Tablets, Laptops, Computers and What the heck is a Cloud?

Tablets, Laptops, Computers and What the heck is a Cloud?

When you walk into a Best Buy or a Fry's Super Store the choices can be daunting when figuring out what you need to survive in the digital world we live in.

First, you need to address your needs and determine what you really need compared to what everyone is telling you need.   If you already have a laptop for work you can check that off your list.  If you have an outdated computer at home not to worry.   If your job allows you to bring your notebook home and doesn't have any strict policies on using it for personal use - use it.    The trick is don't save any files on the hard drive and clean up after yourself by clearing your browser cache before booting down*.

When I say don't save files on the hard drive there are a couple ways to  do this.

The 1st way is to hook up a 2nd USB hard drive to save all of your files so when you are done, just unplug the drive and viola.

The 2nd is to use a cloud system like Google Docs of Drop Box to store your files.   Google is Free and Drop Box is very inexpensive but very secure.

Both of these Cloud Storage services will allow you to store files online so anywhere you go you can access your personal files.  I mean anywhere from any computer.  Pretty Cool Aye.

*More to come....

REALTORS® - Are you as Green as you can be?

Are you as Green as you can be?

Are you using a paperless document solution to assist your clients save time and money?

If not you should be, because your local REALTOR® Association probably gives you a paperless managment solution via the MLS but not all of the members utilize this system.   In fact, the numbers are that only 9% of the REALTORS®  use the system.

The scary fact is that there are a ton of brokerages there using a copy of a copy of documents that can be used online to be clear.    The realtiy of using these documents are that they are out of date even though the most recent documents are availabe via the local REALTORS®  Association for free via download.

The strange thing is this is promoted by the REALTORS®  Association when they allow a new brokerage to join they give the Broker a pile of paper documents along with a disc.   All of these are instantly outdated as soon as they are printed.   They should instead ONLY provide these documents online.

Its time to wake up and go paperless.

IPhone 5 turns out to be the IPhone 4S...

I really was too soon for another release because if a newer better IPhone came out it would have cannabilized the IPhone 4 sales.

What do you get for the IPhone 4S:

• iOS 5
• Faster processor
• Upgraded camera
• Speech to Search or Application Use

Stay tuned on the IPhone 5 release ....

Should I sign up for the new Google +?

Should I sign up for the new Google +?


The short answer is "Yes" and her is why...


Is it the next Facebook Killer App?    It could give them a serious run for their money will the in roads that Google Chrome has made and Gmail has the reach - Google + is going to make a serious dent into Social Media.


If Google TV can get traction on the newer Internet enabled TVs that are coming out there will be some serious integration and crossover between the social media app, television and advertising.


Look in your rear view mirror Facebook you will see a big G coming fast.

Google TV Coming to a HD TV to you

Coming to your HD TV

The N E W iPhone 5 and iPhone 4GS - Coming October 2011

The new iPhone 5 is coming with a totally revamped OS with some pretty awesome features. We currently have Blackberry Bolds 9000 which were great for what they were BUT since we have been playing with the MAC iPod Touch 64GB and the applications that are available there is not comparison. Since At&t has Verizon as a competition and relived some of the load on their network the call quality should be better. Also when At&t merges with Tmobile it should give them superior coverage.

What to do when you Website is hacked?

Out of the blue for no rhyme or reason our server was hacked by "someone I won't name for the satisfaction" who defaced a suite of websites who get a trickle of traffic, a hack no one will ever see or mention to anyone.

The key is to move on by restoring your Website and changing your passwords or having your Webmaster do so quickly.   Back to business as usual.

There is nothing you could have done or can do to stop or catch who hacked your site.   I would notify or have your Webmaster notify the system administrator of the attack and make sure the block the IP address of the attack.  They can try to prevent any future attack but not 100%.

The wait is almost over until The Blackberry Torch Arrives!

Blackberry's new smartphone is will soon be released boasting the new 6.0 OS and host of new upgrades including a hidable qwerty keyboard other IPhone like features.

Some of the tech specifications include:

• Touchscreen
• 3.2″ High Resolution 480×360 pixel color display with slide-out QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad (very cool replacing the trackball nub)
• Web Browser with full HTML tabbed browser for “PC-like” Web browsing with tabbed browsing.
• Email and IM same as before
• Messaging with next-generation messaging including group messaging for up to 10 people and locations
• Social Networking including Facebook®, Twitter™, and MySpace® apps
• Operating System is the new BlackBerry 6 OS with integrated search and new UI
• BLUETOOTH® 2.1 with A2DP Stereo
• Wi-Fi -802.11b/g/n and AT&T Hot Spots for Wi-Fi access at over 20,000 locations
• Camera is a 5 MP autofocus flash camera with video and scenes
• Music and Video using AT&T Music, AT&T Video Share, PrimeTime2Go video-on-demand application, YouTube podcast, video capture, playback and streaming, 3.5 mm headset jack
• Media Sync - iTunes, Windows Media® Player DRM-Free music, photos and videos on the go from your computer to your BlackBerry. Sync from your home computer music library to your BlackBerry wirelessly over Wi-Fi
• Wireless Technology uses UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6) GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
• Memory - 512 MB RAM + 512 MB Flash + 4 GB Flash + 4 GB MicroSD
• Dimensions Weight 161.1 g. (H X W X D) 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm
• Battery 1300 mAHr Lithium cell
• Talk Time - GSM: 5.5 hrs UMTS: 5.8 hrs, standby talk time, GSM: 17 days UMTS: 13 days

Blackberry 9700 or IPhone 4? How do I choose

BlackBerry 9700 Bold or IPhone 4 - What to buy?

Currently, the BlackBerry 9700 Bold has the edge due to its wireless MLS and ability to use a SUPRAKey but that will change by the end of the year.    Another drawback if you use a IPhone it is heat sensitive so if you don't have long fingernails or have your nails done it makes it difficult to strike the right spot.

When it comes to applications the IPhone blows away any other device on the market.   My first SmartPhone was an IPAQ back in 2001 and was very limited.   The IPhone boasts having over 200,000 applications.

If you are out for the IPhone 4 wait until they figure out the bugs then this new device will be the next killer device with apps galore.

I would recommend the BlackBerry 9700 Bold until the IPhone 4 gets it issues straightened out.

Why is live or die necessity for businesses to have a Website?

Why is live or die necessity for businesses to have a Website?

If you are in business and don't have a Website you will probably will be out of business because your potential, current and future clients will be looking for you on the Web.  Like it or Not.   It is like having a phone or fax line for business.

Will a Free Website do the trick?   No, you need to put time and effort into a professional proper Website that your company will be proud of and keep it up to date.   Get lazy or fall behind is almost worse than having no Website.

Take for instance real estate agents who with some companies get a Website for FREE with built in MLS search and never lift a finger to provide a bio or blog link to keep if Fresh.   Why don't they care or submit some content.   After six years, I haven't figured it out.

A Web site operates and is visible 24 hours a day 365 days a year doesn't take a days or weekend offs, or get sick day. Your Website  is an ad that will put your services or products in front of potential customer’s regardless if you are open and answering your phones.

Branding is huge when it comes to design and keeping your company name and logo constantly out on the Web in conjunction with any other advertising you put out.

If it is a magazine it, it better have the same color scheme and logo and tie into the Website.   If is you business cards be sure they match your Website if not you are disconnecting vital marketing strategies and loose your clients attention.

These are just a few ideas of why you need a Website with Branding running 24/7 so you and rest knowing your business is still working while you are not.

Jason

Free Wi-Fi Hot Spots in Las Vegas, NV

Free Wi-Fi Hot Spots in Las Vegas, NV

Aces & Eights Bar
310 S Decatur Blvd
Las Vegas NV 89107
SSID: N/A
PROVIDERS:  Free    

Panera Bread
5130 South Fort Apache Road
Las Vegas NV 89148
SSID: N/A
PROVIDERS:  Free    

Elysium Internet Cafe
7875 W. Sahara Ave. #101
Las Vegas NV 89117
SSID: Elysium Internet Cafe
PROVIDERS:  Free    

Coffee Bean & Tea Loaf
4550 S Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas NV 89119
SSID: cofeebean
PROVIDERS:  Free    

Holiday Inn Express
8669 W SAHARA
LAS VEGAS NV 89117
SSID: N/A
PROVIDERS:  Free  

Faxes - What kind of fax number should I use is a common question.

What fax number do I use the office fax or my home fax number?  Agents are always asking this questions and I tell them neither.   If you aren't using a digital fax by now you are way behind the curve.

Not to worry you can get up to speed quickly by signing up online, getting a local fax number and serve your clients better by controlling the flow of documents.    Signed offers can be forwarded to escrow, loan officers and other agents quickly easily and without printing countless pages which will save a few trees after a while.

The server costs about the same as a phone line these days and vary from the most expensive efax to more reasonable companies such as MetroFax who give you outgoing and incoming combined pages of 1000 for $12.95 a month.  Check them out by clicking on the image below and email me for more info or if you have questions by clicking Contact us on the sidebar.

New IPad by Apple is Coming - PreOrder Now

New Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi) is Coming - PreOrder Now from Amazon.  Apple's newest offering has gotten rave reviews at CNET.

Watch Out for the New Bloggie™ Camera MHS-PM5

Check the newest video posting tool that will allow you to post video on to your favorite social networking site. Sony does it again. Click below to find out more.

Lenovo Pad hits the spot, a bit pricey

Lenovo Pad hits the spot, a bit pricey but well worth it if it runs the apps real estate professionals need.

Agents who do presentations out of the office

It has never been easier to project your presentation on to a wall or screen at a clients home or office.   They are less than 3 lbs and fit in the small bag and put out 50,000 lumens.

The paperless office redefined by Adobe

If you have wondered what format most real estate professionals use to store their documents you must think to Acrobat 9 Pro: It will protect documents and accelerate information exchange with PDF. The PDF format can be used for print or Web delivering your clients an easy to read and store document.

For newer brokerages it is standard for the old school it is a must to embrace technology to move forward.

Webographer Blog Interview

1) Tell us a little about yourself and your business.

My business has evolved over the years from hardware to building custom website applications to providing a service by using SaaS Tools to deliver fast easy to use applications to real estate professionals.
2) What is your background?

My background varies from early retail and food service while in school to jumping on one of the 1st Internet Companies providing eCommerce back in 1994. That evolved into working with one of the largest search engines up in San Francisco, LOOKsmart. I was following the stock options which lead me back to one of the original founders of one of the largest Mall on the Web as an server administrator heading up a development team where employees local and abroad collaborated with us. Technology has always been my focus with a high regard for customer service and usability.

3) Why did you undertake the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW™) certification?

It was one of the few educational programs I found that can bring an agent or broker up to speed. ePRO is passe'.


4) Which course (or courses) did you find the most value in?

All of them were valuable. Even if I knew the answers it doesn't hurt to have a refresher now and again.

5) In what ways will you utilize the technologies you learned in the REW certification to enhance your career or business?

It will allow my wife's brokerage to grow utilizing the latest technologies to speed transactions, provide our clients with the best customer service and save time and money. Her company Triple8 Associates Inc is as paperless as they come. We can chat offline about what we do and why.

6) How long did it take you to complete the certification and what are your impressions of the online experience?

I could of tested out as fast as I could get through it but I took my time to review the lessons, got busy putting out fires and missed my deadline and had to reinstate. My background gave me the tools so I had a built in knowledge base. I recommend it to any agent who I speak with.

Thank you Scott for taking the time.

ScottLau@Webographers.com

Choosing a Notebook, Netbook or PDA or other Mobile Device

Most real estate professionals need to stay connected during their work day but what device you choose directly relates to how tech savvy you are as well as your over-all office infrastructure.

Just a few years ago, most agents would go into an office and use the company computers, phones and resources while trying to grab or be assigned an incoming lead to the bullpen.

Those days aren't entirely gone. Really they are alive a well with some of the largest real estate companies in the United States. I was recently in a class on Marketing and the instructor started speaking about "Farming" in terms of mailing postcards. Even most citizens who grew up on a farm and their families were Farmers don't FARM anymore. Their land has been sold off due to competition and lack of resources or subsidies from the government.

Anyway, enough of my rant on to the technology. Your choices are the following:

• Desktop with 500GB mobile storage (limited use)
• Laptop - (larger market)
• Tablet or Convertible - (great for new online signing software - Recommended)
• Netbook (newer - not for everyone)
• iPhone or PDA Blackberry (good multi-use hardware - has limitations but should be standard for all agents)

If you have questions about brands, new technologies coming out drop me an email. Getting good advice before you head off to Best Buy or Frys is advisable because just because something is cheap doesn't mean it is good. It could be last years model that isn't going to be supported and if you had the knowledge to wait 3 weeks it would have you a ton of money and big headache.

Jason

Are you a mobile professional?

Are you a mobile professional?

If you havent been living in a cave for the past 20 years you at least own a cell phone but that dosent make you a mobile professional.

Own a Desktop or Laptop OR possibly a Netbook?

If you answered Desktop, that is great but you should have a notebook with an internet connection when you are out and about with clients or traveling. A PDA works but MLS data is limited.

If you answered Laptop or Tablet you are on the right track, especially if you utilize digital signatures and paperless software. In many instances, it is at the brokerages discretion to implement these policies which is costly in the short run but slingshots their business over the competetion over the next five + years.

If you said Netbook, you would be an early adopter due to the fact some of the models are anquicated and cute but only serve limited purposes. The newer models fix many of the original issues including more Memory and Hard drive Space which is directly linked to the Operating System your device comes with. Wireless connectivity is great if you can find a Starbucks or other WiFi Network to crash but to be fully capable the device must be connected full time using services like At&t 3G or Verizon 4G built into the board so you do not have to fool around with pc cards or usb devices.

The new HP Mini 5101 takes it to the next level - Check it out here weighing in at a little over 2 lbs.

Why aren't you backing up your pc or notebook?

Why aren't you backing up your pc or notebook?

Really, once a week is sufficient, nightly is better with the hardware being super cheap there is no way you can't opt for a $100 USB drive to backup your system. If you don't backup and lose all of your data look forward to getting drilled by the recovery guys, IF they can recover any data.

Best Buy, Frys they all have small drives that you plug-in at night and setup the software to run incremental backups. This means the software will only backup the items that change.

You will sleep better if you even pay attention to the value of your email and stored data to $$$$ and time. If you don't worry and are oblivious of the time lost so be it.

Here is one of the lowest cost and portable drives: Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDME3200TN (Midnight Black)

Of for $20 I would recommend upgraded to 1 Terabyte Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U10000N It makes sense in the long run whether you have a 250 GB hard drive or larger.

Also if you have a home network plugging in a networked drive large enough will allow all of the computers in the house to backup over CAT-5 or your wireless connection. Check out the Iomega Home Media 1 TB Network Attached Storage 34337 for network storage. You will be seeing more and more network attatched storage especially if your home is wired has a DVR, Playstation, XBox or any other media device.

For questions, email me.

Off Topic - Check out my wife's cousin's bank "Gabe Dixon Band"

Agents without PDA, IPhones or Blackberry Mobile MLS

The mobile MLS is free to GLVAR members so when you are driving clients around and you are not carrying a notebook with a 3G card you can check homes that you drive by for clients.

This is a key factor in being a mobile tech savvy real estate agent.

Having your client call on a sign to ask if it is available or vacant makes you look bad when the selling agent or whoever is answering the phone that weekend asks a few questions like are you working with an Agent? When the buyer says yes, the agent, broker or service should tell them to look it up in the MLS.

This is where your PDA comes in handy.

Get a Blackberry Bold, IPhone or other compatible phone with a browser that is compatible with the MLS. You will look professional to your buyers and the selling agent won’t have to do you work.

To buy or not to buy - Netbooks

Netbooks are all the buzz and getting alot of hype but they are not ready for prime time for business users who demand more ram and hard drive space. Built in wifi is good but built in wifi using At&t, Verizon or other 3rd party celluar broadband service. The lightweight design is great, portiblility is super but the current lightweight OS will soon be Vista with much larger hardware upgrades. I say wait a bit till they work the kinks out and bump the hardware horsepower.

Awesome Paperless Tools

The most important tool in going paperless is the way you scan documents in your work flow process and insure that they are the best quality while keeping the file size down. ScanSnap Fujitshu does at great job with the S150 and S150