Out of Office Replies

This is great – from Inc.com:

The best in out-of-office auto-responders Guy Kawasaki unearthed this post from self-professed marketing geek Dave Duarte that’s been making it’s way around the business blogs. Our favorites from Dave’s top ten list? “You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.” There’s also, “Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.” And finally, “Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.”

Please wait by your PC for my response…classic!

If you're new here and like what you read, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

4G Means Speed

The latest cell phone speed craze is 4G which is available only from Sprint right now.  However, all carriers will be rolling out their 4G networks over the next year or so.  This article from Inc.com provides an in-depth description of 4G and why it matters.  It basically comes down to the speed:

“If I’m getting mail from my server, with 4G it takes micro-seconds. With 3G, it could take 5 to 10 seconds to download the same email,” Abramson says. In general, he adds, though service providers may claim faster speeds, most 3G transmissions are in the 1 megabyte per second range. “With 4G, I’m getting speeds that are three to four times faster, he reports.

As some people have migrated away from land lines for their telephone, some companies will migrate away from a land-based Internet connection and switch to a 4G network.

“It can replace broadband for a very small shop,” Ganguly says. For some small businesses it might make sense to have every laptop enabled with 4G, or to use a card that broadcasts wireless Internet to up to five devices, such as the MiFi or Overdrive, he adds.

I am still stuck on 3G which has mediocre speeds.  4G does seem like it will be a real game changer and well worth considering an upgrade.

The Internet – “Trendy and Oversold”

Here’s a good post from NettSolutions blog that links to an old Newsweek article from 1995.  Newsweek’s description of the new Internet is the title of the post.  A funny comparison from the post:

- In 1995 acid washed jeans were in. In 2010, MEN are wearing super low rise, skinny jeans.

- In 1995 a best picture nominee was Babe. 2010 has Avatar in 3D/IMAX special effects.

- In 1995 Juno was a major email service provider. In 2010 Gmail is the new Juno & Juno is now a movie about teen pregnancy.

- In 1995 Saint’s fans wore paper bags over their heads. In 2010 the Saints are no longer the Aints.

- In 1995 Prince’s lyrics, “Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999,” had relevancy. In 2010 Prince no longer has a name, but rather a symbol.

- In 1995 Jay Leno hosted the Tonight show. In 2010, the host is Conan O’br… um, nevermind.

And to you have to follow the link to the Newsweek article which is a riot to read in hindsight.  The pull quote for me:

Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete (sic.). So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn’t—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

Read it all.

It’s an iPhone-Blackberry World

Some of these sales numbers are staggering when you consider the shape of the economy:

To be precise, RIM reported it had shipped 10.5 million BlackBerrys in the three months ending in February 2010, representing a personal best for RIM. Among these 10 million phones, around half–actually 4.9 million–were new subscribers, demonstrating what a powerful ally RIM is to its cell-phone network partners. Over roughly the same period, Apple, with its super-hot-ticket iPhone still riding high in the public and media’s eyes, sold 8.7 million units…meaning RIM is firming up its position as forgotten king of smartphoneland.

I’m a Samsung Instinct user so I am really on the outside looking in.