Iomega announces Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive with 2TB of storage
Check link for more info.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Dell to Release Pre-installed Linux Desktops, Laptops
Dell to Release Pre-installed Linux Desktops, Laptops - News and Analysis by PC Magazine: "Dell will soon become the first major desktop vendor to release mass-market desktops and laptops with pre-installed Linux. "
It's official. Dell is going to be selling desktops and laptops with the open-source operating system installed due to customer demand. Not a great day for Microsoft.
It's official. Dell is going to be selling desktops and laptops with the open-source operating system installed due to customer demand. Not a great day for Microsoft.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Microsoft Unveils Phone System for Small Businesses
PC World - Microsoft Unveils Phone System for Small Businesses: "Microsoft will today announce a speech recognition-enabled phone system designed to give small businesses a flexible alternative to a public branch exchange (PBX), the company said. "
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Google Talk Gadget
Google Talkabout: Google Talk Gadget
So now you can add Google Talk as a gadget inside your webpages, or just add it to your www.google.com/ig homepage so you can chat from a webpage anywhere. Pretty cool actually. Check the link for full details. I'll also be adding this to my HornIT.net blog so you can chat with me (hornit) right from this blog!
So now you can add Google Talk as a gadget inside your webpages, or just add it to your www.google.com/ig homepage so you can chat from a webpage anywhere. Pretty cool actually. Check the link for full details. I'll also be adding this to my HornIT.net blog so you can chat with me (hornit) right from this blog!
Monday, March 12, 2007
4 Things You Might Not Know About The Geek Squad
From a former Geek Squad employee:
One
Data Recovery is not a big deal. They hook it up to any random desktop, run a recovery program (license costs about 1k a year), and click recover.
Two
An Agent’s RPT or Revenue Per Transaction is around $250.00. Which means if you are spending less than that, their goal is to get you to spend more.
Three
Geek Squad hires people based on their Salesmen and Customer Service skills before they hire on their Technical Prowess. They would rather Train a salesman to be a tech than train a tech to be a salesman.
Four
They outsource some of the repairs via a remote access application (AKA AJU or Agent Johnny Utah). These people are in countries that have no similar privacy laws that are in the US. So in other words, your computer with your saved bank passwords, government contacts, ETC; are being accessed by “Bob” in India, Pakistan, and various other countries around the world.
One
Data Recovery is not a big deal. They hook it up to any random desktop, run a recovery program (license costs about 1k a year), and click recover.
Two
An Agent’s RPT or Revenue Per Transaction is around $250.00. Which means if you are spending less than that, their goal is to get you to spend more.
Three
Geek Squad hires people based on their Salesmen and Customer Service skills before they hire on their Technical Prowess. They would rather Train a salesman to be a tech than train a tech to be a salesman.
Four
They outsource some of the repairs via a remote access application (AKA AJU or Agent Johnny Utah). These people are in countries that have no similar privacy laws that are in the US. So in other words, your computer with your saved bank passwords, government contacts, ETC; are being accessed by “Bob” in India, Pakistan, and various other countries around the world.
DirectX 10 vs. DirectX 9
So Vista has DirectX 10 instead of DirectX 9. Is there really that big of a difference? You decide:
DirectX 9
DirectX 10
Thursday, March 08, 2007
BMW and Google Maps
Instead of printing out or writing down an address to re-enter in the car, the information is sent directly from your computer to your navigation system. German drivers with Drive Assist-equipped BMWs can send any Google Maps Deutschland business listing straight to their cars, either to contact the business once inside, or to set it as a destination. Pretty cool!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Best Buy Tricks Customers With “Secret” Website
Best Buy Tricks Customers With “Secret” Website
Check out the article above about how Best Buy uses an intranet site that looks identicle to their website so customers can look up the products online and see they are "more expensive online" than they are in the store, when in fact the intranet site has the prices jacked up higher than what www.bestbuy.com shows. Nice, Best Buy, nice.
Check out the article above about how Best Buy uses an intranet site that looks identicle to their website so customers can look up the products online and see they are "more expensive online" than they are in the store, when in fact the intranet site has the prices jacked up higher than what www.bestbuy.com shows. Nice, Best Buy, nice.
World's Smallest Vista PC
The specs aren't bad. 1.5Ghz, 1GB RAM, Wifi, Bluetooth, 60GB HDD, and Vista (or you can get the XP flavor). 5" screen that slides. What do you think, too small to make it worth it? Click title to go to the OQO website.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Dell revitalization may take it into stores
Dell revitalization may take it into stores: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
This gets rumored a lot, but it looks like Dell might be serious about doing something different after 23 years of selling over the phone and Internet. I don't know how well these "Dell Kiosks" have been doing that you sometimes see in the mall (I have personally seen one in the Mall of America in Minneapolis and Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines, Iowa). This would have to be something bigger and better I think, but I can't imagine it wouldn't do well in a CompUSA or a Best Buy type setting. Definitely a different approach for Dell though, with plenty of repercussions.
This gets rumored a lot, but it looks like Dell might be serious about doing something different after 23 years of selling over the phone and Internet. I don't know how well these "Dell Kiosks" have been doing that you sometimes see in the mall (I have personally seen one in the Mall of America in Minneapolis and Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines, Iowa). This would have to be something bigger and better I think, but I can't imagine it wouldn't do well in a CompUSA or a Best Buy type setting. Definitely a different approach for Dell though, with plenty of repercussions.