Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 2, 2010
New technological advances eases lives, increases options
Erica Tuggle
The new iPad comes with a slew of apps, allows for Web browsing, checking email and runs a modified version of the iPhone operating system. This device, although lacking many of the features of a traditional laptop, can be used in the Realty business for looking up and posting listings, creating spreadsheets and Web related functions.
- Erica Tuggle
As Chris Hayden, a manger at the Hamilton Place Mall Radio Shack, says, “These days, if you blink, you could miss the latest technology.” The rapid pace of advances makes it difficult to follow all the latest items that are supposed to make professional and personal lives streamlined and easier.
While some are content to keep blinking and let the world of gizmos and gadgets head along on its merry way, for professionals required to be up to date on all the latest technology tools, the only option is to keep this blinking to a minimum and wade into the waters of technology.
Fortunately for the wary, there are many options to accomplish all the skills business requires and the newest items seem, from early adaptors reviews, to be a delight. Two of the hot items in the news are the iPad and the new iPhone.
The latest iPhone came out June 24 with a record pre-purchasing number, and Hayden says there are so many applications (apps) for the iPhone that the versatility of this item makes it a favorite among consumers. With 200,000 apps for work, cooking, outdoors, keeping current, music and more there is almost nothing that an app will not cover. Even if someone were to find something that there was no app for, one can be created through the Android operating system that publishes the app so that anyone else can use it, Hayden says.
“With the Apple app store, there is pretty much an app for anybody; for you business or job or just to do normal day to day things,” he says. “There are so many things out there that apps can enhance and make them that much more enjoyable or easier.”
Hayden says the new iPhone has the same principles as the past versions, but the components have been updated for a faster processor. The biggest draw seems to be the front facing camera that allows the user to conduct video conferencing, and, Hayden says, this is an asset for Realtors who want a face-to-face session with a client without having to actually meet in person.
He says Sprint also has
this technology with the HTC EVO phone out now. The device also allows video to be uploaded simultaneously while capturing it to a Web site where people view the content that is being shot.
A hot item locally, he says, is the Video IP with MagicJack that allows users to take their mobile phone with them anywhere in the world, and as long as they have an Internet connection, they can pull up a number in Chattanooga and call relatives overseas from a local Chattanooga number thereby eliminating long distance charges.
Digital cameras are also a Realtor necessity, and Radio Shack has a variety for snapping a quick picture of a property. He says cameras on smart phones are good for immediate posting to the MLS site, Facebook and Twitter. The digital photo key chain that Radio Shack offers for only $19.99 can take and store up to 60 pictures at a time, and acts as a more compact, on-the-go digital camera.
The trend companies seem to be moving towards is to incorporate all the functions of the variety of devices into one item, Hayden says. He cites the Apple Company as a good example of this with their success on their mp3 player that they incorporated into their phone.
“Now they have the best mp3 player, Internet device and phone, and the new phone coming out is just a bigger version like a laptop,” he says.
Alex Baskett, of the Hamilton Place Mall Mac Authority, says, when Apple released the iMac, all the capabilities that users most enjoy were in one unit. He too sees everything converging into one unit in mobile devices because of the convenience factor. He says there is also a trend to move towards devices with “cloud based memory” in order to take hard drives out so that everything is in one on a Web based server, thereby lowering the failure rate of these items.
One of the newest, most-coveted Apple items, the iPad, is essentially just a big mobile device, he says. This item allows for Web browsing, checking email, has the ability to have certain apps downloaded to it and runs a modified version of the iPhone operating system, he says.
“There is a lot you can do with it, but there is a lot it lacks as far as a laptop goes,” he says. “It kind of fills the gap between the iPhone and the Macbook. Just because it is a mobile device, it is limited on some stuff.”
The iPad’s Web applications allow for listing look-ups, creating spreadsheets and there is a Word processor program that can be bought for it. Baskett says, there are a lot of applications tailored for business and that is what many early adaptors are using it for.
He brags on the new iPhone capabilities a bit more saying it has the new IOS4 operating system, faster processor speeds, a high resolution screen and agrees that it is the best smart phone of the market. These phones are available at AT&T and Best Buy with prices ranging from $499 to $829 for high-end versions.
Baskett says there are other updates in the Mac world as well. The Mac Mini has been updated to be a thinner Apple desktop device with a better processor, and comes with a high definition port to connect to HD televisions. The Macbook pro line and the Macbook have been revamped to fill the need for speed in processors and has larger hard drives, he says.
Those who are happy with a home telephone and only use the computer for e-mail may see all this hullabaloo over technology as laughable, but the rest of us who delight in our apps, HDTV and can’t imagine life without iTunes will have to remain wide-eyed for what the technology makers of the world hand down next.
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