The Archos 605 Wi-Fi video player, on sale Sept. 1, is one of the first Internet TV systems to hit most of the points on my wish list. People tend to associate Archos with portable media players, but the fetching silver-and-white model I tested ($399, with 160 gigabytes) also surfs the Web, downloads content, and docks with a TV.

Even novices should find it relatively easy to operate, thanks to intuitive icons on a high-quality 4.3-inch touch screen. The Archos Content Portal, represented by one of those icons, lets you download movies and TV shows from CinemaNow. There's also a music download service called BurnLounge and a link to YouTube (GOOG ), and Archos may announce several other content partnerships before the November launch of a new unit with a 7-inch screen. On all models there's a built-in Web browser with Adobe (ADBE ) Flash Player support, which improves the hunt for Web content. Videos, Web-based games, animation, and other offerings I downloaded all looked as good as they do on my laptop.

THE PART OF THIS PROCESS that has flummoxed other consumer companies is getting Net-based content to the TV. Archos gives you two ways to do it. Using Wi-Fi, the player establishes a fast link to your home network and lets you stream any Windows-compatible content from your PC to the Archos 605. A $100 add-on dock, called the Archos DVR Station, takes over from there. You connect it to your TV set via high-definition or standard-definition cables. Then simply plop the Archos into its dock, pick up the palm-size remote control, and begin browsing the Web or viewing content stored on the Archos hard drive. Want to take some recorded TV shows with you on a plane? You can connect this same dock to your cable or satellite set-top box and record programming in standard definition on the Archos player. To make the experience more TiVo (TIVO )-like, the company includes a programming guide that's free for the first year and $20 a year after that. In my test, almost everything worked as it should. To record ABC News (DIS ), all I had to do was tap that entry on the program guide. I also used the schedule function, which let me record while away from home, like TiVo.

Setting up the Archos 605 did require separate online registration for the unit, the dock, and partner sites such as CinemaNow. And some key icons such as settings and menu are crammed onto the bottom-right of the screen, making it difficult for people with big fingers to tap accurately. I also found the manual controls lining the right side of the player a little confusing. There's an unusual rocker switch on each of these side keys that serves a different function depending on whether you press the left edge or the right. Users must also figure out the infrared code for changing channels on the set-top box—a process that took several service calls.

And of course, downloading large files via Wi-Fi can take a long time; I had to restart a CinemaNow download of Wild Hogs several times because the unit, when it's not docked, turns off the Wi-Fi automatically to save battery life.

Archos, in other words, isn't nirvana. (And last I checked, there's still no Nessie.) But despite the occasional hassle, this device offers one of the best experiences available in the still-troubled arena of Internet TV.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_37/b4049027.htm?chan=search

We return to a popular (at least to yr (justifiably) humble svt) topic here in this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©. Previously:

In an apparent blow to the true-believing open source community, OLPC and Microsoft have reached an agreement to make Windows available on the XO laptop.

It is only fitting that the NYTimes' story has as its header a photograph of students in India praying before class time, since there is no doubt that in the world of personal computing technology, operating systems are a religious choice. Windows vs. Apple vs. Open Source (mainly, Linux).

Pal Pillai/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Students pray before working on their computers in Vasti Vidhalaya, India. The XO laptop comes with a video camera.

Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children

By STEVE LOHR |Published: May 16, 2008

After a years-long dispute, Microsoft and the computing and education project One Laptop Per Child said Thursday that they had reached an agreement to offer Windows on the organization’s computers.

Microsoft long resisted joining the ambitious project because its laptops used the Linux operating system, a freely distributed alternative to Windows.

The group’s small, sturdy laptops, designed for use by children in developing nations, have been hailed for their innovative design. But they are sold mainly to governments and education ministries, and initial sales were slow, partly because countries were reluctant to buy machines that did not run Windows, the dominant operating system.

Education ministries want low-cost computers to help further education, but many see familiarity with Windows-based computing as a marketable skill that can improve job prospects.

Nicholas Negroponte, the visionary who has championed One Laptop Per Child from an outrageously impractical idea (a $100 computer suitable in every way to provide educational computing to the most remote of the developing world's children) to spectacular realization, is, unlike many idealists, a practical business operative. 600,000 of the machines have been sold to governments so far, a most impressive number.

The kids don't care about what operating system runs their shiny green boosters to the endless world of knowledge, but then they don't buy the XOs either.

Governments do (paying about $200 each thus far, although Negroponte's goal is for economies of scale to get the eventual price down to that [ever more elusive, in these inflationary times] $100), and government education ministry bureaucrats understand Windows but they do not want to understand open source. For many governments, providing computers to young school children is less about opening up access to the gigantic world beyond their villages, and more about teaching marketable computer skills.

And, if adding Windows to the XO makes the program more palatable to the guys holding the purse strings, and Microsoft can be persuaded to price Windows appropriately, then OLPC can deliver both world wonder and practical PC skills.

Sounds like win-win to me.

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children - New York Times

Of course, Mr. Negroponte's pragmatism has offended open source zealots, but I believe that this is not a zero-sum issue. The kids whose governments opt for the Windows version will very probably eventually get machines that include a ported version of the simplified Sugar software, certainly appropriate for exploratory self-managed inquiring education.

And, learning their way around Windows will certainly speed their integration into the global network of business.

So, my congratulations to One Laptop Per Child, Nicholas Negroponte and to Microsoft and Bill Gates, for finally reaching common ground. After all, it's about educating the world's most deprived children.

Regardless of the the children's religion, or the computers'.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

--MUDGE

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New service that bears the name of "Messenger TV" allows users to watch short films, songs filmed at the same time when chatting with their friends via the Windows Live Messenger, providing a variety of movies, songs, including those produced by companies in the MTV, Sony IBM Ji.

Microsoft seeks through this service access to friends watching the same movies and songs at the same time through different calculators new social experience, which attract Internet users who spend hours a day online social networks.

The new Microsoft service in twenty countries, including many European countries, as well as New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, but did not Inaugurates so far in the United States.

It is noteworthy that the company has recently launching the service "telescopes World" or WorldWide Telescope "which allows free Web site for visitors around the world, research and exploration, sailing in space.

The site provides worldwidetelescope.org developed by the research center at Microsoft, the ability to see pictures from the Hubble telescope, the giant is the control centre "for the Chandra X" run by "NASA" and "Clear Silwan digital sky", which provides maps of galaxies.

   
    
The new site will feature roaming in space and access to locations in the outer orbit developed Kiwi academics, as they transition from the telescope control to another according to their need.

He said the founder of "Microsoft" Bill Gates the world's telescopes powerful tool of science and culture because it makes it possible to detect any organism universe.
 
It seems that this step taken by Microsoft came in response to a quick Google announced its intention to fine him images directly to the planets, stars and galaxies to the Web surfers, where the company disclosed its intention to build a technical partnership with a group of scientists who are preparing to build a giant telescope survey to study space.

It is scheduled to begin this work actual telescope in 2013 on top of one of the highest mountains of Chile in South America has been designed specifically for the "Clear" across space to focus on a particular point for 15 seconds, before moving on to another, a way that guarantees him cover the whole sky every Dome S three.

The scientists hold high hopes for this telescope to monitor near-Earth comets, and to see distant explosions asterisk, in addition to study what is known as "black energy" that is believed to be responsible for Tzhim expansion of the universe.

Taathoudr fashion model American Mule Smith to receive the guest back to her family after their intention to adopt a child from Cambodia because of the large Love of Children, she said, "I love children and make significant at this time procedures for adopting a boy from Cambodia."
The Mule 34 years that its adoption came after great encouragement by the oceans and especially her mother, which encouraged her to adoption, and why choose baby from Cambodia confirmed Mule "did not ask for adoptions from Cambodia in particular, but the approval came from this country before others".
It is noteworthy that the Mule is still introduce uniforms so far, also entered the realm of a movie actress, which is preparing for a large number of films, also intends to launch its collection of ready-made clothes

ובכן שני נושאים על סדר היום ונתחיל בראשון - האינטרנט. לאחרונה התקנתי פלאג-אין לדפדפן האינטרנט שלי שהופך את חווית הצפיה בתמונות לחוויה מרגשת של ממש. מדובר ב-פיקלנס, אשר אפשר להוריד כאן. הטכנולוגיה הזו מיישמת את הקונספט של אימרז'ן, או הטמעה בשפתנו. רוצה לאמר, לא עוד צפיה בתמונות בפורמט של אלבומים עם קישורים, אלא ממש כניסה לעולם וירטואלי של 'קיר תמונות' בו ניתן לנוע (כרגע בדו-מימד), להתקרב ולהתרחק והכל מבלי להעביר דף או ללחוץ על קישור כפי שהתרגלנו בעולם האינטרנט הטקסטואלי. אם חושבים על זה, איכשהו התרגלנו שהדרך שבה אנחנו מעבירים מידע היא באמצעות טקסט. באתר רגיל ניתן למצוא לפחות אלפי שורות טקסט ובינהם גם תמונות אילוסטרציה למיניהם, אבל למעשה בעולם ה'אמיתי' החושים שלנו אינם בנויים לקלוט טקסט, אלא מראה, צליל, ריח, טעם ומגע. כל הקונספק של חווית ההטמעה היא שהתוכן מועבר ללא צורך בניווט מורכב, קריאה של טקסטים וכו'. הטריק עובד גם עם וידאו בצורה חלקה לגמרי.

אם יורשה לי להתנבא, לא רחוק היום שבו כל ניווט באתרי אינטרנט יהיה בצורה מוטמעת וטקסט יהיה אופציה ולא ברירת מחדל.

דוגמא של האלבום שלנו כפי שהוא נראה עם פיקלנס

הנושא השני המרגש לא פחות, הוא ריצוף הגנום של הברווזן האוסטרלי, הלוא הוא הפלטיפוס. החי המוזרה הזו היא היונק החי היחיד שמטיל ביצים. בין המוזרויות הנוספות שלו נציין את מקור הברווז, רגלי הלוטרה והארס שהוא מייצר בדוקרן המצוי בכף רגלו האחורית. למעוניינים במידע נוסף, הערך בויקיפדיה בעברית לא רע בכלל - ליחצו כאן. ההישג הטכנולוגי הנאה פורסם לפני שבוע בעיתון הנחשב ניצ'ר(יענתי טבע) והנה הקישור למבוא של הכתבה (באנגלית). כמובן שיש קשר ישראלי היות ומדען ממכון ויצמן המתמחה באבולוציה השתתף בפרויקט. לא אלאה אתכם בפרטים, אבל בהחלט מדובר בכמה תגליות מרתקות בתחום האבולוציה.

למי שלא שם לב, חביירים וחביירות נכבדים, אנחנו חיים בתקופה מרגשת מאד. חידושים טכנולוגים ותובנות מדעיות ואחרות מצעידות את המין האנושי בצעדי ענק. השאלה היא לאן.

According to the study prepared by the Heart Institute in Montreal, Canada, published in "Brosidngs Of The National Academy of Saicz" The tests conducted on mice suffering from a disease similar to muscular atrophy in humans breath after improvement work was given this medication.

The researchers said that people living with muscular atrophy more susceptible to the limitations of the heart than others due to weak heart muscle and not pumping blood to the rest of the body properly.

They pointed out that many patients with this disease early and often when they are in their twenties and thirties age.

So said Dr Marita Bolshmidt of the "campaign of muscle atrophy" of the Alazallalbraitanih "it is necessary to remember that the benefits that could be seen when the animals do not always translate into medicines covered by man."

She added, "although that seems promising, but this very preliminary stage and we look forward to conducting further research that might arise which could influence the legacy of people who suffer from muscular atrophy."

If so, follow the instructions provided by NGI news:

File dhtmled.ocx missing - Error message: How to resolve

View full story: Firefox 3 RC1

Read full story @ Techteam

Am I a Mac user or a PC user? Take a wild guess.

Do you know anyone who loves Windows? Me either. I've been using it for two decades, and the frustrations are as big and fresh now as they were more than 20 years ago. We have been told and sold Bigger! Faster! Richer features! blah, blah, blah. But you'll still probably have to restart several times a week (or a couple of times a day). Check out these instructions for traveling with Outlook Web Access:

Make sure you can close the browser. If the computer won't allow you to close the browser by the usual means, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE (if you're using Microsoft Windows) and end the browser process from the Task Manager.

20 years later, and we don't have a reliable way to close a browser. Meanwhile, the program still sits on top of that piece of crap DOS.

When Microsoft releases a new version of software, I know I'm going to get hosed. All that time and effort invested in learning, say, MS Office will be out the window(s). In marketing terms, I get to make a fresh start. In reality, the latest products come at the expense of my productivity. Functions get regrouped in even less intuitive ways than before; simple operations (like saving a file) seem to disappear; old functions are given new names; features are touted that have been in the software for years; bells and whistles triumph over essential functions like stability. And by the way, you may need to upgrade your equipment in order to run the new behemoths.

Having repeated this cycle again and again, I've learned that every release of a Microsoft product is a beta. That makes customers beta testers. Purchase the products at full price, then find dozens or hundreds of bugs as we attempt to use them. MS might or might not fix the bugs. Remember the old "joke" about AT&T: "We don't care. We don't have to." Ah ha ha. Meanwhile, Microsoft (with $52 billion in the bank as of Feb 08 ) scans the horizons for takeover targets. "Yoo hoo - over here. I'm a customer. Remember me? Could I get some help? Hello?"

I work with a longtime Mac user. It's tantalizing to see the ease with which she manages to do dozens of things at once while I'm hacking away on a PC. She says that her Mac works like her brain. Inconceivable! No PC user is going to make an outlandish claim like that. But PCs still dominate the market, so she has to use one. What a burn.

Apart from these considerations, I'm pretty happy to be part of the wonderful world of PCs and Windows.

News source: Asus Eee PC 901

Today Seesmic got a HUGE win. The Indiana Jones crew, including famous movie stars and movie directors, are on Seesmic. Here, check them out:

http://seesmic.com/cate
http://seesmic.com/georgelucas
http://seesmic.com/harrison
http://seesmic.com/steven
http://seesmic.com/karen

There's a lot more on this over on TechMeme this morning. These celebrities are so well known in our culture that I don't even think I need to put their full names in my post. Ever heard of Harrison Ford? Steven Spielberg?

It's interesting, CEO Loic Le Meur bristled when I told him that FriendFeed was the World Wide Talk Show. He said he was going to turn Seesmic into that and this shows that he's probably right. Funny, though, that I first learned of this on FriendFeed. If you look at everyone this morning talking about Seesmic, you'll see there's a TON of new conversation happening thanks to these celebrities showing up on Seesmic.

How important is this?

MySpace's CTO once told me that getting celebrities to use its service was key in getting hundreds of millions of people to use its service.

Congrats to the Seesmic crew!

File Reference runtime access — Bring users into the experience by letting them load files into your RIA. You can work with the content at runtime and even save it back when you are done through the browse dialog box. Files can be accessed as a byteArray or text using a convenient API in ActionScript without round-tripping to the server. You no longer have to know a server language or have access to a server to load or save files at runtime.

This greatly lowers the bar to using Flash as a photo editor, document manager, customized application experiences, marking up content and saving locally, all without the need for server side script. I am a big fan of server side technologies and develop with them but even for bettering performance this could be huge.

Scenarios where this might be useful is editing applications, note taking (download a book with your notes), editors for docs/games/3d/textures,,, the possibilities are endless really.

Flash 9 just got mainstream and production ready (flash 9 penetration) at the tail end of last year but there are so many great things in the new version that I hope it comes out very soon. Flash it turning into quite a platform.

Alternativa Platform also has updated their engine for Flash 10 already (they must have had some inside early accessibility to it) and there are great possibilities here.

It is only beta (Flash 10) but there are great market opportunities to prepare for when this launches. Keep your eye on where the puck will be, not where it is currently at. I was concerned when Adobe bought Macromedia and the future of Flash but it appears they are taking this bull by the horns.

If you are ready to play with Flash 10 here is Flex and FlashDevelop updates to help you get started.

Also here is some code posted at ByteArray from Pleh for testing the new FileReference runtime access, usage is extremely simple and rests on this

var data:ByteArray = fileRef['data'];
[sourcecode language="jscript"]

/*
  FileReference Load Example By Pleh 17/05/08
*/

package {
	import flash.display.Loader;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.net.FileReference;
	import flash.net.FileFilter;
	import flash.utils.ByteArray;

	public class Flash10Test extends Sprite
	{
		private var fileRef:FileReference;

		public function Flash10Test()
		{
			fileRef = new FileReference();
			fileRef.addEventListener(Event.SELECT, selectFile);
			fileRef.addEventListener(Event.OPEN, openFile);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,stageClick);
		}

		private function selectFile(e:Event):void {
			fileRef['load']();
		}

		private function openFile(e:Event):void {
			var data:ByteArray = fileRef['data'];
			var loader:Loader = new Loader();
			loader.loadBytes(data);
			addChild(loader);
		}

		private function stageClick(e:Event):void{
			fileRef.browse([new FileFilter("All Formats (*.jpg,*.gif,*.png,*.swf)", "*.jpg;*.gif;*.png;*.swf", "JPEG;jp2_;GIFF;SWFL")]);
		}

	}
}

[/sourcecode]

Actually, the only reason I keep Vista is for Microsoft Office. I'm an advanced formatter, and unfortunately, Openoffice.org on Ubuntu just doesn't cut it for me. Since I haven't needed to do any real formatting in a while, I have had no need to access Windows!

I've been thinking about completely removing Vista... I currently have it on a 40gb partition, and 20gb of that is taken up by the actual operating system. If I did this, then I would install XP on a virtual machine, most likely VMWare, and install Microsoft Office into that. The problem with this though, is that I am unable to access the internet, OR use any external drivers, such as a flash drive. In fact, even connecting my laptop to an ethernet cable doesn't even work. This means that there is no way of getting files in or out of the virtual machine!

So unless I can get a way to have a working copy of XP installed onto a virtual machine, I will have to keep Windows. It feels great having the terribly overweight operating system hope to get chosen in GRUB every single time I boot my computer, only to have to slump down again when I choose Ubuntu. Life is good!

from New Scientist.com

Seventeen leading scientists talk about the books that changed their lives. Have you read them?

Robert Scoble (Friend of:)

• -Mike Arrington
• -Louis Gray
• -Sarah Lacy
• -Kara Swisher
• -About 4,997 other people

Now, why is this little tree so important? Why shouldn't I be able to copy this little tree over to, say, FriendFeed or Twitter or Upcoming.org or Yelp or Flickr or Google's Friend Connect?

Easy. There's a TON of money in that little tree and the hundreds of millions of little trees that YOU have added into Facebook and MySpace and other places.

How do I know that? Well, there's a little stealth company that I've started hearing about. Media6.

A friend told me about them. They figured out that if, say, Mike Arrington buys something, that his friends are two to 10 times more likely than the general public to buy the same thing. Take that into advertising on Facebook: if Mike clicks on, say, a CocaCola ad, Media6 knows that his friends are far more likely to click on that ad than the rest of the 100 million people on Facebook.

So what is Media6 doing? How are they building a database of all of this info? I hear they are making deals with all sorts of advertisers over on Facebook to have a little line of JavaScript added along with their advertisement. That is letting them build a super database of everyone and their friend networks (their social graphs).

This is what I don't get about Facebook's stance: I've already shown you two companies that are figuring out how to get access to Facebook's social graph data without even getting on Facebook's radar screen. The first is Minggl, who uses a toolbar to download all your social graph data to your browser where it'll be a lot more useful to you and now we have Media6, who is building a huge database of you, and your advertising-clicking behaviors.

Now are you getting it? Advertisers will go to Media6 because they'll be able to better match up ads with people who are much more likely to buy the stuff they are hawking.

I bet Facebook is building its own internal database of exactly the same data too.

Truth is your social graph tells the world a HUGE amount about you. Facebook doesn't want you to move that other places easily.

Translation: there are billions of dollars at stake here.

Even when you take into account the US gallon compared to the imperial gallon and the difference in the litre, it is still a very cheap commodity in comparison to the UK.

$4 is nothing! Try $9.25 a gallon! That is how much it is in the UK.

So, as the price is over inflated will this mean that Americans will move away from their gas-guzzling monstrosities to a more mundane - yet fuel efficient - vehicle?

Yes it seems.

Sales of name-brand scooters such as Honda, Yamaha, Vespa and Suzuki rose 24 percent in the first quarter of the year, said Mike Mount, spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council trade group -- noting that it's not exactly a hot sales period because of cool weather in much of the nation.

Maybe with the whiff of a respite in the near future the American motorist should reach further than the recommended 35 MPG as proposed. That will, in all probability, mean smaller engined cars - but it will also mean that the oil companies will need to sell their product cheap, and keep it cheap. Supply will outstrip demand for a very long time.

DoT sources said if the demonstrations are successful, the government will direct Canada’s RIM (the maker of BlackBerry smartphones) to install the interception solution on Indian mobile networks expeditiously.

...

Link to article

Before you start jumping for joy, thinking that less agents in the business will mean less competition for you, reconsider: Less agents means better competition from those who remain. Working the boom market is not so hard, with a heartbeat and a license, many inexperienced agents beat the odds. But sticking around through tough markets requires serious players. The competition will be well-trained, well-financed and most likely, well-versed in the technology that keeps them competitive. Talk about tough times!

That’s why technology matters more than ever. When markets tighten, competitive advantages are critical. Enhanced technology skills provide competitive advantages across every segment of your business: prospecting, leads generation, communications, marketing, transaction tools and client relationship management. Every one of these areas can benefit from technology that saves time, cuts costs and expands opportunity to maximize the market. And with incomes for agents and brokers dropping with the market, technology mastery becomes more critical than ever.

If you’re planning on sticking around this year, it’s time for your technology to start making a difference. Here are four areas you can focus on right away:

1. Customer acquisition. One of the greatest expenses for real estate professionals is the cost to find new sellers and buyers. Let’s start with some honesty: you’re never going to pick up the phone and cold call prospects; your postcard marketing is a passive-aggressive waste of time; and your newspaper advertisements aren’t going to entice buyers who can’t translate that a “3br/2ba/lgdnrm/frog” means a big home with “large dining room and family room over garage.” Even Agent Moneybags can’t keep throwing this kind of money away; we’ll be calling you Polly PastAgent soon enough. If you’re Sally CyberExpert, then it’s time to unleash the web. Ask yourself this: Who is currently interested in selling their home? Umm, how about all those for sale by owners online? Good; now start looking them up on their websites and emailing them. There’s a list of people who have already made the mental leap to sell, and have an 88% likelihood of ultimately working with a real estate agent. No, they don’t want you to call, and your postcards are silly; Talk to them the way they are telling you they want to hear from you: by email. (Hint: they are marketing on the web.) And since these people will also be buyers, the same technique applies if you’re hunting for customers. Use the web (and forget about them coming to your website – which they can’t find. Waiting for customers to register is the ultimate in sales passivity.)
   
   
2. Communications. The Baby Boomers have already told us their technology preferences: don’t call them, email them (hint: the Do Not Call list). Surveys of Generation Y tell us that, offered the choice, they’d give up email in favor of text- and instant-messaging. So if you’re going to talk to potential clients this year, it’s going to be by some form of ‘messaging’ and not phone calls. Good news, because you can drop your cell phone bill and cut costs, while using mobile email and text messaging to reach more contacts. Text message your open house times and locations to buyers on Saturday; use an email blast to alert customers of a price reduction on your listing; tap an instant message to your assistant while sitting in another dull agency class. Business runs on communications – and it’s time to lower the cost while expanding the opportunity by using a Blackberry or other convergence device. In fact, as competition heats up, what you really save with “messaging” technologies is time. Some estimates put the average time-saved with mobile messaging at two hours a day! That’s where your technology can really put pressure on your competition – by providing you two more hours every day to list, sell and prospect, while the other guy is still leaving a voice message or logging into his email at the office.
   
   
3. Marketing. Text on the web is dull. Snore. Boring. Old school. Today’s most competitive web sites – in every industry – are alive! Video, sound, interactive tools, instant chat with real people – each of these technologies creates comparative advantages to the “read-me only” websites. Most real estate websites today are glorified Sears catalogs. Text describes the property, some photos (many, if you’re lucky) display the rooms and a fish-eye-nauseating virtual tour makes buyers blurry-eyed. If marketing technology is going to make a difference this year, it’s time to make your websites grow up – and that means multimedia. First, cut the costs of creating virtual tours by downloading free software like Microsoft’s Photo Story 3 which turns any sequence of photos into animated, voice narrated video clips. Add them to websites, listing presentations and even email marketing. If you’ve already taken 10 photos of the property yourself, the cost to create a virtual tour should be zero by using some software like Photo Story.

   Next, start selling your listings using your voice, by creating a daily podcast and letting prospects subscribe to your updates. Today’s first time home buyers go everywhere with their iPods, which contain daily downloads of news, sports, discussions and even video clips. Savvy brokerages should develop a “daily show” style of podcast that consumers can add to their iTunes for regular updates. Think of it like a “talk show” for your company – discussing listings, interviewing past clients, educating consumers on finance issues – you name it. It’s like marketing on the radio without having to pay the expensive broadcast fees. Adding a podcast to the web is about as hard as going to Yahoo Podcasting (http://podcasts.yahoo.com) and buying a good headset.
   
   

4. Client Relationship Management. Start by dispelling a myth: Sending canned stuff to clients every week is not client relationship management. Contacting them regularly to maintain relationships is. Understanding this will help you use your campaign-manager technology far more advantageously than simply email-blasting some dull templates every week like, well, a dullard, that’s what! Using technology is not selling; it merely enhances the sales process. So what do most agents need to do to use technology to maintain relationships? A reminder on their calendar. No, really: that’s all you need. A regular reminder on your calendar to reach out to your past clients and current network and refresh your relationship. Trust me, they really don’t need to receive your recipes or your insights on the current market every week. Sending canned stuff simply reinforces the idea that you’re a commodity vendor, using mass-marketing techniques to troll for numbers. If past clients really trust you, they’ll come back to you for your insights when they need it. But only if they remember you, which is where technology should focus. Using something as simple as a recurring task reminder in Microsoft Outlook, you can pick two times a month to scroll through your client list and reach out to them personally. If you think you won’t have time, remember the two hours a day your Blackberry is going to save you, and apply some of that time to managing your relationships and generating referrals. And yes, you can still send an email (or even use the phone) as long as it’s personal.

So just to be clear: the market is still sagging, the industry is largely bloated and the average agent doesn’t make enough money to waste it on old-school sales habits. History shows us that these are the times where simply trying harder won’t protect you. You’re going to have to try smarter – and use technology to make up the difference.

]]> http://himynameistravis.wordpress.com/?p=198 Sat, 17 May 2008 18:29:12 +0000 travis thum http://himynameistravis.wordpress.com/?p=198 so as i'm sitting pondering life. see, i like to do that from time to time. see what, where, when and why. you know, that whole thing. anyways, so i'm sitting here look at my apple macbook pro and i thought, 'hey travis, everything you have is wireless, right?' and i thought about it. and yeah, it all is! i just went and picked up the new apple wireless keyboard. the reason for that is basically i hate reaching up to the keyboard on my laptop. so this actually works out a lot more. but when i do feel like being in bed with my macbook pro there's no problem.

on that note. sense i am talking about apple and everything. my iphone is broken. this greatly saddens me. i called apple support and we went through all these tests. i set up and appointment at the apple store in pleasanton. drove there yesterday and they fixed it. came home, and it went back to being broken again. lame, i know. anyways, today it gets shipped out for repairs or even possibly a brand new iphone. awesome! so i will be non-wireless this week. i think...