I was doing it wrong for  years-I recently read a book entitled the Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and I was skeptical at first, but after reading it, I was convinced otherwise.  Presenting before an audience  should’t be that difficult, but being a good and engaging presenter is,  and this book makes it easy for you to become a better presenter.

It always starts with a song.

I testing the editing with the camera and the native Final Cut Pro support.  The camera worked flawlessly in the edit session.   I exported the video using Compressor and it worked flawlessly.  To find out more about this camera visit the JVC web site here.

iPad

All the hoopla has passed now since Apple’s iPad has been released.   I was very skeptical in my first review of the
iPad, but I have changed my views. (Sigh)

The iPad is like leather interior on a car, you don’t need it, but it sure is nice if you have it. There are numerous reviews on the functionality and  specifications on the iPad so I figured I would review the key ways I use my iPad.

32 GB iPad Wi-Fi (I would  suggest to purchase the 3G though)
Main uses: reading, surfing the web, email and creating short presentations, notes, and gaming.

My favorite apps (in no particular order) Updated April 24, 2010

AirVideo -Some apps just solve issues and this one does it well. I have a lot of movies in .avi format and I didn’t want to convert all of them to the .m4v format for the iPad now I don’t need to copy your videos to the device just to watch them.

Netflix-streaming movies right to your iPad and ordering DVD’s from the app.  This has to be in my top 3 list off iPad apps. This is one of the main reasons to love the iPad.

TweetDeck–I use this to access all of my twitter accounts on my desktop, iPhone and now it moves to my iPad.  Tweetie, I like you but for now TweetDeck has it.

Keynote-I recently did a presentation and uses my iPad and it worked flawlessly.  Now if you are doing major presentations I wouldn’t use this, but for a few slides it works very well.  I think the negative reviews are because people are expecting this to replace the keynote program on their laptop-  and its not, but another way to do some quick presentations.

Goodreader--allows me to read and archive pdf’s and transfer them back and forth to my Mac. It’s a good utility app.

NPR–I am a news junkie and this app looks beautiful and works flawlessly and you can catch up with all the news of the day.

Pandora–free Radio, need I say more?

Games

Scrabble–I could play this all day, it’s a great app on the iPhone and it gets better on the iPad.

Asphalt 5-I usually don’t like racing games, but this game holds my attention and keeps it going.

iBooks--this app is what Steve Jobs debuted during his iPad keynote and it is very good, I just wish they had a better selection of books

Kindle–this app is ok, and the selection of books from Amazon.com is amazing, but I guess you can’t really compete with an book app on Apple’s device. I am sure they are retooling this.

For my kids

Doodle Buddy–keeps them drawing and quiet, but the app is really good.

Cat in the Hat--It reads the book to them and the graphics look so good.

A few more apps that I want to mention are: WordBook XL-this app is very good especially if you like a good dictionary app and this one offers so much more. AirSharing HD-this app offers you to share documents between computers.

Key vertical markets:

1. Photographers-show off your work and portfolios easily at client meetings and presentations. Here is an interesting article that states more possibilities.
2. Educators-Use it to download classic books and electronic textbooks.

Overall:

This device isn’t necessary, but it is a nice addition, if you have the extra cash from your tax return or other income you may want to consider getting it. All in all, however, the iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a light device. Only time will tell if it’s a real challenger to the laptop and netbook.

I received an email blast from Starbucks touting their new iPhone app in which you can pay directly at certain locations (Target at the time of this writing) with your iPhone.  This peaked my curiosity and as a so-called “tech-guru” I had to try it out.

I went into the local Target in Baltimore where I usually purchase my  Starbucks and it worked flawlessly.  The barista was shocked that it worked and of course folks in line behind me were blown away.

Recently I watched a presentation by author and marketing guru Seth Godin called “Standing Out,” he says in his talk “In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff.” Usually, when I get e-mail offers, I ignore them, but this e-mail called me action-to actually go try the starbucks app.

How do you stand out from a crowd? How do you make yourself or product/service different from others?

A good friend , Dr. Carlton P. Byrd in Atlanta is a pastor of the fastest growing church in his denomination and he is under 40 years old! He stands out.

Ordinary just won’t do-there are just too many choices.  Stand out.

Reasons to use a CMS

1. Easy to update

Adding articles or editing them is much easier than opening an HTML page in Dreamweaver or other web software. The advantage of a CMS is that you can modify content through a web browser instead of stand alone client application. A knowledge of HTML is not necessary for creating content, but knowing it can give you greater control on how information is laid out on a page.

2. You don’t rely on web designer to update web content

How quickly does your web designer make changes to your web site? When you need them to add or modify content, are they unavailable or do they take a long time? This is a problem that many business face (and I am a web designer!). Changes to web sites need to be made quickly, but many web designers can’t do the work as soon as desired which can be due to other jobs they are currently working on. With a CMS, you can update or add new content anytime. And you can do it cheaper.

3. Change appearance of site with templates

Changing the appearance of a traditional web site could take hours if there are hundred’s of pages that need to be modified. With a CMS, you can easily change the appearance of a web site or sections of the site just by choosing a new template. If you want more functionality and features  with your template, I suggest hiring a developer to assist you.

4. CMS software constantly improving

When a web site is created manually, it’s usually a finished product. A CMS has a large community of developers and users adding features and fixing bugs. Most traditional sites created by web designers rarely have their code updated.

5. Extensions to add functionality

CMS’ functionality can be extended by installing plugins or components. This could be things like a language translator, forums, advertising modules, or buttons to share an article on social networking web sites. Finding an appropriate extension could save money where a programmer would need to be hired to the code a similar task.

6. Community support

If there is a certain feature you don’t understand, you can ask a community of users. The community also provides themes, extensions, and additional documentation.

7. Database driven content

This is a very important point. Web content is stored in a database which makes it easy to manage, add content, and make backups. The only disadvantage here is that stand alone HTML pages load much faster than calling information from a database and places less load on the server.

No matter what system you choose, a CMS can only enhance your web site and with it, you can focus on creating content instead of designing a web site.

1. Bootcamp– a feature in OS X where you can run Windows natively. The only disadvantage is that you have to close all your mac programs in order to use it.
2. VM Fusion- a new player to the virtualization market, but they have gained a solid base.
3. Parallels- as of this post they are on version 5 and in my opinion are the best choice for virtualization, especially if you are using Windows 7.

View the video from the Wall Street Journal’s tech columnist, Walt Mossberg, I seem to agree with him on this software.

The iPad is Apple’s latest announcement (since three years ago)and to many tech reviewers suggest that it isn’t the transformational device Apple enthusiasts were hoping for.

According to tech guru Walt Mosseberg from the Wall Street Journal he says:

It’s about the software, stupid. While all sorts of commentators were focusing on how much Apple’s new $499 iPad tablet computer looks like an oversized iPhone, the key to whether it can be the first multi-function tablet to win wide public acceptance probably lies in whether consumers perceive it as a suitable replacement for a laptop in key scenarios.

So here is my take on this new device:

The Pros:

1. Price-well sort of $499 is a good start
2. iBookstore
3. SDK-Software Developer Kit

The Cons:

1. No Camera
2. No Multitasking
3. Doesn’t support Flash-which could be a good thing  because of Macs crashing with flash.
4. Lack of physical keyboard except by attachment
5. No USB/SD Card Slot

After hearing the first few minutes of  hearing Steve Jobs keynote he still hadn’t mentioned anything I can’t already do with the iPhone in my pocket. From the audience’s muted response, I suspect many of them were thinking the same thing. Even Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field failed to hide the fact that we’re talking about an over-sized iPod touch.

So in my opinion, it’s like having a third or fourth car in a two driver house.  Do you need it? Probably not, but it’s nice to have options.  I opt to stick with my laptop and my iPhone.