I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING THIS, BUT THERE IS A FAR BETTER MUSIC SERVICE THAN ITUNES

As an avid Apple product fan and music lover, I can’t even believe it myself saying that I have found a much better music service than iTunes, but I have and I’ll let you in on what it is and explain how music lovers can benefit.

For the longest time I couldn’t pry myself away from iTunes and my iPod.  I always wanted to own my own music so I could do with it as I please.  If someone wanted a copy of what I had in my collection of tunes, I could share it with them.  I also wanted my entire music collection on a single device and take it wherever I would go.

But there was one big issue I could never get over, I had to pay for each song or album.  Now if you are someone that may hear a song on the radio every so often and what a copy, money isn’t an issue.  Pay the $.99 and your done.  But if you’re like me and have a ton of music you want to purchase, this starts chipping away at your bank account fast.  So needless to say I am WAY behind on my music collection due to the costs.  What’s the solution? Well, it’s hard for me to say, but renting some one’s entire music collection for a monthly cost.

I think we are starting to get into the era of streaming music from our mobile devices and the old hard drive music players are on their way out.  Even Apple’s biggest iPod, the iPod classic, is starting to see big decreases in sales and I think they will start looking at discontinuing them.

Here’s my thinking behind this whole renting thing.  Let’s say you just purchase one album at $9.99 a month, what do you get….one album.  Sure it’s yours, but in my years of owning my music I’ve only burned a couple of albums for others to listen too.  So, if you’re like me, I could spend about $25 or more a month just getting caught up on old music I want and also new releases.  And, I would be paying for music the rest of my life.  That’s going to leave a mark for sure.

So, I changed my thinking.  I could rent a music collection of 13 million plus songs and have all of my music on one device just as I wanted for $9.99 a month.  And the best part is, they keep adding music to their collections weekly.  Honestly this seems like a no brainer and should have thought of this a long time ago.

So let’s take a look at the top three music collections for streaming music on the iPhone and what I found.

I checked this one out because it just came out in the U.S. and people were raving all over social media about it.  I took it for a free trial spin and only after about two days cancelled this one.  Their music collection is only about 11 million right now.  I checked out one of my favorite country music artists that has been out since 1993 and they only had one of their albums.  Moving on……..I checked out more of my favorites and found a lot of albums missing.  Sure their collection will grow with time, but does me no good right now.  So as far as I’m concerned, Spotify just ain’t all that.

This service I had read about searching Google for the top music streaming services.  I went ahead a got on board for the free trial.  I have to admit this seemed like the one.  I really like their iPhone app, simple and easy to use.  You could add any song or album to your favorites and listen to them whenever you wanted.  The streaming part was great, no hiccups and sounded great.  It also has a feature that allows a play queue, so it was really like a on the go play list, which you could clear out at any time.  Also, it has a feature that when you play a song, it lists other songs in that genre that might appeal to you.  Pretty cool for finding new music, but only suggests up to about five or six songs.  One downside, which didn’t really matter to me, but may for you is that you cannot create play lists from the iPhone app.  You have to create play lists on your computer that automatically syncs to the iPhone app.  There music collection is quite impressive too, although it is missing some of my favorites.

I really had forgot about this little gem, until a friend of mine reminded me of it.  I had read some reviews about their iPhone app and weren’t that great.  Reviews were saying that it crashes a lot which is not good if your streaming music and can be a huge issue, one that could stray customers away.  So I dug a little deeper and found that their music collection was even a bit better than MOG.  So I had to try it to see what their iPhone app features were and if the reviews were true.  I have found that it will sometimes crash, but nothing significant and doesn’t get annoying.  The one thing I found that MOG is better than Rhapsody is when you are looking at an artists album within Rhapsody, some of the songs are greyed out and you can’t play them.  This is because you can’t stream or play them unless you purchase them.  This could be a problem if there was a certain song you wanted off the album.  It’s not often and I haven’t came across a “had to have song” that was greyed out.  Their iPhone app is pretty slick and has a lot of features that MOG doesn’t.  You can create a play list right from within the app.  Another feature I use often to find new music is a feature called related artist.  Once you click on a singer you can go to the related artist tab to find additional related music.  Very cool.

These three services are a like in many ways and it really depends on ones own preferences. So as you may tell, after trying all three I went with Rhapsody for the $9.99 per month option.  This allows for you to use it on your computer and up to one mobile device.  You can opt for the $14.99 per month and it allows you to use it on up to three mobile devices.  The only problem is you can’t stream music at the same time on all three devices.  So don’t think you can load it on to your spouses or friends device and all enjoy streaming music, won’t work.

The biggest limitation you will have for streaming music is your data plan.  If you have an unlimited plan you should be ok.  Although this may put you into a pinch because cell phone companies are now throttling unlimited data plans.  This means if you are within the top 5% of their data users per month and you hit a certain usage ceiling, they will slow your speed down to a crawl after hitting that mark for the month.  After that month is up, you get your top speed back until you hit the ceiling again and so on.  The only good part is, if there can be in this situation, is the company should let you know if you are getting into that 5% and you are getting close to having your speed downgraded for that month.  I have an unlimited data plan and use my iPhone for simple things like browsing the internet and email.  I also steam music for about 4-6 hours per day and have never received this type of notification from my cell phone company.  I have checked and as of January 24, 2011 I have used 2.7gb of data on my unlimited plan and my billing cycle doesn’t end until February 11, 2011.  So we will see if I get a notification and what this ceiling may be.

If you do have a limited data plan, streaming music may not be an option for you and you would have to download your songs to your device for listening.  Each one of these three services allows for unlimited downloads so that won’t be an issue, except for your a limited to the data storage on you device.  Below I have included a chart so you can see how much data you will use if you stream music.

Here’s how many hours of music streaming you can do on a 2GB data plan.

96kbps (Radio Quality) — 45.76 hours of streaming per month

160kbps (3G Quality) — 27.52 hours of streaming per month

320kbps (CD Quality) — 13.79 hours of streaming per month

I believe all three services are the same.  If your streaming on your 3G data plan it plays at 160kbps.  If your are streaming on a WiFi network, it would be at the 320kbps.  But on a WiFi network you shouldn’t be using any of your data plan, so this should only come into play while using your 3G data plan.  Keep in mind this is just streaming music and doesn’t include data for anything else you may use it for.

As a side note.  Streaming music does eat up battery life, so have some type of charging device handy.  Although I have noticed it doesn’t drain it as quick as when I listen to the radio using TuneIn Radio.

What’s your thoughts?  Is there any top notch service I have left out?  Leave a comment and let me know your experience or opinions.

Talk soon,

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ONE MONTH REVIEW OF THE IPHONE 4S AND SIRI PERSONAL ASSISTANT-READ THIS BEFORE MAKING THE DECISION TO UPGRADE

It’s been a month now using the new iPhone 4s and it’s built in personal assistant Siri.  If you don’t already know I’m an Apple product freak and believe Steve Jobs was a true visionary in the tech world.  Hell I was watching a 1997 video of him speaking at the big Apple convention and he was already talking about cloud services before anyone knew that they would become a part of our lives.  He could see computers not having any “working” parts in them and seeing us just having a keyboard and screen.  None the less, I do like Apple products.  I currently have a 13″ Macbook Pro, iPod Classic and just upgraded from the iPhone 3gs to the 4s.  And what I’m about to reveal and tell you may be shocking after hearing my praise of Apple products.

I can say after owning the 3gs for two years and upgrading to the 4s, there was quite a bit of difference.  First going from the curved edges and back of the 3gs to the candy bar slab of the 4s was remarkably different.  And I have to say I don’t agree with most that the curvy casing is better.  I happen to really like the candy bar style of the 4s.  Next up is the camera and WOW, what can I say.  I now enjoy shooting photos.  The pictures turn out excellent and the colors are realistic to what was shot as opposed to the 3gs.  Now that the 4s takes video in 1080p, I can now ditch my Flip video camera and carry one device with all my goodies.  No need to carry around a phone, camera and a video recorder.

Since I decided to go straight to the 4s and skip on the 4, I really didn’t get a feel for what the difference was between the two devices.  But, after purchasing the 4s and wondering if I could have saved a Benjamin, I began testing the two devices between my friends and I.  I was really in shock on my discovery.  First, let’s take a look at the major differences between the iPhone 4 and 4s.

iPhone 4:

• 5 megapixal camera
• 720 Video Recorder
• Single Core Processor A4 Chip
• 8gb

iPhone 4s:

• Better Camera (8 megapixals)
• Better Video Recorder (1080p)
• Siri Personal Assistant
• Dual Core Processor A5 Chip
• 16gb

After testing both of the major differences here was my conclusion.

CAMERA

I took two shots of the same photo using both devices and found that the iPhone 4 was a bit brighter and did have great color and was a great picture.  After looking at the two I got a little miffed because it seemed there was not much difference.  But after taking a closer look, the 4s captured the true color of the photo.  The orange in the 4 photo was very bright orange and the actual color was more of of a burnt orange that had a hint of red, which the 4s captured.

VIDEO RECORDER

Again, it’s obvious that the iPhone 4s 1080p recorder will take a better shot for you than the iPhone 4 720p video.  The biggest difference I saw was that the 4s has video stabilization feature that does help if you tend to have shaky hands.

STORAGE

With Apple reducing the size of the iPhone 4 to 8gb, your losing a bit of storage for music, videos, audiobooks, etc.  But if you mainly use your phone for apps and a little playlist of music, I think the 8gb will suffice.  Photos don’t take a ton of space so I don’t think you would run into any problems.

PROCESSOR

Apple did a great job hyping up the new A5 chip with dual core processor, but it’s just that…..all hype.  This to me is the first fail for the new iPhone 4s.  One day after my purchase of the 4s, I sat it side by side a very dilapidated iPhone 4, meaning it had seen it’s last leg so to speak.  It had been dropped several times, the left front corner of the screen was completely busted out and the home button didn’t work.  I actually have seen this phone slammed on the floor several times just to try to get the home button to work.  So with that being said I thought for sure my brand new iPhone 4s would demolish this thing in speed.  Guess what?  I was completely wrong.  Performing several tests with app loading, internet speed and even downloading news feeds.  My iPhone 4s only beat this damn thing once and not by much.  Honestly after a month of use I only notice two items that seem to be just a tad faster than my iPhone 3gs, updating and installing apps and uploading photos to my Photobucket app, that’s it.  So if your thinking your getting a huge boost in speed with your upgrade think again.

SIRI PERSONAL ASSISTANT

This is the second fail on the iPhone 4s.  It seems this new talking to your phone era is a joke.  I see more people using Siri as a novelty more so than an actual assistant.  Asking it stupid questions to see what she’ll say.  I have to say it’s quite amusing on some of her answers.  I don’t find myself using it over my fingers doing the talking, like texting and searching the internet for my answers.  When I have used Siri to text, if I don’t speak VERY clearly what I want it to say, it comes back with gibberish which I have to back out or say don’t send and then try again.  If Siri doesn’t catch what you say the first time, it could take up to 4 minutes just to send a text.  Not very groundbreaking in my mind.  I have found myself at times, when I think of it, to ask it to call a business, which seems helpful.  But guess what, this isn’t a huge discovery that Apple has uncovered.  You can get the same service for free on an Android device and it works just the same.  I have seen video of the two in action side by side and at times the Android version comes back with faster and more accurate answers.

My take is that I don’t think we are in this era yet of talking to our devices, TV’s included people.  I think Apple is to quick to pull the trigger with this technology that just isn’t ready for us to accept.  We are still in the “finger” talking with text and search era.  I have a feeling we will get there, but it’s a ways away in my mind.  Apparently other companies think we’re ready to just jump into this tech and their spending big money to incorporate this into their products.  Microsoft is trying to be the first on the market to have humans speak commands to their TV before Apple has a chance to launch their Apple TV product with Siri built in.  They have put this software into their Xbox Kinect so you can talk to your TV.  I just don’t see this stuff taking off like these companies do.  Just as I don’t think 3D TV will. (Which is a whole nether subject I could go on about, but not here)

So there it is, my one month review of the new iPhone 4s.  I would say if your using the iPhone 4, I would stick with it until the unveiling of the iPhone 5.  If you’re a iPhone 3gs owner, it’s your call.

Talk soon,

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TRIM YOUR WAIST AND GET RID OF THAT UNWANTED BELLY FAT BY MIND CONTROL AND THE MENTAL GAME

Trying to eliminate belly fat and trimming your waist is one of the biggest talked about subjects and myths in the area of losing weight.

My disclosure:  I’m not a doctor, don’t claim to be and don’t play one on TV.  I’m not a fitness, nutritional or weight management trainer or physician.  I’m not saying that any of this will work for you.  These are only my experiences and opinions.  Now that that’s out of the way……….

The weight loss industry is estimated at a $60 billion dollar a year industry and keeps going up in the United States.  But by 2015, 75% of adult Americans will be overweight and 41% will be obese. (John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health).  How does this calculate out?  A billion dollar a year industry with that big of a percentage of overweight and obesity.  Seems unbalanced doesn’t it.

I know this isn’t rocket science by no means, but the reasoning behind this unbalance is people don’t focus on the positive behaviors of living fit.  They let excuses and laziness get in the way of this thought pattern.  People spend billions of dollars on books, videos, supplements, gym memberships, you name it, all in good intentions.  They put this positive thought in their mind, but somehow fall short of reaching their goals, which is good for businesses in the weight management industry, but bad for overweight and obesity.

SOCIAL PROOF

To prove my point, let’s look at gym memberships.  And I know this because I see it year in and year out.  Every January millions of people make that BIG New Year’s resolution of getting fit.  January through about early March gyms are packed with new comers and veterans that have been going there for years.  You have to stand in line just to get on a piece of cardio equipment and the weights area is jam packed.  Slowly towards the end of March, lines to the cardio equipment are dwendling.  The positive behaviors of the newcomers are starting to go back to old habits and around April gyms are now back the way they used to be, same old faces you’ve seen everyday.  Some good in this is that I do see a handful of those new faces that started back in January still kickin’ it with their programs.  But a handful is not going to cut it if we want to see these numbers more in balance.

MIND GAMES

You have to let the mind stay focused on these positive thoughts and get to a point to where you see results and when you do, I promise you will be hooked.  I’ve been through it.  Just starting out going to the gym and working my tale end off, but seeing no results.  I couldn’t understand why this was happening until I realized the duh moment.  Which was, you can’t just exercise and keep the same ole crappy eating habits.  So I gave that a shot and bingo, the balance between exercise and eating a better diet IS actually true.  You can’t go to the gym, then walk out, light up a cigarette and stop by McDonald’s and order a Big Mac, large fries and maybe get one of those chocolate fudge sundae’s for your treat afterwards.  Although I will show you in future posts how you can still enjoy the foods you love and still get results.(Note: except cigarettes, if you smoke, please quit)

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Here’s what I see happening with all of these facts.  The decision is made to get in better shape and then look for a program to hop on, very strict program at that.  But guess what?  All the books, dvd’s and such are all very strict programs, both in exercising and diet. You may feel that if you don’t stick to the complete program right down to each and every step, it won’t work.  So what happens is, everything gets started on the right track.  Exercising regularly, eating a better diet and then something happens.  Slowly the old habits start overpowering the will power and eventually takes back over and you quit the whole thing all together and will try again next year, instead of working with these programs within your means.

Instead of just deciding that you want to eat that nice helping of grease during lunch and then getting right back on track, you decide you can’t do this because it’s so damn hard to stick to that healthy eating plan day in and day out.  So I guess what I’m trying to say in all my gibberish is that people flock to the “get fit” programs by buying all “get fit” stuff out there and then never follow through because they think you have to stick to these programs to the T, which is why we see the industry being stock piled of cash without seeing the results for their customers.

QUICK TIP

I want to leave you with a quick proven fact and quick tip on how to avoid it.  You probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  And yes, the claims are correct in saying this, but do you know why besides getting a well balanced breakfast starts your day with all the nutrients and gets your energy flowing?  If you start your day eating a healthy meal, your brain is then put into this positive healthy eating pattern for the rest of the day since you started it out right.  Let’s say you decide to stop by McD’s for breakfast and order a value meal of pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns or maybe some biscuits and gravy.  What happens at lunch?  You decide that since you cheated at breakfast, what’s the use in trying to eat healthy the rest of the day, so you decide there’s no use and the whole day becomes a cheat day.  And the next day, and then the next.  Has this happened to you?  Which I have to say is fine every so often, but some people can’t switch their minds back into the positive pattern.

So how to you avoid it?  It’s very simple, again not rocket science, but it’s up to you and your will power.  If you happen to cheat at breakfast, get right back into healthy at your next snack and lunch.  If you can switch back to this at lunch, your brain is back on track for the rest of the day.  I’ve done this from time to time and it works like a charm.  This also goes for those office party snack days with all the junk sitting in an office cube, but how I avoid not even touching any of it is I don’t bring anything.  Selfish, hell no.  If you bring something, you feel obligated to indulge, but if you don’t, you feel guilty eating everyone else’s food because you didn’t offer something to share.  Try this next time and see if it works for you.

Talk soon,

P.S. Here are a couple of recommended programs for you to work within your means and can start seeing results.

• The Diet Solution Program – Why Diets Keep You Fat and Prevent Weight Loss
• Fat Burning Furnace – Fast Weight Loss Tips

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AMAZON HAS RELEASED THE KINDLE FIRE AND IT’S NO MYSTERY OTHERS ARE CALLING THIS THE IPAD KILLER

Well the time has come once again with what some are saying is the next iPad killer.  Amazon has released their new Kindle Fire with an all new look and OS.  It’s just Android with a lot of tweaks Amazon is saying.  So why is this the next big thing that will kill the iPad?  Bigger companies like Samsung and Motorola released their tablets and guess what, they were said to be the next gadget to put the iPad in it’s grave.  Neither one has succeeded, so why does Amazon think they got what it takes?

They don’t and no tablet has yet to meet the makers match.  All the Kindle Fire is is a glorified e-book reader with some extra punches, without a camera, mic and doesn’t come in 3G.  Sure it’s a great device, but no where near what an iPad has to offer.  I really do like all the 7″ tablets that are coming out and I think Apple needs to start considering offering a 7″ version of the iPad with a lower price.  I think what’s going to draw people to the Kindle Fire is the price.  We just saw the HP Touchpad go on sale for a record low $99 and completely sold out of stores and online in record time.  People were then reselling them for up to $250 and still selling out of them.  So we know price point is huge in the tablet world.  With this thing selling for $199, it’s definately going to a good thing for Amazon.

Now if Amazon really wants to compete with the iPad, it’s going to have to drop the Kindle name and start with a new fresh and hip name.  When the Kindle was first introduced it was nothing more than an e-book reader.  Each version after that added a couple extras, but still it was an e-book reader in peoples minds.  So Amazon has cornered themselves with this Kindle name and it’s going to be hard for people to think of that name as a true media tablet like the others.

I think the Kindle Fire is a nice tablet, but just isn’t close to kill the competition.  What are your thoughts?

Talk soon,

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HERE’S A SIMPLE METHOD TO SNEAK IN ON A MARKETING FUNNEL AS AN INTERNET MARKETING BEGINNER

You’ve been studying online marketing strategies and getting into or have been doing internet marketing or online marketing to make a profit and to do this you have to market or sell something, whether it’s your own products or someone else’s products.  This is as basic as it gets.  But, I want to show you a little trick to come into the perfect position in a marketing funnel as a beginner.

Most serious online sales (and offline) follow a specific process or cycle of events.

Buyers Behavior Stage 1:

The potential buyer decides that he has a problem or need something.

Buyers Behavior Stage 2:

He begins to research the problem and sound out possible solutions. Many people find free information/solutions to their problems at this stage and drop out of the cycle.  Many times in this step friends come into play because of the trust/influence level, but they still recommend products that have helped them and then it’s on to Step 3 to do research and find reviews on these recommended products.

Buyers Behavior Stage 3:

His research and his own particular leanings make him begin to favor a particular type of solution or product. He now starts looking at review and comparison sites.

Buyers Behavior Stage 4:

Having read a few reviews he’s now favoring a particular product, and seeking reassurance, looking for the best price or the best bonus.

Although it’s only four stages, it can become complicated on how to implement this whole process into your business.  The so called gurus have figured this out to a science and can take their prospects through the whole thing until the last stage where they buy their products leaving them with a nice helping of cash in their bank account.  So I want to break this down into one small action step and give you something to take away from this that can be done right away without having to be a super ninja guru.

Check out Stage 3, reviewing the products.  This is a great place to come into this funnel as a beginner because the buyer has already concluded they have a problem, need a solution and have a handful of products to review and then make a choice on which one to buy.  Generally buyers will not drop out of the funnel at this point because they have invested valuable time getting this far.

I’m sure you have some products that you have bought along the way sitting on a shelf collecting dust at this point.  So dust ‘em off and create a blog post, Hubpage, or an Ezine article (the best would be to do all three) and put your review or recommendation about the product with your affiliate link inside the article.  Pick a couple that you gained the most knowledge about and even implemented in your business already.  Just make sure you at least have the name of the product first and then the word review in your title so you have a chance at being found in the search engines.  Be creative with your title, but make sure those two elements are in there.  You want it to stand out from the other reviews out there.

One suggestion.  Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income gets the best conversion rates of a product review by creating a video of some sort along with the review explaining to others how to use the product.  I know some other marketers that video themselves opening up the product package when it arrives, flipping through the book, opening the CD cases and then following up with a “how to” video.  You could also create an audio or pod cast outlining some of the key points of the product and how they can put it to use.  This works because of the personal interaction and not just a bunch of words.

I you want to crush it out of the park, then become an expert about the product you are reviewing, not just someone who has read the book, listened to the cd’s or downloaded the software and used it a couple of times.  Pick the ones you are passionate about and can answer questions that may come about from those who are responding to you about the product.  These will most likely be the ones you have implemented in your business up to this point.  In your review think about the objections your buyer may have and answer them up front.  This creates value and puts you in front of everybody else out there that has reviewed the same product.  Also, by creating these “how to” videos, audios or how ever you chose to present them while presenting yourself as the expert and the resource to go to, the potential buyer feels comfortable buying the product from you.

So go through your library, pick the ones you want to review and get going.  This is an action step that does require a little work on your part, but once you get started you’ll see how much fun and easy it will become.

I hope this article has helped you in some way, shape or form.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Also, if you have created product reviews, what has been your experience and some of your tips.

Talk soon,

P.S.  If you have an iPhone I highly recommend you download Pat’s Smart Passive Income app.  Super cool app that you can take on the go to get all of his information, including blog posts, Twitter stream and podcasts.  And best of all it’s FREE.

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THE IPHONE IS NOT THE COOLEST SMARTPHONE TO OWN THESE DAYS…..THE THREE BIGGEST NAMES IN SMARTPHONES BATTLE IT OUT TO WIN POPULARITY CONTEST

It looks like the iPhone is falling short in the popularity contest with the kids and college crowd.  And the reason is “because my dad has an iPhone.”  Guess the kindergarten attitude is coming out a little in the gadget world.  It looks like what’s being carried around one major campus is HTC and Samsung devices, not the iPhone according to the Boy Genius Report.

This is interesting because HTC and Samsung have been hitting the market hard in the last year or so with new devices every couple of months it seems.  And Apple continues to only release one upgraded iPhone per year.  They each started out doing the same thing Apple did with the iPhone, release one great smartphone, and then follow it up within a year.  But it seemed HTC and Samsung weren’t gaining ground with the iPhone.  So they switched the game up a little to see what they could do to get get a piece of the pie.

Let’s face it, Americans want the latest and greatest of whatever product is out there.  And smartphones are falling into the same category very quickly with HTC and Samsung figuring this out, Apple not so much.  The iPhone was the best and coolest device to have for a long while when smartphones started becoming the thing to have.  So as usual, other companies wanted in on the action so the battle starts.  The only two major players that have risen to the top are HTC and Samsung.  But they noticed that by following Apple’s lead, they would never catch up because everyone just waited until the next iPhone.

What HTC and Samsung have figured out is that since smartphones are in almost everybody’s pocket now days, every two or three months millions of subscribers were due for an upgrade.  And guess what, Apple couldn’t deliver on all these upgrades and the American desire to have the latest and greatest cool gadget, so these two giants are now able to quinch peoples thirst by having a new device ready and waiting.

Does Apple really care?  I don’t think so and never will.  Steve Jobs didn’t build it this way.  I don’t think his company would be where it is today if he came out with a new iPhone, Macbook, iMac or any one of their products every couple of months to satisfy this desire.  He wanted his company to stand out and this is exactly what it is today.  I put Apple in the same category as Bose.  Bose is the premiere company that gives its customers the best quality sound in many different formats.  Yes they both produce products that follow where the market is going, which is what all companies do, but Apple and Bose look at the way they do it in a very unique light.

So what do you think about all this “hip to be square” stuff?  Which device are you using right now and why?

Talk soon,

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IS THE HP TOUCHPAD WITH WEBOS SAYING BYE BYE FOREVER OR IS HP PURE GENIUS’S?

Now that the HP Touchpad webOS fire sale is over, what will become of this low sought out operating system?  HP’s Executive Vice President Todd Bradley is reportedly looking to leave HP in search for another CEO role elsewhere.  This is due to the plans that HP will discontinue its webOS smartphones and tablets and is interested in splitting off the PC business, which Samsung is quite interesting in buying and becoming top dog in the PC world.

Here is an interesting fact, due to the fire sale and HP dropping their Touchpad to an unheard of price of $99, it became the biggest talk of the town in the tablet world.  Not iPad, Android or the Blackberry Playbook.

HP has now flooded the market with their webOS tablet, which was no where even close to competing with any iPad or Android tablet and sold out in record time.  People were lining up to lay down the cash in stores everywhere and buying several at a time, not to mention scooping them up on the internet.  So now HP has them in millions of hands with a system that is said to be obsolete in the coming days, or is it?

One thought is what HP is claiming, which is, since it seemed they had no chance in competing with the iPad or Android, they would cut their losses and drop the price so low they had to sell out of all their inventory.  Good call if they knew they would discontinue their lines of webOS smartphones and tablets.  Common sense not genius.

The price to make a Touchpad is around $318, so at $99 they are losing a ton of cash.   The lucky ones who purchased these things at $99 are selling them on the internet all day long at $250, so why didn’t HP at least try to get some of this money by selling them at this price when they knew they could get it?  Did they really lose out or was this just some smart marketing?

HP Touchpad Theory 1:

My thought is they were thinking a very smart marketing strategy called a no brainer.  At $250 buyers may have thought twice about purchasing, but when you drop the price like they did, it never ever crossed a buyers mind to purchase and purchase many at a time.  So now HP knows at this point that price is a HUGE factor in buying a tablet.  Maybe its not the operating system at all.  And they know they can sell Touchpads at $99 all day long.  The people who bought and are now selling them at $250 are selling out also.  So HP could keep producing these things and slowly raise prices until they hit that top out mark for buyers, leave the price and essentially out price there competitors.  We already know they are still producing Touchpads to fill the back inventory for buyers, so why not continue.

HP Touchpad Theory 2:

If HP does decide to phase out the webOS smartphones and tablets, they have now circulated millions of this operating system out there that will need support and updates.  This could make the bidding war start with buying the webOS.  Think Samsung.  I have always thought that putting this system on a nice slab device like Samsung would go over with consumers really well if marketed right.  Whoever decides to buy, the one step of startup marketing has already been done by HP.  They have already put it in front of the whole world now and people will soon learn that the webOS is a top notch system.  HP did a horrible job with this when first launching webOS and with this fire sale, somehow hit the nail on the head.

So which way do you think HP will go?

UPDATE:  After writing this article just a day before, 9to5Mac came out with this interesting article that looks like one of my theory’s could be what HP is trying to do.

=>PC head Todd Bradley tells Reuters HP could resurrect the Touchpad

Talk soon,

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DIRTY LITTLE SEO TRICKS-ARE THEY WORTH IT!

Using SEO tricks to get your website high rankings in the search engines is one of the most talked about topics circulating the internet these days.  And people are trying to beat Google for search engine traffic.  Think about this for just a second, Google is a multi-billion dollar company and has some of the best people working for them.  How do you think one person or a small team can beat out such a big company?  Answer is, you probably can’t and you will be spinning your wheels, wasting your time and money trying to figure all their rules out.

Sure your website might see some traffic for a bit and them blammo, you suddenly start to see a decline.  The Google Slap as marketers call it, has beat you.  All that work for nothing, and it could actually hurt your site in the long run.  I have tried these sneaky little tricks myself on a test website to see how some of these work.  I spent a little money, but what I saw was nothing mind shattering.  And this was for a keyword with moderate competition.

Google has a set of rules they want every website to abid by and if you break that trust, they will break your website.  But you can work with these set of rules and work them to your advantage and I can prove it to you with a website that is ran by one of my good friends.

He has had this site for several years with some traffic, but not what he has seen in the past year.  Keep in mind both he and I run our websites using Quansite, which is a wordpress blog platform, but we pay a monthly fee that comes with a ton of features including built in SEO factors.  The best thing with this system is you get to focus on your content and not how to fool Google.

What he started doing is ramping up his blog post frequency along with writing good quality content about hot topics in the news.  What’s more hot right now than smart phones?  In fact he wrote a blog post about the upcoming Samsung Attain and with using NO dirty little tricks is sitting on page 1 of Google.  Just a little hint….Google loves fresh content on blogs. Here are some of his stats over the past year:

• Alexa rank from 19,000,000 to 1,273,143
• U.S. rank from 1,600,000 to 215,705
• Google page rank from 0 to 2
• Traffic from almost nothing to 700 visitors a day
• 26% of visitors are new with a returning rate of 74%

Here are some screenshots from his Google Analytics account.

That’s pretty impressive, right?  Exactly.  And no rocket science involved.  At times his website will hit 100 visitors by 10am and this number will continue to grow with no trickery and good solid content.

So this just goes to show you if you work with Google and not against them you can see very impressive results.

What are your thoughts on this hot topic?  Speak up and leave a comment on your own experiences.

Talk soon,

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NON-TEAM MEMBER MATT KENSETH HELPS JEFF GORDON CLEAN THE FRONT GRILL OF DEBRIS

If you weren’t able to tune into Sunday’s race at Michigan, you didn’t miss much at all.  It reminded me of a California or Pocono race.  Just a lot of left turns with not much action, although it did end up in a green white checker finish due to the one and only Kurt Busch nailing the wall and sending him to the garage.  Actually, that was about all of the action happening were drivers hitting the walls out of the corners.  And of course Carl Edwards having problems early on and knocking him out of the points lead.

The biggest thing that surprised me was Jeff Gordon was running good until he started overheating due to debris in his grill.  Which could have clearly taken him out of the race with engine failure.  Jeff keyed in on the mic and asked if Matt Kenseth would pass him so he could draft to remove the crowd trash from the grill.  As you know these two have had there problems in the past, so I was amazed Kenseth actually helped him out.  Teammate Mark Martin also helped Jeff out late in the race to clean yet more debris out of his grill, although Mark seemed a little less reluctant to help out.

Not much good stuff happening in Michigan this weekend and unfortunately, the other of the Busch brothers blues band took the win.

What did you think of race and what was your take?

Talk soon,

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NASCAR CORNER GOSSIP COLUMN HAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED

I have been a big fan of NASCAR since about 1993 and started following Jeff Gordon from the start.  You can find me every Sunday on the couch during the start of each race with laptop geared up with the in car scanner and generally a cold beverage while the guys make all left turns.

So I incorporated a little bit of my passion into my blog where I can do a little gossiping about what’s going on in the world of the sport and post a little summary of that weeks race.  You’ll get a little bit of Bush brothers bashing I can guarantee it.  And I’ll start with this past weeks race at Watkins Glen.

Everything seemed to be going just fine watching the drivers riding around the track being introduced, but strong storms came through and were unable to get the track dry in time to get the whole race in.  So it was postponed until the following Monday.  Unfortunately I was unable to catch the race, but what a finish at the end with the big wreck.  All and all, it was good to see Ambrose win over either one of the Bush brothers.  Although it would have been nice to see my boy, one of the best road course drivers, take the win.

Talk soon,

P.S. You would be amazed at the what both Bush brothers talk about during the race listening to their in car audios.  Bashing how bad the car is, pit crew and even the crew chief.  It amazes me how the team can put up with such shit.  And after the race, if you don’t get to listen in, they just smile for the camera’s and say how good their team and car is.  It’s like they don’t even know fans are listening in.

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