A Tale of 2.5 Phones, IV

The topic for this blog will be the Siri and iCloud services.  From the start, I need to be clear that these are why I found a way to get an iPhone, when I still love my EVO 3D.  My final question for the last blog will be, do these services overcome the features and functionality that I love on my EVO....

Siri first...

I can tell my phone.  "remind me when i get to my office to check the alarm battery" and the next time I get to my office my phone will display a message, "Patrick, check your phone battery."

I can say, "Call my broker" and the phone will dial Sheila.  Same is true for call my Girlfriend and other relationships that I have already established those relationships.

You can ask Siri the capital of Uruguay or the population of Mozambique and it will answer.  You can ask what time sunset is and on and on.

if it worked perfectly, it would be worth the price of the phone.  It seems that half the time there is a network issue or she doesn't understand.  Making it frequently easier to do the task manually!  That should get better with time and people stop asking it "What is the meaning of life?"

iCloud is the reason I got the phone.  I will start with the ugly.

I do my personal real estate work from home, so when I am there, I am there for our agents and staff.  I have a MacBook Pro, Win 7 PC and a iPad.  When and if I can get rid of all my duplicates, the cloud will sync EVERYTHING perfectly.  Now, I just have way to many calender events in both outlook and iCal.  That is better than not having the info on a specific device.  If I find a way to fix that, it will be a great and glorious blog.

These are two reasons that I am leaning toward the iPhone as my primary device, but I have decided that I am keeping both of them.  Read the last blog for my final comments.

A Tale of 2.5 Phones III

A week ago I started to look at both the EVO 3D and the iPhone 4s.  They are both great products and both have their good points.  Some history on me before I continue with this.  I have done IT work on the side for most of my life.  I am the IT "guy" for our office and I love it.  I have a MacBook Pro for my mobile computing and a very nice Gateway with Win7 with dual monitors at my desk.  I also have an iPad and got a iTouch because it syncs by Bluetooth to my car.  I am going to sell the iTouch after I figure out how to transfer my Words with Friends to my iPad.  I have built computers and sold computers in the days that you had to set up all the network addresses manually.  That wasn't fun.  So these blogs are being written by a geek at heart.  Just an FYI.

Back to the phones.  There are things on both phones that I wonder:  "What the heck were you thinking?" The keyboard is the best example. 

Keyboards:

Apple: The main keyboard is just the letters of the QWERTY keyboard.  Not ONE special character.  Yes you can double tap the space bar for a period, but that requires a back space with it if you are typing an email or an URL.  At times the phone senses that you are entering an email or URL and gives you and @, but not nearly often enough.  Either the predictive text is better or the keyboard is better for my fat fingers, but I think I type a little better on the iPhone.

HTC: WHY OH WHY did you get rid of the cursor or arrow keys that made it so easy to navigate?  Ok..sorry, just a little rant.  Back to what it has.  You can get a number or special character by holding down a letter key like the numbers on a regular keyboard.  There is a dedicated period and comma key on the main keyboard.  It is a bit frustrating in the sense 3.0 phones to add text to the bottom of a picture, but that could be a function of my hand size.  So only a guy issue.

Contacts:

Apple:  Integration with the cloud seems amazing!  That is the last good point.  Another instance of, I wonder what they were thinking.  There is this cool alpha bar down the right side of the screen, NOT!  Even my 2 year old nephew's fingers are too big to hit that accurately.  And for all those that are over 45 and have your readers on to find the search button.  It's the thing above the A on the bar to the right.  GOOD LUCK HITTING THAT THE FIRST TIME!  Also the integration with other apps isn't as well thought out as on the EVO.  You have to go to the top of of text message stream to get the call/facetime options, which if you have many texts is too much of a pain.

HTC:  The People/Contacts functionality is one of the best thought out parts of the EVO and I still think I am learning new ways to use this part of the OS.  First because the EVO has more than one button so it can have a dedicated search button, you can always search the screen or app you're in.  I think Apple may have opted for form over function on this one.  You know that bank or service that keeps calling over and over and over?  The EVO has a setting in contacts to send calls from that contact directly to voice mail.  If you hold a finger down on a contact it gives you about 8 options, block caller is one of them, and you can do these things w/o even opening the contact.  However, I can't show you this because you have to root the EVO to get it to take a screen shot.  (Chalk one up for Apple on that one) I don't ever root my phones.  If you get a text from someone in your contact book you can hold your finger on their name and call them, open their contact information and more, a funtion that I was shocked the iPhone didn't have.  And it is a step less to text a contact from the call log for the EVO.  

Camera:

Apple:  Camera is basic and seems to work well, but is missing many of the features that I am used to on the EVO. (idit .. you can zoom by touching the screeen. This phone really needed a manual!)

HTC:  Great feature.  I will not include the 3d as that is more of a pallor trick than anything that I will ever use.  There is a zoom slider right on the screen and I can't even figure out how to zoom the iPhone.  There are all the settings that you use on your regular camera for light and back lighting to make this a usable camera for real estate. People get all confused on mega-pixels.  They don't determine quality, but size of picture.  They quality is determined by optics and color pallet and they seem pretty good on both cameras, but you have much more control of the EVO.

Sync:

Apple:  iCloud!  I don't really need to say more.  I will talk more about iCloud in next blog when I talk about Siri too.  It seems amazing and flawless, almost.

HTC: This functionality is why I got the iPhone. The only area that HTC/Google really needs to work on.  If you are not interested in doing it with Google, you have issues.

Battery/Charging:

Apple: No way to change the battery.  I really use my phone and I have gone through 3 EVO batteries in a day.  I have to constantly find a plug for the iPhone.  Get in car and ADD boy has to remember to plug it in or be sorry.  I wonder if I could get Siri to remind me to do that?  The iPhone does take a charge quickly.

HTC:  Both phones have reasonably priced extra batteries that you can have charged and ready to change out at a moments notice.  That is also good because all devices like this need an occasional reset and it is built-in if you change out batteries.  You can also get an extended life battery which lasts my broker most the day.

Both companies...Why can't you figure out the inductive charging like Palm did before they died?  That was the best system yet!  No plugs and no hassle and it even worked in the car.

Other quick thoughts.  My brother Michael, the CIO, has a great analogy (and has the iPhone) the Driod phones are like the Wild, Wild West with the lastest and greatest.  The iPhone is the tried and true companion, always there and very reliable.  The iPhone restrictions on things like downloading over the cell network and making you wait till you have a WiFi connection are all based in this stability and some find frustrating.  Cosmetically, the EVO has the ability to have widgets on the screens, so your intial interface is more interactive.  Unless I'm missing something, all you get are icons and folders on your homescreens.  I love the time and weather widget on my main screen of my EVO.

Next Blog will be devoted to iCloud and Siri and the voice commands on EVO.  But, I have to run now my iRon is calling.

Worst (BEST) phishing attempt to date!

I hope there is a special place in hell for these people too!  When dad died and I started helping mom, I realized how truly insidious these people are.  The people that snail mail things that look like they are from the Government were easy enough for my mom to figure out due to addresses.  But in today's world when emails come they look like paypal, a real bank or insurance company.

Here is the best example of this evil that I have seen so far...

I started to fill this out....they were only asking for last 4 of my social and it had the first 4 of my credit card even thought I know that all, or most Wells Fargo credit card numbers start with 4342. All of the sudden it hit me like a brick...check the true source of the email.  Anyone can fake the reply to field in an email, but to fake a URL is beyond these people at least so far.

I thought I would use this to remind everyone that not one reputable company will ask for any part of our account information in an email.  There are times that they ask us to log into our accounts, if you click a link in an email, make sure it is the EXACT URL for the institution right after the http:// in the address bar as soon as you get there, and not WELSFARGO or USAAA, etc.  The safest thing to do is to go directly to your website from your bookmark and find the page you need. As anyone that blogs here knows, you can label a "click here" link with anything you want to!

Hope this helps!

Tale of 2.5 Phones

I waited to get my first treo until they had 3G.  I couldn't stand watching people wait days for downloads.  I could get to a computer more quickly than they could get their phones to download.  Once I made the jump, there was no going back.  I have had Palm Treos from the 700p up to the 755p.  I tried the Pre and that was a disaster to say the least.  It had the potential of greatness, that was just a little bit before its time.  I was sad when HP dumped the webOS because it had great potential.

I replaced my Pre with an EVO 4g.  That was a great phone.  The Android system is fantastic.  My EVO did develop and issue and when replacement wouldn't charge Sprint upgraded me to the EVO 3D.  What more could I ask for.  This is the best phone ever.  I don't even need the camera and the 3D.  The speed of the OS, the HTC Sense 3.0, the memory usage or the integration of social media, contact, phone and really all the HTC apps is amazing.  This phone is almost perfect.  My only issue is the syncing with Outlook on my desktop, my iPad and MacBook.  

After upgrading to iOS 5, I realized the Apple iCloud has fixed the syncing issues of all the other systems.  Sprint made me yet another great deal and I am going to get an iPhone 4s that will not replace my EVO, at least at this time, but is augmenting it.  I am going to look at both phones as a REALTOR(r) that does tech training and coaching and decide what phone is better for what type of Realtor.  

This will be a series of blogs.  I am going to keep the title a Tale of 2.5 Phones because the EVO's are not that different.  They are both great phones and do basically the same things, other than what I mentioned before and the price point of the 4g is making it hard to justify the 3D.

I look forward to your comments and these are all just my opinions.  I have owned a computer since the mid 80's and had a cell phone since the days of the big Motorola bricks.  I am not getting paid for this, so it should be about as balanced as I can do!  I hope it helps.

Look for part two later today or Monday.

Great New Virus Tool!

I have spent many an hour trying to rid computers of viruses and always thought that my friend/agent/family member must really not pay attention to what they are doing to get these really bad viruses that require registry edits and long file searches.

The other day I found one of my computers had the same type of virus and I figured out that those that create this nemesis are even more insidious than I had figured.  I got a windows message about installing a downloaded update.  As I don't let Microsoft instal ANYTHING w/o my ok, I get these messages all the time.  To make a long story short, I clicked ok and have now spent hours trying to rid my notebook of this virus.  Luckily I have a MacBook that at this point is still impervious to these sick peoples creations.  

An aside, i hope there is a special place in Hell for these people that create these malicious viruses.

The tool I found is a disk that you create that boots a computer to a Linux kernel and runs a virus scan.  You either need to make a new disk each time or have a hard wired internet connection to update the virus definition.  This system has not fixed my computers of my nephew, broker and now my computer.

It isn't that easy to find on the Avira site so here is the link to the download.  Download the exe file and it creates the rescue disk.  Works like a charm.

http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-avira-antivir-rescue-system 

I am not sure there is anyway on a PC to avoid visuses any more.  Our defense is in programs like this and to keep giving the developers of these tools the kudos they deserve.

All that said, I love my MacBook Pro even more!  I know it is only time before we have the same issues, but I am loving it while it lasts. 

Passwords ... Passwords ... Passwords .... Some Common Sense Thoughts

I help agents with their computers all the time.  I have spent time in the military and have always been amazed at how different organizations deal with password security.  At one of my former offices, almost every agent had a book of passwords somewhere in their desk or on the back of their mouse pad or blotter.  In the Air Force for years we had to create these passwords that no one could remember, so they were written down, even though we were told not to and about the time the 16 character string with letters upper and lower case and at least one special character and numbers, it was time to change it yet again.  

Some people have those key chain displays that give a new code every few minutes.  That would make me nuts.  Our MLS makes us change every few weeks and if our passwords are at all similar, they are not accepted.

There are all sorts of things that are simple and easy to have good passwords that you can remember.  From everything I have read, a 6-digit password that includes numbers and at least one upper and one lower case letter is enough to keep the bad guys away.  It’s like which car gets stolen?  The one unlocked or the locked one?

Some ideas on how to generate a password: Don't use dates that are in your life, they are too easy to find, but if dates work for you, what about a friend’s birthday?  Don't use any name associated with you or initials, but what about ex-significant others or friends of your parents that were important, but not obvious to the hacker.  Songs, TV shows, and movies are also good, but don't have your password be Transformers and there is a picture of your son with his Transformer t-shirt on right next to your computer! (Yes, that did happen.)  Pet names, but not your current pets, please.  Your house number from when you were a kid or part of a phone number from when you were growing up, as long as your parents still don't have it.  Part of a former pet-sitter's phone number is my garage door code.  It was easy for her, and who will guess that?!  It is rare that I can't guess a password in 15 or so minutes or less.  And don't make it a movie that everyone knows that you love.  Most theft is from someone that knows you.

That said, if you have one password for everything, you have a huge vulnerability if someone hacks that password.  I found a great solution to that, courtesy of my brother.  He is a CIO for a group like NAR so he gets it. (most of the time) Add a part of a website to your stock password or purpose of site...

For example...

if your password is 123aBc, your password for AR could be 123aCtiveaBc.  You can get as creative as you want with that.  You can just add first letter or last letter and if it is a vowel you can use uppercase or whatever.  This seems to be the best solution that keeps the bad guys away.  I don't want to say too much more as that I will start to give away too many of my secrets and I don't want to have to change my system.

Hope this helps with what is becoming a big pain and if you are like me you can't stand paying for a password keeper program, although Apple is pretty good at that on its own...HEAR THAT, BILL???

A Different Take on the mess with Bank of America AKA BoA

It has become all to obvious that the service of most REALTORS(r) far exceeds anything offered to us by Boa or even to their clients and even the service at the Wendy's drive through seems to exceed anything BoA even strives for.  I called Wendy's and got a real person in seconds and and immediate answer to my question.  I can't imagine that anything that Wendy's customer service deals with has the weight of what BoA deals with and yet they are prompt curtious and polite.

My anger is stemming from what they are doing to our industry.  Two RE/MAX Agents less than 100 miles apart have the exact story at the same time;  A short sale property that has an offer submitted and while waiting for a response from BoA they foreclose on the property.

My Question...

How much of our struggling market is being caused by the total incompetence of BoA?

I figure if there are two agents so close with the same story in September of 2011 there are hundreds, if not thousands across the country of agents that have had the same issue this month and the magnitude of how much BoA has contributed to lack of performance in the housing market is staggering.

The costs are staggering in just these two deals...

Consider these costs:

1.  Cost of time of listing agent

2.  Cost of time of all agents that showed the house and those that wrote offers

3.  Cost of time and lost wages of clients/customers

4.  Cost of servicing by Equator (or lack there of in some cases)

5.  Cost of unnecessary foreclosures for homes that had great offers, my best one was cash...

These are just some of the costs and this is staggering.

I am tempted to send BoA a bill for my commission or even seeing if there are enough agents that would want to file against them.  We have to do something, not only are they wasting our time and resources they have also taken our tax dollars and their total abuse of clients and REALTOR'S (r) shows only signs of getting worse.

I can't believe at real estate functions that BoA employees that have personally screwed me or someone in my office look at me and smile like they are glad to see me knowing the issues that they have caused.  It took months to even opt out of their emails filled with empty promises.

Any other ideas on a ways to be heard?  There has to be something we can do!

(I don't usually rant and make post public, but maybe someone will see this that can help fix this!)