What about the technology? Does any technology need customization? I mean a 46-inch television is 46 inches. A 17-inch laptop computer is 17 inches, so what kind of customization can there really be?

Pick an Option

Let’s consider pieces like headphones like the earbud-style ones. They automatically come with at least three different size buds to fit the different kinds of ears. In reality, consumers like myself very much appreciate that option especially considering I comfortably wear two different sizes: the left bigger than the right.

Choose Your Size

There are other ways to customize too. I feel that customers are given the options of different sized products to keep consumers from having to choose from the same lot. An example can be multiple items such as tablets. If you don’t want a large tablet that is almost the size of a notebook, then you could easily get one half the size.

Other products such as televisions and laptops (as talked about earlier) do indeed offer the same product just different sizes. Sure you may be able to get that laptop in a size 17-inch, but I’m sure it’s available is size 14 inches too. Manufacturers such as Apple are continuing to bring new products, and with them, more options. Apple will soon be bringing the mini iPad, and it will truly offer customization in terms of size options.

Color Options

Color is something else that can easily be customized on different products. Different colored cases for smartphones. Different colored cases for laptops. Different colored skins for tablets or other portable devices. Some of these can be fixed permanent, some are gels that are added for protection, others are just to make the products colored the way the consumer wants.

I think…

It’s better to be able to at least have these different options than to just be stuck with the products all one size or color. It may really just depend on the consumer, but I feel the more options, the better.

The post Technology with Customization: Products are Not Always One Size Fits All appeared first on Tech Tips.

Final Cut X, Why Apple Why

If someone asked me the difference between an Apple and a PC, I would say that out of the box an Apple computer/Book/Mac is ready to be used and comes stocked with programs for everything from wordprocessing to video editing to photo storing and so much more. With more than ten programs ready to be used right away, the PC can’t compete with programs like its WordPad and Windows Media Player. So, in essence the difference is a Mac is ready to go and a PC needs more programs.

But, this is not true for all programs for a Mac, though. Some programs need to be purchased and downloaded separately. The most used program by a Mac video editor is hands down Final Cut. It’s a tremendous program that incorporates multiple workflows.

The problem is Final Cut 7 was updated about a year ago, and Final Cut X is the worst upgrade that could ever be called a new program…Just sayin’.

Here are a few issues off the top of my video editor’s head:

• It limits control over how you want to customize, as the new Final Cut X organizes how it wants and does not let you change how you organize your own projects.
• Can’t print to tape. You can’t export from the program to tape via a deck. Is tape obsolete? Not yet it’s not, so why get rid of the ability to work with it?
• Visually speaking, the program looks like an upgraded version of iMovie. It’s like “iMovie and Final Cut mated and this is their mut-offspring.”
• And here’s one of the worst ones: You can’t open any Final Cut older-version document in the new Final Cut. Really? I can’t open Final Cut 7 in Final Cut X? Then why would an editor want to switch over if they can’t access any other projects?

Mind you, these issues are the non-technical pieces that a non-editing person would understand…but there are so many more issues with small things. I am not sure why Apple would take such an important program and create something that most editors do not like and cannot work with.

I guess we can just keep our fingers crossed that Apple upgrades this version for those editors who want to use the latest and greatest but can’t with the program limiting them and their work.

Sigh Apple siiigh.

The post Final Cut X: Apple What Were You Thinking? appeared first on Tech Tips.

NBC Olympics Live Extra on a Tablet.

With so many important things we want to be able to experience, it wouldn’t make sense to not be able to use technology to do so. Do you have to use technology? Not at all, but there are times where technology can save the day. I feel this happens the most when there is not enough time in the day to get everything done.

Sure there are pieces of technology that make things easier and more convenient, but I think we appreciate the technology that saves us from those moments when we don’t have enough time.

TiVo/DVR

This may be one of the first pieces that brought a whole new world to “there isn’t enough time”. With so many things that consumers want to watch, it’s hard to find time in their extra 3 hours or  a day or five hours a day or whatever time it is to find time to see everything they want to.

Sports fans may even triple the need for this. If there’s a game on at 1pm on a Sunday and you have work, kids, errands or anything else, how much does it ruin your mood if you don’t get to see the game? That’s not to say that you aren’t enjoying your time with your kids or something like that, but just that you can’t do both at once, well, sucks. With that, TiVo/DVRs were able to fix that problem. But that’s only half the battle, or a quarter, or some other measurement.

For me, the most amazing thing that ever happened was when I found out NBC was going to be streaming the Olympics LIVE every day for every event that happened.

Woah.

Streaming

We all know that the Olympics come every two years or every four if you only watch the Summer or vice versa for the Winter Olympics. In my family, watching the Olympics is a tradition. We sit and watch Bob Costas every night and watch the highlights and stories and the great sports that we want to watch for hours and hours (4-5 depending on the day, actually).

So, when the Olympics came this year, and I be going to be working all day, I began searching for a way to be able to see the Olympics at work. Whether a TV app for my iPad or otherwise, I wanted something. That’s when I found NBC’s Live Extra app.

This app allowed anyone who already had a television provider (because the user had to sign in) to be able to watch the Olympic events AS THEY HAPPENED LIVE IN LONDON. Sorry for the ALL CAPS, but it was so exciting for me to know that I could watch/listen to Olympics through this video streaming technique every day AND see more than just the Primetime I would go home and watch anyway.

Being able to use my iPad (great piece of technology) and stream the Olympics via the app (another amazing software technology)…I was able to enjoy something that is very very important to me.

In conclusion, is technology a life saver? Yes (literally and figuratively). Does technology bring us conveniences? Yes. Can the “Aw that sucks” be taken out of things we would have otherwise missed? Heck yes.

Go technology!

The post How Streaming Brings You Moments You May Have Missed appeared first on Tech Tips.

…

1888.

Would you have even guessed anywhere near that time?

Along with that, the first patent that was added for a “tablet” that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the specific motion of handwriting was granted in 1915. Now, aside from the different academic systems and other research systems that were created in between this time and the 1980s, there were a few commercial products created by then: Pencept, Communications Intelligence Corporation to name a couple.

Microsoft offered up their first chance to bring a tablet into the world in 1999 while coining the phrase “Microsoft Tablet PC” in 2000. These tablets that came from the corporation’s work in the early 2000 were made to be more business items than anything else. They were note-taking devices or technology pieces to use for field work, nothing like how they are now, but they were too heavy to be held for too long.

Of course, most don’t remember that Microsoft even made a tablet. All most remember is the Apple iPad and how it revolutionized the world. Or something like that. There were so many devices before the iPad, but whether it was the hype or the actual interface that brought more customers to use it, the iPad became one of the fastest selling tablets available and continues to be. Some consumers are so wrapped up in loving the iPad that they buy every generation that comes out even if there isn’t much of a change.

Interesting how it turns out that it may not be the technology but just the hype that takes over. There have been many other tablets that have come out into the world of consumers that weren’t from Microsoft or Apple such as the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab. There was even a show of more than 80 tablets that are being released to compete with the big-time iPad.

Sure there are a few tablets to choose from and sure the iPad is a nice one, but there are so many new pieces of technology coming that we have coming in the future. Looking back is a good way to know how far we’ve come, but the future is the brightest with the unknown already in the works.

The post The History of Tablets: When Was the First? appeared first on Tech Tips.