So what's an agent to use in technology these days. I'm asked this question all the time. There are hundreds if not thousands of vendors who will try to convince you to buy what ever they are selling. This is not one of those situations. My goal is to give you my opinion and a little analysis of the devices I use. At the end of the day if I can help Long & Foster and other agents get the best technology, then the industry is that much better.
Since this is the first blog (on ActiveRain) let me just tell you a little about my background. I am a graduate of the University of Maryland with a BS in Finance and a Masters from Johns Hopkins University in Information Technology. Before taking the role of CIO at Long & Foster Real Estate, I spent 16 years as a professional consultant with the last 7 years at BearingPoint, LLC. I am also on several boards of companies you know and probably use everyday. For now I will keep those confidential. In my role I help numerous clients better understand their business and then help them select and implement sophisticated technology systems that made them both more efficient and more profitable. Travel and desire to see my kids growing up caused me to leave the world of consulting and take an opportunity with a fine regional real estate company. That company was Long & Foster Real Estate, who was also at the time one of my clients. Since joining I've met lots of terrific people and have had the opportunity to work on a number of very interesting projects. Ok, so that’s me. Now, what qualifications to I have to actually write this blog? Well, besides the terrific universities I've attended and the great companies I've worked with, I love technology. I'm not exactly what you'd call a geek. More of a "power user" with a keen eye for what works and what should never be purchased, or sometimes made.
Sometimes I can be a bit cerebral and here's one of those times. Ever heard of Sturgeon’s Law? Thats OK, as not many folks have. Theodore Sturgeon was a famous science fiction writer who coined the adage "90% of everything is crap" and let me tell you he is right. From music, to TV, movies and most of all blogs. Will talk about the 10% that in my opinion are the gems of the tech world. I have used some 50 phones, 25 PDA devices and countless computers over the last 20 plus years of being in the game. I'm an avid digital photographer and videographer so don't worry I'll blog about that in the future. I love Apple products having a Mac Pro 8-Core as my main home computer with two iMac Aluminum in the house but also a very accomplished Windows user in both XP Professional and Vista. Heck, I actually began with DOS using TWIN. Remember that one? How can you forget, yikes. In a future post, I'll put up my timeline of technology gadgets. It’s pretty interesting. I even have a Linux box running Ubuntu at my home. I have a lot of technology all of which I look forward to sharing with you. Another favorite of mine are mobility devices. I use both a iPhone 16 GB 3G and Blackberry 8830. What's even better is I'm getting a new Blackberry Storm in about a week. That might be my second post depending if I get it by weeks end. For the first one I'll stick to writing about my latest Macintosh laptop.
I just received a brand new MacBook Aluminum 2.4GHz (MB467LL/A) with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB 5400 RPM hard disk.
Let me start by saying that Apple has blurred the line between the MacBook line and the MacBook Pro. They are now very close in just about every category, well except cost. The MacBook Pro has been looked at as one of the best performing laptops on the market generally used for power users particularly in the graphics world. Photographers and video experts would use the MacBook Pro to do capture and editing. Even Apple's high-end and Hollywood favorite Final Cut Pro runs nicely on a MacBook Pro. Now it runs nicely on a MacBook. The new MacBook has a powerful Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor. The MacBook also boasts an increased front side (FSB) bus running at blazing 1066 MHz and is one of the first Apple portables to use the next generation 1066 MHz DDR3 PC8500 memory. Faster memory means better processing. The current limit on RAM is a nice 4GB, but the chip set should be capable of support up to 8GB of RAM. Maybe that will be an enhancement in a future firmware release. The new case is all Aluminum with an absolutely gorgeous LED backlit 13-inch screen. The case is nothing short of a fine Swiss watch. It’s more like a Rolex, than a laptop. Steve Jobs sure put some R&D funds into this case. Visit the Apple website for a nice video on the making of the case. The keyboard is tight and with the 2.4GHz version you get backlit keys. This is truly fantastic if you travel on a plane or do presentations. This laptop makes for an excellent PowerPoint or Keynote presentation device. PowerPoint and Keynote are true gems and totally utilized by agents. Agents should use these everyday as they are terrific marketing tools. For example, not sure why agents don't do this but why wouldn't you have a PowerPoint or Keynote Virtual Tour running on your laptop when you hold an Open House or Broker Open! This simple act can display great content and project you as a technologically savvy agent. Sorry, I had to rant for a second. I do that from time to time.
The new MacBook also does not have a trackpad button. Apple has incorporated the button into the entire trackpad. Using gestures the keyboard is highly responsive and amazingly accurate. Much has obviously come from the multi-touch technology of the iPhone. By removing the button, Apple has increased the trackpad by 39% allowing for more functionality. Single click, double clicking and several other gestures using two, three or four fingers allow for some nifty features. It took me about 5 seconds to learn the new trackpad and so far I really like it. Apple has gone green with this laptop earning several different certifications. Some of that is due to the new screen. Gone is the matte finish with traditional fluorescent back illumination. Apple only offers the glossy screen with full LED illumination. LED's contain no harmful materials (principally mercury), use less power, are brighter and offer instant on brightness. This allows the laptop to be in full swing before the screen is even lifted in viewing position. Personally, I've always purchased the glossy screens. For movies and PowerPoint they are just fantastic. Outside you'll get a little glare, but hay, I sit in an office or work in my home most of the time. Just look at the glossy screen, you'll see the difference right away. The all new MacBook has lots of ports. It has the now famous magnetic power port (if you're clumsy, this will save you a boat load of money), a 10/100/1000 MBs Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, sound in and sound that supports both analog and optical and a brand new mini display port. There is no Firewire 400 port on any of the new MacBook’s. Apple is clearly moving toward the USB standard. There have been a few complaints on this but unless you have Firewire external hard drives this shouldn't be an issue. One of the only flaws I can find with this new laptop is the fact that Apple did not include the adapters in the box for the new media display port. You'll have to shell out another $30 each for a DVI or VGA adapter. Some that you will need to have if you want to use an external monitor or projector. According to Apple, the new display port will be the standard on all Apple computers. So far that’s true, since the new MacBook and MacBook Pro both have it. Come on Apple; please give us the video dongle at no charge. The good news is that the new display port can drive up to a 30 inch high resolution monitor at a resolution of 2560 by 1600. That’s huge...
The new MacBook also incorporates the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video graphics chips for a huge increase in performance. From the first round of testing, the new chip set is close to 5X faster. In my usage, I really see the difference. Everything is much faster. The MacBook has the now standard built-in iSight video camera, which makes video conferencing a breeze. Simply use iChat and you'll talk and see your friends, family or clients anywhere in the world. It’s so easy to use; it will change the way you work. One last thing to point out is Apple has made the hard drive user accessible. This allows anyone with basic computer skills to upgrade their hard drive anytime. Simply turn the MacBook over and flip the lever. The aluminum panel will pop off revealing the replaceable battery and standard 2.5 inch SATA hard drive. While Apple offers hard drives up to 320GB, 3rd party companies like Western Digital and Seagate have 2.5 inch 500GB drives available today and 650GB or even 750GB drives will be coming out shortly. The way things are going we’ll have 1TB 2.5 inch drives shortly. A 128GB SSD drive is also available but they are still way too expensive for me. A SSD drive is a drive that is based on solid-state memory. It's like a huge RAM drive. Apple charges $600 extra for this. Please save your money. SSD drives are still 2 to 5 years away from being large and cheap. Until then, get a 250GB 7,200 RPM traditional drive. They are cheap, fast and very reliable.
So what applications do I use? I'm pretty conventional with all of my laptops so here's a list of the applications I use on a daily basis.
- OS X 10.5.5 (my operating system)
- Apple iWork 08 (mostly Keynote)
- Microsoft Office 2008
- Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Professional
- Norton Antivirus (not sure why since the Mac never gets viruses)
- Apple Final Cut Pro
- iChat
- Safari
- VMWare Fusion with an instance of Windows XP Pro and Microsoft Office 2007 (yea, I know but I still have a Windows world to support)
That’s not a lot but that’s all I really need. So, how does the MacBook fare in everyday tests. It did terrific. It's just about as fast as my 2.5GHz MacBook Pro and much faster than my Dell Latitude D630 or Lenovo T61. The new video chipset really improves performance. Battery life is excellent at about 4 hours with wireless 802.11n being on. Every application worked without any hitch. Everything about this laptop screams quality and performance. Now comes the $64,000 question. It’s an Apple so it must cost a fortune? Its actually very well priced from $1,299 to $1,599. The one I'm testing is the $1,599 model. OK so you can go by BestBuy today and get a PC laptop for $500. That’s true but it wont be Apples to Apples, pardon the pun. If you compare similarly equipped laptops the Apple is exactly the same price as a Dell, HP or Sony. Also, the Apple will cost much less over time since the OS is a lot less expensive and you don't have to worry about those pesky viruses that just about kill a PC. You can also say your not that funny PC Guy on the commercials but a hip real estate agent. Hay, after all it's all about the social and Apple is The Social.
So the final word on this new MacBook (MB467LL/A) is a near perfect 4.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a great laptop, fast as heck, built like a fine Swiss watch and very reasonably priced. Remember, this is opinion, not fact. Take care, comment if you want and stop by again next week for another technology post. Next week I'll do either the new Blackberry Storm or a digital camera. Lets see what comes in. C YA...
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