We will build a clone army

ASUS just showed the world its new ultrabook, the “Zenbook“, in the NYC yesterday. It’s an 11 inch Windows 7 computer with an Intel Core i5 processor, it weighs a lithe 2.4 pounds and is priced to move at $999. The Zenbook catapults ASUS to front of the pack with its release.

The Zenbook is aluminum, 0.11 inches thick at the front and 0.67 inches thick at the back for the 11 inch version and 0.71 for the 13 inch.

Hmmm, aluminum body? Thin, blade like design? Where have I seen this before? It’s on the tip of my tongue…

Oh yeah, it’s called the MacBook Air!

ASUS to the front of the pack, really? Maybe with the features they offer on this notebook but you gotta do what you can to compete with Apple. Specs I have seen thus far say that each notebook comes with one USB 3.0 port as well as one USB 2.0. There is also a microHDMI port and a miniVGA display connector. The box comes with the necessary hardware to take advantage of an external display via the minaVGA with a miniVGA-to-VGA adapter and also a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. The icing on this cake is the 3.0 megapixel camera mounted top dead center above the screen.

Models can be built with either the Intel i5 or i7 and up to 256GB SSD. Native screen resolution on the 11 incher is 1366×768, the 13 incher is 1600×900. Battery life (standby) is 7 days and 10 days for the 11 and 13 inch Zenbook respectively. Regular use drops the battery life to 5 and 7 hours.

A couple of items worth note, it has “instant on” capability. Meaning the desktop loads within 2 seconds of pressing the power button. I have to see it to believe it because it is a Windows machine after all. I have done a lot of tweaking to machines with XP and Vista and 25 – 30 seconds is the fastest I have seen. It has a unified trackpad and the keys are aluminum as well.

I’m sure I’ll get a chance to play with one eventually and see what it is capable. When I do, I’ll do a follow up.

Just a sec, I’ll check my BlackBerry…for…no service?!

I wonder how everyone is doing with this?

For the third day in a row, Research In Motion – more readily known as BlackBerry – has been experiencing issues with the service.

AND NOW IT’S SPREAD TO THE US MARKET!

Ouch.

It was reported by RIM that the outage that affected users in Europe and Asia was due to a “core switch” failure. Maybe those who run in circles where they discuss those things know what they are implying but where I work, we just call it a server crash. Own it, RIM.

According to sources at Bell Canada and Verizon, who began experiencing issues with email, messaging and browsing, it is only effecting “a small number of subscribers” I hope it is a “small” number because with 70 million BlackBerry users worldwide this could be like a stick in the eye for RIM especially as of late. What with all the talk about them having to lay people off and everything, stock slipping and losing market share, this could hurt them even more. Hopefully they get everything figured out, in this economy and that volatile industry and with unemployment how it is I would hate for any of the remaining RIM employees to face more than an uncertain future.

...Just...5...more...minutes...

Man, and just think how the US Government feels about this! They rely heavily on BlackBerry and state that agents can do their job more effectively because of the device (whatever, it’s a phone) and even the President continues to use mobile email through the service. Like I said, hopefully there are not any security issues due to the outage and that they get this mess cleaned up ASAP!

Perhaps there was no invite?

So I read an article entitled “What if Apple Threw an iPhone Party and Nobody Came” in which the author states he is “unimpressed” – and implies that you, too, should be the same – with the announcement by Apple that there were one million pre-orders for their latest iPhone, the iPhone 4S.

Bullocks is what I say to that.

The author states that it must be put “into context” when speaking about the increase in orders. Are you ready for it? Because of Sprint/Nextel being thrown into the mix. He also points out, like everybody else, that the iPhone doesn’t have as many handsets as Android and then gets the reach around on Research In Motion (BlackBerry).

I take issue with this.

First of all, I think it’s great there is another carrier. I think there should be more carriers as I stated in my most recent post but hey, that’s just me. Second, shooting down that fact that a phone which was under so much speculation and so highly anticipated but didn’t change very much and increased in pre-orders by nearly half a million just because of the addition of another carrier is impressive. I think the author is just spoiled, or bitter. Perhaps his pre-order fell in the category of 1 to 2 weeks for delivery? I know that most journalists want hands on experience so they can give their opinion, and well, I guess he already has.

Further more, talking about how many Android users there are is no testament to the superiority of the OS/handset. What never gets reported is just how many Android users are going to switch now because the iPhone is available on Sprint. Yes they have been touting the HTC Incredible (umm, that’s all they really had) forever and helped push Android but now the game is clearly changing. One has to wonder, if they announced that T-Mobile was also receiving the iPhone would the orders have increased even more? Would that have been enough to show the demand for iOS?

There are far too many variables in relation to this whole deal. We don’t know the number of people who pre-ordered an unlocked iPhone. We don’t know the number of people who are under a current contract set to expire who plan to switch from their current handset.

One thing is for certain, there’s at least one hater.

Round...what round is it? Oh...fight!

The last pin to be heard dropping…soon?

Well, Sprint is apparently running out of money. I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised by that. They are only the third largest carrier in the US, they just filed a lawsuit against AT&T to block their “merger” with T-Mobile – you know it can’t be cheap to have in house legal counsel (especially if they are capable of going up against a behemoth).

Whatever, I’m bitter. Sprint got the iPhone 4S. Sprint. Sprint! I’m a loyal T-Mobile customer, have been for over a decade. I love T-Mobile. Geez I had them when it was Aerial Communications for Pete’s sake! Great customer service, great service period. Never had any issues with coverage. Well not until I moved. Now it’s like I live in a vacuum. But whatever. I wanted an iPhone dammit! Now in order to get one I have to leave my beloved service for another carrier of 3 available choices – AT&T, Verizon or Sprint.

First, my mother has worked as a telecommunications worker for a loooooong time. She has seen the many faces of good ‘ol AT&T. Ma Bell etc. 40 years of service and she has seen all the changes. Looking at their plans made me incredulous. First of all, I think this whole data plan thing is just bs. AT&T was trying to compensate for shitty service by saying that iPhone users were eating up all of the bandwidth. I call bogus. It’s just another avenue to make money and because these companies have been around for so long in one form or another we believe everything that they feed us in regards to service. /rant.

Sure, sure, I know somebody is going to say “Quit complaining and by an unlocked iPhone,” it’s not about that. It’s about principle. Honestly I have been chomping at the bit since I heard the first rumor that T-Mob would get an iPhone. Now this merger business and all I can think of is this political cartoon I once saw with Ralph Nader and his leg tied to a donkey exclaiming “Now let me explain how this isn’t going to hurt your chances…” or something to that effect. Just like that. AT&T effed everything up for me and many other customers.

But I digress. This article is supposed to be about Sprint’s money woes.

I maintain that Sprint and T-Mobile should have joined forces. I mean think about it. There couldn’t be an anti-trust law suit filed because they are both separately not big players in the market and secondly if they joined they still would have a much smaller market share than the other two pigs. They could have kept everything separate, mirrored each other and forced VZW and AT&T to make changes or risk losing their customers because SprinTMobile has awesome deals. I know I’m simplifying here but you have to see what I’m getting at.

Trust me, it's for the best. Everyone will benefit.

Sprint had its stock surge on news of its increase into 4G tech with WiMAX only to have those fortunes reversed when word that Clearwire could be facing bankruptcy. Sprint said it would not renew it ties with Clearwire after the contract expires in 2012 and Clearwire stock tumbled dramatically. Sprint has also said it may draw on its credit line or find alternative means of capital for itself. In a meeting that was tense, analysts were at times confused, others downright angry with what they were hearing from the top brass of Sprint.

Will the offices of Sprint soon be like the commercials of days past, so quiet you could hear a pin drop? I guess only time will tell.

And the battle rages on

Samsung Electronics Co. aims to stop the sale of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S handset in France and Italy on patent infringement claims. Samsung plans on filing motions in Paris and Milan citing patent infringements on wireless telecommunications technology. Story courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek.

This brings to mind the whole Samsung is blatantly copying Apple debacle. What’s that they say? The proof is in the pudding? What does that even mean?! Anyways, check out this link and decide for yourself.

Clever Apple, disguising the iPhone 5 as a Samsung Galaxy...

An Apple a day…

Wednesday came and brought harsh news to us. Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s visionary leader passed away after succumbing to pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

Jobs burst onto the personal computing scene when he and then partner, Steve Wozniak (the Woz) constructed a computer in a garage that would serve as the starting point for Apple computers. Jobs was instrumental in the design, development and marketing of the first commercially successful personal computer line, the Apple II. Jobs was one of the first to realize the commercial potential of a user interface he had witnessed being developed at Xerox. This lead him to create the Macintosh computer. Jobs’ vision proved to be too much for the board of directors at Apple, and after a power struggle, he resigned from the company in 1985. Just one year after the infamous Super Bowl ad that introduced “the Mac” to the world.

But that, as they say, was just the beginning.

Jobs went on to form NeXT, which specialized in business and higher education. In 1986 he purchased the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which he renamed Pixar. He was a majority shareholder in Pixar until Disney acquired it in 2006. He was a member of the board of directors for Walt Disney Company and its largest individual shareholder with 7 percent ownership. Apple would purchase NeXT from Jobs in 1996 for $429 million, bringing him back to the company that he co-founded and served as its CEO from 1996 to 2011.

Apple becomes relevant.

With Jobs at the helm, Apple concentrated on returning to profitability by shutting down a number of projects. When Apple purchased NeXT, much of the technology found its way into Apple products. Most notable of these technologies was NeXTSTEP, which was the precursor to Mac OS X.  Then along came iMac. Jobs oversaw the design and marketing of Apple products and sales increased significantly. From there we saw the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPod and iTunes and perhaps most importantly and certainly most notable, the iPhone.

On a personal note, my first experience with Macs (other than the Apple IIe mind you) came when I attended IPR (Institute of Production and Recording). All workstations contained a Korg Triton Keyboard, ProTools interface and G4 Quicksilver computers. “Because they just work,” is what several instructors said. And I can attest to that fact. Having used PC‘s mostly, I was astounded at not having to download and install drivers. I was amazed at how easily things flowed. When I got my very own MacBook Pro and turned it on the first time and realized what I had, the sun was a little brighter, the sky a little bluer and the grass a little greener.

Thank you, Steve, for bringing your vision to the rest of the world. I am and always will be a fan.

-J

Just something to chew on

So I was checking out some hosting companies and I came across one that said it was my states #1 choice for hosting. I thought “Hey, that’s pretty cool” then I wondered if they were located in my home state. Turns out their not but it got me interested and searching.

What are they doing?

IP geo-locating.

I found a site, IPligence.com, and they had some info about it. Now mind you, this information is from 2007 but it’s still very interesting. They have a map of world internet usage which I’m sure you have seen. Just in case, here it is:

Now this isn’t the same image but it was what I was able to find. Still what it shows is impressive to say the least. It got me to wondering what the difference is now, 3 years later.

Turns out, not too much. Depending on how you look at it. Statistical folks will probably love this next bit. Maybe, maybe not. Most internet users come from China. Most web pages on the internet are English. A study on the presence of Romance languages showed that 45% of webpages were written in English followed by Spanish (3.8), French (4.41), Italian (2.66), Portuguese (1.39), Romanian (0.28) and German (5.9).

English webpages have increased  by 281% over the last decade. But so has Spanish (743%), Chinese (1,277%), Russian (1,826%) and Arabic (which, by the way, grew 2,501%!). Foreign languages on the net are coming up fast and strong.

The Long Arm of the Law

Imagine you’re sitting on your sofa on a lazy Sunday afternoon. You’ve put your feet up on the coffee table, you’ve settled in with a sandwich, some chips and maybe a beer. You’re watching the afternoon action movie. The scene on right now shows a team of agents gathered outside a nice little house in a respectable neighborhood, little kids are playing in the street, a dog barks at a child on a bicycle and pinwheels whirl in the breeze. The agents form two lines on either side of the porch and creep towards the front door. You pick up your sandwich with your eyes wide and glued to the set in anticipation of what happens next and CRASH through your window comes flying the very same agent! You hear another crash and the splintering of wood as your front door is kicked in and a swarm of unidentifiable – except for FBI which is emblazoned on their tactical gear – agents file through your door. This is insane, you think, surreal even as they knock the sandwich from your hand, grab you by the collar of your shirt and throw you to the floor. This can’t be happening, your mind races, your speech stuck as a knee digs into the middle of your back, the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle presses into your temple and muffled voices call you a pedophile, pervert, scumbag and a plethora of other insults, taunts and accusations.

Sounds crazy right? Well…it aint. It actually happened. A New York man found out the hard way about the importance of ensuring that your WiFi is locked down. Federal agents stormed his home after learning that thousands of pornographic images of children were downloaded through his network. All because somebody “piggy backed” on his WiFi signal. It appears that the man grew tired of trying to set up his new router, became frustrated and set it up without any password required. This is dangerous not only because of what transpired with this individual, but also because someone could access sensitive information through the very same connection.

As I use this blog to talk about the internet and things about it – marketing, business opps, affiliate marketing etc. – I can’t stress enough the importance of having a secure connection. Would you be happy if someone got hold of your log-ins for you various programs, saw what you were making and then decided to hack your computer to find bank information thereby robbing you blind through your own negligence? Didn’t think so. /rant.

Affiliate Program Series: ClickBank

ClickBank

ClickBank was founded in 1998 and boasts over 50,000 products offered and 100,000 active affiliates. The site states that they make a sale somewhere in the world every three seconds for more than 35,000 transactions a day. They have offices in Colorado and Idaho and are consistently ranked as one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the web.

Site

At first the site may seem a little flashy. The home page beckons you with“Live Oustside the Box” letting you know that they are serious about helping you break free and become independent with your own business. It states that their clients have earned over 1 billion dollars and it’s your time.

The site also states that ClickBank pays its clients on time, every time, for over 10 years. There is also a neat little ticker box that displays client earnings paid out. Of course this is constantly moving. There is also a scrolling bar that contains testimonials from people like you and me stating how simple, easy, wonderful and helpful ClickBank has been to them.

Tabs are listed Sell Products, Promote Products, Buy Products, About Us and Help Center. I feel that this is a little more straight forward. Sell Products is just that, you’re the vendor and you have a product you want people to sell it for you. BAM. Next. Promote Products, another straight forward statement. You wish to become an affiliate or wish to sell somebody elses product. No confusion there. Buy Products lets you browse the HUGE catalog of items offered on the site. So does ClickBank get a commission then? Hmmm…..

All in all, it’s a nice site. Some might say that it’s a little cheesy with the pictures and all, especially the guy in his cubicle! But whatever. It’s easily navigable, the colors are not offensive, the terminology is precise and it has a logical flow. It’s simple! That’s the way it should be.

Sign Up Process

Another thing I think worth pointing out, to continue on the simple statement, is the sign up process. When you click on Promote Products you see a graphic and it says “Step 1″. In that box are more steps explaining what you have to do. It’s cool, yeah the images are a little corny but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is what they are trying to convey through those images. They say “It’s as easy as 1-2-3!” Moving on. Looks like your standard sign up form. Asking for your mailing address (for all those commission checks!!!) and other items – preferred language, website, account nickname etc.

One thing I really like is the Client Contract, it’s right there on the sign up page. I think more companies need to utilize this kind of format. In what I do, too often have I heard “Well, I didn’t know that” or “I didn’t see that anywhere” or “I didn’t agree to that” which, let’s face it, is a crock. The problem is people just arbitrarily click that they read and agree without actually doing so, thereby it being their own fault, just to expedite the sign up process. /rant.

The contract covers everything – selling and promoting, emails, copyright, returns/cancellations, accounting, JV guidelines etc etc. I’m not going to paraphrase because, well, because I’m not. You want to know what it says go and read it. In my last post I lamented about how much could be avoided by actually reading it, so again, do yourself a favor and read it! /rant.

After completing the sign up process, which I must confess was much quicker than CJ, you are sent an email with a 8 digit confirmation code that you enter after clicking on the link that accompanies it. Enter the code, enter in the other code and submit, ClickBank Signup Complete. That’s it. That’s all. Take your info and log in…

When you first log in your account home page welcomes you and directs you to the accounting policy to better understand pay periods, payment processing and distribution. As stated before, save yourself the headache and read it.

You also see a Weekly Sales Snapshot as well as a Daily Sales Snapshot. Check mine out:

Hey, we all gotta start somewhere right?!

Now is where you make a few more adjustments. Your account tab offers up some more areas for information. Most notably your tax ID. It also offers an area for more comprehensive contact information. I believe this is good because you are promoting yourself, your business and you want to be taken seriously so you should have as many contact options available as possible. /rant.

Reporting is just that – reporting. I don’t have anything yet to report EXCEPT that I don’t have anything to report. Really though it has a break down of your payments, pretty cool. You can also choose to view Transactions, Shipping and Analytics. The functions are pretty comprehensive, allowing you to select date ranges and really dig in to your information.

Resources is a page that has news, system log, communications and my tickets. Nice. System Log shows past system maintenance. Communications is an archive of newsletters back to 2007. My Tickets says “My Client Supprt Ticket History” not sure if this is my tickets or my clients tickets. I’ll find out soon enough.

DON’T CLICK ON HELP CENTER WHEN LOGGED IN, IT LOGS YOU OUT. Weird, you should be able to access help files from within I think. Meh. Onward…

Products

Boy howdy! I don’t know if there are 50,000 but there are a lot! Just like with my CJ post, know what you’re going to promote first. It’ll make this part that much less confusing. And after you promote some stuff successfully, come back to the marketplace and explore another niche…or three. Check it, you can select from Arts & Entertainment, Computers/Internet, Education, Fiction, Games, Languages etc. Any one you choose brings up pages of choices. It also gives you a breakdown of what you could possibly earn. There is a lot in the marketplace and it’s not all easy to understand. If you find your head swimming, click on Marketplace Help (AhHa moment complimentary).

I have ideas starting to pop off in my head just looking through the marketplace, which I’m sure you will too but remember to be focused and pick something that you know a thing or two about.

Wrap Up

Not bad. Ha! You were expecting something more?! It’s a nice site, easy to navigate, chocked full of info and easy to find the help and answers you need. Remember, I’m just like you here, trying to make sense of it all. I’m not going to sit here and try to wax poetic about my experience when it’s just beginning to blossom.

Next post on ClickBank will be about the rest of the process – product selection, hop links and all that other jargon they talk about.

Baaaack in the saddle again

Pardon the Aerosmith reference but…

Larry Page is taking back the reins of Google. In a not so subtle nod and wink to Steve Jobs and Apple, Page is positioning himself as the center point for all of Google’s departments requiring they report to him. With its success in the mobile (Android), video (YouTube) and advertising ventures (AdSense), Google is setting its sights on another potential cash cow – social networking. Google lags far behind facebook in this arena and is looking to compete head to head with the behemoth that is Zuckerberg, INC.

Along with Page’s return there were several moves made in Google’s management structure. Notably too is the departure of Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President of product management two years before his planned resignation. He sited not being able to meet Page’s demand for a long term commitment.

And we can’t have an entrance on an internet marketing blog without mentioning AdSense, Google’s cash cow, which is now being overseen by Susan Wojcicki. She was senior vice president of product management. Little bit o’ history for everyone. Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented a garage from Wojcicki that was the first office of Google. Story here.