn’t feel it was necessary as they are getting plenty of new business via word of mouth. (In all fairness he works for a traditional company that has never needed the web for any part of their business). I didn’t argue with him as I am sure that he knows his business.
I can’t help but think that he is missing something though. As the younger generation takes over more of the job market, an exemplary online presence for any type of business is going to become an absolute must. A generation that has only known the existence of the web is going to have zero patience for businesses that don’t make great efforts to market to them on the web. Already, if someone tells me word of mouth that some company is great, the first thing I do is research it further on the web. If I can’t find further corroboration on the company’s site - such as their up to date, Web 2.0 site, it is unlikely that I am going to look any further at them. The fact that a company took the time to put up a pleasing looking site that answers any question I might have about them, shows me the love. The lack of such, surely slaps the face of anyone under 30.
