New Boogie Boards

Improv Electronics unveiled its newest Boogie Board LCD eWriter model, called the Boogie Board Jot eWriter last week. The latest model to join the growing line of tree-friendly, paperless eWriters will be available for purchase on Amazon.com and from select retailers in September.

Like all other Boogie Board eWriters, the Boogie Board Jot eWriter features a revolutionary Reflex® LCD as its writing surface. Made of shatter-proof plastic, the Reflex LCD is ultra-thin and light. It also provides a writing experience similar to pen and paper. The Boogie Board Jot also includes a number of exciting new enhancements:
·     A sleek and contemporary metallic-look design available with red, blue and graphite accents
·     Soft-touch back to provide grip and stability
·     Tapered stylus that doubles as a stand for horizontal viewing (great for leaving messages on the kitchen counter)
·     Built-in magnets for mounting to refrigerators, file cabinets and other metallic surfaces
·     Replaceable coin cell battery (each battery provides up to 50,000 erases)
·     Erase lock switch to prevent accidental erasure of written/drawn images

Two new accessories will be available for the Boogie Board Jot eWriter to help protect it from impact, weather and unwanted screen marks. The Boogie Board Jot Jacket is a fitted water-resistant neoprene sleeve that provides the highest level of protection and is ideal for taking the Boogie Board Jot eWriter wherever you go. The Boogie Board Jot Folio is a leather-like case with a convenient flip-over design similar to a traditional stenographer notepad. It is ideal for the office or other professional settings.

The Boogie Board Jot eWriter will be available for purchase online through Amazon.com and in select retail stores this September for $39.99.

The iFruit company and Patents

This week the iFruit company managed to find a judge who ruled against Samsung and has banned sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. As everyone knows, the iFruit company easily has the majority of sales in the Tablet market. The Samsung Tab 10.1 has a very small market share and isn’t a real threat to iFruit sales at all.

So why is the iFruit company being so aggressive in trying every trick in the book to stop competition? That’s an easy question to answer. They don’t want most of the marbles in the game, they want ALL of the marbles. They remind me of MSFT in that they probably have more lawyers on their payroll than they do developers.

I know I am a voice in the wilderness but here’s my opinion (again): Stop all of the lawsuits and let the market decide who wins and loses! If you have the best product at the best price, you win. If you don’t you lose. Unfortunately, that’s too simple a plan to really work.

All I Want For My.........

By Bayle Emlein

Dear Blog,

What I want for my birthday, Christmas, anniversary, graduation, and Valentine's Day:

An App that aggregates all apps by function and across all 
perating systems. It would tell me what the app is called in 
Windows, iOS, and  Android. For example, if 
AppleConfigurator is what I'd use to lock down aspects of 
my iPad so the kiddies couldn't delete without supervision 
or surf to websites not of my choosing, what would you call 
it in Windows? On an Android?

This isn’t too much to ask, is it?

Distil Union Snooze for iPhones

By Chuck Hajdu

This week we learned about a new product from Distil Union, a start-up company that has an innovative product they are trying to market. The product is one that makes an enormous amount of sense, an alarm clock accessory for iPhone 4/4S. Their web site does a great job of explaining what the product is and how it works.

As with most start-ups, they need financing to get things rolling and they’ve come up with a plan. They are raising capital through a Kickstarter Campaign with a goal of $50k in pledges by July 28, 2012. For more information go to:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398285518/snooze-the-iphone-alarm-dock-with-a-big-snooze-bar

Good luck Distil Union, we hope you make good.

Who is the Real Innovator in Smartphones?

By Chuck Hajdu

I just saw an interesting piece on Fox Business News (FBN) on who is really innovating in the Smartphone arena and who’s playing catch-up. Regular readers of this blog know that Samsung Android phones are the real leaders in the market, not the iFruit company! Let’s hope that a little national news coverage will wake people up to the fact that iStuff is lagging far behind.!

The last comment in the FBN piece was that Steve Jobs came back to lead the iFruit company after they lost their way back in the ‘90s but that isn’t an option any longer. My stock buying and selling advice over the years has been fairly limited but is usually right on the money. Here’s a recommendation: sell your iFruit stock while it’s still grotesquely over priced!

Southwest Technology & Computer Conference Again

By Bayle Emlein

Even if you live really close to San Diego you’ve already missed the 19th Annual Southwest Technology & Computer Conference “Fun in the Sun and Computers, Too.” But it’s not too early to start planning for next year.

The contents have changed (in 1992, who know about tablets and social networking?) but the format has remained the same: gather at a conference hotel in San Diego and spend three days networking face-to-face with peers and vendors, ask the questions that are never dumb, find out about stuff you didn’t know you need, and eat. Not necessarily in that order. 

Back in the pre-Google/Amazon era when there were many local computer shows in addition to CES and Comdex (are you old enough to remember them?) that supported workshops and training sessions as well as a vendor expo. When the San Diego Computer Show went away Southwest Computer Conference took on the role and is still leading users out of hardware and software tangles and into the latest pre-release announcements.

A place in the sun (as soon as the morning fog burns off) for all of us who want to be proactive on our own digital behalf.

And here's a news flash just in:: The Southwest Computer & Technology Conference will moved to the north end of Los Angeles in 2013.

San Diego Computer Conference

By Bayle Emlein

Here I am in sunny Sun Diego at a computer conference that's about to start. A whole bunch of us came in a day early so that we could get a private tour of the Microsoft Store and one of the Apple Store across the "river". It may not look like a river to most people, but it's June, it's got water in it and in Southern California that makes it a river.

If you've read this far, you'll understand why over 50 people would show up in paradise and be excited and grateful for an intensive, personalized PR pitch by the two 500 pound gorillas, MSFT and the iFruit company.

Android continues to be the thousand pound simian that doesn't hold still for the rest of the troupe to catch up.

The Death of a Pentax W90 Camera

Two years ago we tested a truly wonderful camera, the Pentax W90. It is a waterproof, dustproof and shock resistant marvel. It passed all of our tests and ended up with as Highly Recommended. Apparently we made a big mistake by not having a 6 and ¾ year old boy test it!

I am on a long road trip and allowed my grandson to use the W90, after all it’s virtually indestructible. Or so I thought. He used it for over a week underwater, in a boat, in all kinds of circumstances and, as expected, it was perfect and took great pictures. All of that ended today. He fell down (he’s alright, I think he’s made of rubber) but he managed to break the LCD screen on the back and without an LCD the W90 is useless. Sigh.....

I guess it’s time to move up to a newer Pentax compact camera to use in harsh environments. They have always served me very, very well in the past.

More on the Facebook IPO

I hate to be an “I told you so” kind of person, no, that’s not true, I LOVE being an “I told you so” kind of person! Regular readers of this blog know that I posted over and over to avoid the Facebook IPO like the plague. As everyone knows by now, I was absolutely right (once again). Facebook was over-hyped and WAY overpriced and all for the benefit of the insiders, Mark Zukerburg included.

Smart people watch FBN, Fox Business News (if you don’t get it... DEMAND it). Their experts gave me the insight I needed to make my dead-on prediction. It’s not hard to see things clearly once you eliminate the hype and analyze the data on your own.

iOS 6 Navigation App

At the iFruit company’s 21012 WWDC event we saw the announcement of the new mapping software that will be available in iOS 6. iFanz are caught up by the hype and predicting the death of in-car GPS products because people will prefer using the iFruit software built into their phone or tablet. How exciting! ….....NOT!! Once again the iFruit company is playing catch-up with Google’s Android.

I am currently on a LONG trip away from the office and the vast majority of my travel is on the road. My vehicle has a fantastic Escort GPS/Radar detector that does an excellent job. Most of the time. Occasionally the GPS route choice is not the one I would choose so I ignore it and go my way. Everyone needs to remember that a GPS is not the word of God!! It’s just a suggestion, a tool and it can be very wrong!

I have discovered that the Navigation app in Android 4 ICS is much more flexible and accurate and allows the use of voice search for your destination address or location. I always verify my route using ICS and let the Escort catch up with us. In my opinion, users of iOS 6, when they finally get the capability I already have, will use their devices the same way I do now. That is, if they’re smart. But then again if they were really smart they’d already be using Android devices!

More MSFT FUD

The big announcement of the new MSFT tablet that will be out the same time as Win 8 has reminded me of the perpetual FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) campaign that MSFT has waged for many, many years. Their line is always “wait for our new product, don’t buy theirs. Our’s will be spectacular and theirs is mediocre”. It’s the same mantra, time after time. MSFT became very rich using the tactic and put some fine companies out of business. I guess they’re trying the same formula again.

One more  thing, here’s my bold prediction on Win8 and the new Tablet: the pattern of the past will repeat!!

Win98 was a big winner
WinMe was a dud
WinXp was a big winner
WinV was a dud
Win7 was a winner
Win8 and it’s offspring will be.... Duds!!

The MSFT Big News

The big MSFT news conference ended up being exactly what most people thought it would be, an announcement of their new Win8 Tablet. I’m happy for MSFT, it looks like a well thought out product with enough bells and whistles to attract the high end buyer. They have covered a lot of the hardware issue that others have missed (one of the big advantages of entering the tablet market years and years after everyone else).

Here’s what Endgadget reported on the new tablet has (we weren’t invited to the private “showing”)
;
Here at its mysterious, last-minute press event in Los Angeles, Microsoft just confirmed it will sell its own Microsoft-branded Windows 8 RT tablet under the Surface badge. Measuring just 9.3mm thick, the Surface for Windows RT is built around an angled, all-magnesium VaporMg case that weighs just under 1.3 pounds, with an NVIDIA-made ARM chip powering the whole affair. Microsoft's hardware partner has also gone all-out on extra touches, such as a built-in stand, twin 2x2 MIMO antennas for WiFi, and a 10.6-inch optically-bonded, Gorilla Glass 2-covered HD display. Not unlike Apple's last two generations, there's a magnetically attached cover, but it's more than just a protector: here, it includes a full multi-touch keyboard and trackpad. As for expansion, you'll get one each of HDMI, microSD and USB 2.0 (sorry folks, no 3.0) as well as either 32GB or 64GB of storage, while software includes the usual Windows 8 accoutrements and a newly Metrofied version of Netflix. The Surface for Windows RT should arrive roughly in step with Windows 8, but Microsoft is only promising pricing "competitive" with similar ARM tablets:

MSFT announcement

Am I the only person in the tech world who is not waiting impatiently for today's big MSFT announcement? No matter what it is: a Win8 announcement, or MSFT TV, or a new Tablet, or the iFruit company buying MSFT, it won't matter very much.

Don't worry, we'll still report on it because that's what we're here for. Just don't expect us to be FanBoyz or Girlz.

iFruit 8X10 View Camera

Way back in the days of film cameras, many pros used view cameras that took large pieces of sheet film to capture images. Personally, I had an ancient 8x10 camera (an Eastman from the late 1800s) but I used an adapter that allowed me to use 5X7 or 4X5 sheet film and Polaroid film backs. I also had more portable 4X5 cameras but seldom used them. They were all way too big and bulky and picture quality wasn’t any better than I got with a good quality 35mm camera.

Today we have a sort of equivalent, the 8X10 Tablet! I have come to expect snap-shooters to use their phones instead of point-and-shoot cameras but was surprised the first time I saw someone using a Tablet as a camera. No longer. Now I’m surprised when I don’t see someone at an event pull out a full size tablet and use it as a camera! Those same people probably have an equally good phone camera in their pocket or purse but for some reason feel the tablet is superior.

Thank you to all of the Tablet photographers out there, you always make me smile.

AOC Aire iPlay Monitor

AOC recently announced a new monitor that has an innovative feature, a built-in iFruit dock! Here the announcement:

AOC, the worldwide leader in HD display technology, today releases the Aire iPlay, the ultimate monitor for iPod and iPhone owners. This 23-inch Full High Definition display features a built-in 30-pin docking station that allows immediate video, audio and photo playback from iDevices through AOC’s patented plug-and-play technology. Along with the integrated dock, the base of the monitor also includes built-in speakers with SRS Sound. The 23-inch AOC Aire iPlay (e2343Fi) is available for $279.99 MSRP at Amazon.com, ABC Warehouse and TigerDirect, among other national retailers. “The Aire iPlay displays photos and video content from your iPhone and iPod on a screen that is 37 times larger than the device it comes from,” said Robert Velez, Marketing Manager of AOC. “Whether you are playing videogames, watching movies on Netflix or videos on YouTube, or charging your iDevice, the Aire iPlay brings multimedia functionality to your monitor.”

The Aire iPlay is the only monitor with a built-in iPhone/iPod docking station and is ideal for iDevice users who want to watch movies or videos on a 23-inch high definition flat screen directly from their mobile device, PC, Blu-ray player or gaming console. The elegant and energy efficient Aire iPlay has a sleek design with a polished black bezel. The 12.9 mm-thin monitor delivers impressive image quality with Full HD 1080p resolution, a 50,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio and 2 ms response time. A Dynamic Contrast Boost feature creates five different color enhancement settings and allows for color adjustment in highlighted areas, while Screen+ software allows the user to divide the screen into four self-contained work areas. The Aire iPlay’s user-friendly graphical OSD menu can also be accessed directly through the mouse using integrated iMenu software.

VIZIO Computers

Look out computer makers, here comes Vizio! We first heard this news earlier this year and now the first products are available. Here’s part of the announcement:

VIZIO, America's #1 LCD HDTV Company*, announced today the availability of its highly anticipated line of innovative personal computers designed to work hard and play hard.  By combining its entertainment know-how with the unmatched power of the latest Intel® Core™ processors, VIZIO intends to set a new standard for the Windows® experience.  The premium line, which consists of the VIZIO Thin + Light, Notebook and All-in-One PC, was created to break through the clutter present in the mainstream market and prove that power, design and entertainment can flawlessly co-exist in a PC.

Similar to its entrance into the HDTV category nearly a decade ago, VIZIO took careful inventory of the needs and wants evident in the PC space. The result is a sophisticatedly handsome PC line that meets the productivity and power standards consumers expect, while delivering the entertainment and design differentiators they desire. Calling on its HDTV background, VIZIO developed the PCs with contrast, image quality and viewing angles top of mind, giving PC users an experience only HDTVs could previously deliver. Combined with an NVIDIA® Kepler™-Class GeForce GPU, the brilliant HD display of the VIZIO PCs makes watching movies, gaming and streaming TV shows more enjoyable than ever. Deep and resonate SRS Premium Sound HD™ serves as an ideal complement to stunning image quality but can also stand alone, allowing music junkies to immerse themselves in rich, custom-tuned audio.  

Understanding the impact aesthetics have on experience, VIZIO also focused heavily on design.  Manifested beyond a few sleek bevels, VIZIO's purposeful design decisions and premium materials culminate in a line of PCs that rival the status-quo. From the die-cast aluminum neck with its hidden hinge, premium wireless keyboard and wireless touchpad of the All-in-One, to the anodized aluminum unibody construction with precision CNC detailing of the Thin + Light and Notebook, VIZIO took every detail into account, creating top-quality work and entertainment fixtures like no other.

New iFruit Products and Software

The tech world was all abuzz this week with the announcement of the latest products from the iFruit company that were shown at the 2012 WWDC. Fan-boyz and gurlz all over were so excited they were ready to burst! Wow, the new MacBook Pro has a matte screen!!

I’m sorry iFruit fanz, I’m not one of you. The new UltraBooks from PC vendors sound a lot cooler to me. Live long and prosper iFruit company. Your products keep the real companies on their toes and innovating.

As for iOS 6 software, there is very good news for iFanz: very soon you will be able to do many of the things that Android ICS users have come to take for granted. Of course, you'll still be way behind on many apps but at least you’re getting closer to Android capability. As for me, I’ll continue to happily use Androids and continue to pull away from iFruit users.

ArtRage Special for Fathers Day

Here’s another Fathers Day offer

ArtRage for iPad has been discounted over 50% for a limited time only. Please find it at:  App Store

ArtRage for iPad and iPhone lets fathers explore their artistic side wherever they go.  The iPad version of ArtRage has been upgraded for the new iPad’s full Retina high-res display.  It lets creative dads actually paint on the iPad canvas with oil painting effects that smear and blend and watercolor strokes that merge to create soft, wet gradations.

There are many more tools and a wide collection of canvas and papers to choose from. ArtRage is also available for iPhone and Mac/Windows desktop computers for more advanced painting effects and to play back recorded brush strokes from the iPad in higher resolution for larger print outs.

50% Discount on ArtRage for iPad: $2.99, down from $6.99
ArtRage for iPhone: $1.99
Mac/Windows: $29.90 for ArtRage 3.5 Studio, $59.90 for ArtRage 3.5 Studio Pro
Website: www.artrage.com
Available at: www.artrage.com  & App Store

New Plustek Network Scanners

We just received this press release and know our readers will be very interested in it:

Plustek Technology Inc. (www.plustek.com/usa), a manufacturer of consumer, prosumer and professional imaging devices, will introduce several products at the Info360 show, including three new network-attached scanning devices: SmartOffice PN2040, SmartOffice SN8016U, SmartOffice EZScan 400, and the MobileOffice AD460 desktop scanner.
   
Plustek will highlight its new SmartOffice PN2040 with new user interface software. Designed with the image quality, speed, reliability and flexibility demanded by business users, the Plustek SmartOffice PN2040 network attached document scanner can be easily shared with any number of PCs on office or home networks, and can also be connected to a computer via USB. The 20-page-per-minute SmartOffice PN2040 features both a 50-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) and a flatbed to enable scanning of a wide range of materials from multi page documents, to small or fragile items such as receipts, historical documents or photos.
   
Plustek’s SmartOffice SN8016U is an 80-page-per-minute departmental class A3 size ADF scanner with network and USB connections. The dual interfaces coupled with industry standard TWAIN and ISIS drivers and DocAction single touch scanning enable this scanner to be used for almost any document imaging application or scanning environment that requires high speed scanning of documents up to A3 in size.
   
Plustek’s SmartOffice EZScan 400 has an integrated touch screen and PC, designed to plug into networks and scan directly to a destination. It is a 40-page-per-minute, duplex, standalone network attached document scanner. The EZScan 400 does not need any PCs or server to function on a network. The integrated touch screen display enables users to simply touch and scan to: email, network attached storage, shared folder, flash drive or USB hard drive, printer, cloud storage and more.
   
Plustek’s MobileOffice AD460 is a 20-page-per-minute desktop document scanner with a small footprint. The MobileOffice AD460 is a color, duplex, document and card scanner with an automatic document feeder. Document management, imaging and optical character recognition software bundled makes scanning, retrieving and managing documents a simple task.
   
Plustek will also exhibit its full line of MobileOffice USB powered document and card scanners, its full line of SmartOffice document scanners and feature a EZBook Scan Station book scanning kiosk.  Additional products to be showcased at Info360 include MobileOffice S400, MobileOffice S420, MobileOffice D430, MobileOffice D412, SmartOffice PS286+, and SmartOffice PS406U.  For product details, please visit www.plustek.com/usa.
   
All Plustek SmartOffice and MobileOffice scanners include a suite of document management applications, TWAIN drivers, single touch button scanning, and scan to PDF.  In addition, APIs are available to authorized system integrators.

Fathers Day Discount Offer From iolo

iolo technologies has announced a wonderful Father’s Day promotion for tech types who want to give their dad a really useful present. Here are the details:

iolo technologies is the leader in PC tune-up software and our flagship product, System Mechanic, is the world’s #1 best-selling and most awarded computer performance software, with recognitions from reputable publications such as PC magazine, Wired magazine and The New-York Times.

System Mechanic has been a long time favorite software essential for every tech-head father with a PC computer, wanting to enhance its performance and increase its longevity.

Using System Mechanic, millions of families have been maintaining and fixing their home computers.

In order to get the 50% discount, download SM Free from the link below
(http://www.iolo.com/promo/smfree/?utm_source=mccpubs&utm_medium=link&utm_content=none&utm_campaign=pr)
and then click any of the links in the product to unlock the full version. Apply the code “DAD” by hand in the shopping cart before checkout to receive 50% off.

If you would like to try the free version (which includes only 7 out of the 50 tools) you can get it at.
http://www.iolo.com/promo/smfree/?utm_source=mccpubs&utm_medium=link&utm_content=none&utm_campaign=pr

Free Un-delete Program

This came to us last week and it sounded interesting. We haven't tried it so we can't vouch for it.

PDFzilla has released the file recovery freeware program - Free File Undelete at:
http://www.pdfzilla.com/free-file-undelete.html

Free File Undelete is a tiny Windows file recovery application that allows users to undelete lost files from their NTFS drives. The program file size is 694KB only, and it is portable so that users can share it via email or flash disk very easily.

Features:

- 100% Free & Clean.
- Portable.
- Small, 694 KB only.
- Scan Files in few seconds, very fast.
- Recover Unlimited Files.

How To Use

1 - Select the NTFS drive in NTFS Drive List;
2 - Click "Scan Now" button;
3 - After file scanning, select the deleted files from the file list;
4 - Choose a folder to save the undeleted files;
5 - Click "Recover Now" Button.

Lexmark Inkjet App

We saw this post online and thought our Lexmark lovers might like to hear about it.

New Lexmark ID app spots counterfeit cartridges using your smartphone, tablet

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) announces the Lexmark ID app, allowing customers to verify Lexmark branded inkjet cartridges on the spot using only their smartphone or tablet.

Why confirm a cartridge is a Lexmark original? Counterfeiters sometimes illegally reuse and refill Lexmark cartridges and package and sell them as original Lexmark goods.  The origin and quality of these cartridges are unknown to the customer, and they can sometimes leak, run out after a few pages, not work at all or even damage a printer.

Lexmark is focused on ensuring customers have an optimal experience and want to ensure that customers are clear that when they buy Lexmark cartridges, they have received genuine goods.

Here’s how:

• Download the free app from Android, Apple or Blackberry.
• Once installed, simply scan the barcode from the Lexmark box, bag or cartridge itself and the serial number is sent to the database for instant verification.
• For customers who do not have access to a smartphone or tablet go to Lexmark.com/identify and enter the serial number from your cartridge to receive the same verification.
• The Lexmark ID app is available now. For more information go to Lexmark.com/identify.

Google Buys QuickOffice

Regular readers of this blog know that we have been trying to find the perfect online/offline app for word processsing. At present, we’re using Google Docs (now called Google Drive) and Kingsoft Office when we’re offline. All of that may change in the future.

Recently Google announced that they have acquired QuickOffice for undisclosed compensation. The speculation is that it’s a preemptive move to prepare them for the forthcoming app battle with MSFT and the iFruit company.

We have used QuckOffice in the past and have always loved it. We’re looking forward to a future with Google integrating QuickOffice into their product line and hope it becomes the solution we’re looking for.

Personally, we’re convinced that the MSFT Office monopoly is LONG over and users just want to get their work done. And at the lowest possible price. We may ALL be using QuickOffice a year or so from now.

Android ICS Update

I woke up to a pleasant surprise one day this week. When I turned on my Phablet I was greeted with an update notification that said I had the Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, ready to install. Naturally I was thrilled and told the system to install ICS. I ended up with Android version 4.0.4 and what a great decision that was!!

ICS has only been installed for a short time but so far it’s been great. There are subtle changes to the screens and icons but the biggest change I’ve noticed is the speed improvement. I can’t tell you exactly how much faster it is, all I can say is that it is noticeable.

Now if all of the other vendors will upgrade the various Android 2.x and 3.x systems we have we’ll be able to take advantage of all of the ICS improvements!

Free eBook

We received this offer and thought we should pass it on to all of the photographers that read this blog.

The Photography Blog Handbook. 

Learn why a blog is a must-have marketing tool to grow your photo business, engage a wider audience, and attract new clients.

Create a blog that will generate sales and develop engaging relationships between you and your clients with the 2012 edition of our Photography Blog Handbook. Inside you’ll find insights into creating a blog routine that fits your busy schedule, and the inspiration you need to help you decide how to write and what to blog about. Learn exactly how a blog can help your business with examples from photographers such as Lisa Devlin and Lauren Major who have successfully used blogging to grow a following.

Go to: http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/photography-blog-handbook