Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

This is NOT a slam against the AT&T stores or BestBuy, who is now selling the iPhone.

My local AT&T store in San Antonio has a great crew.  They are nice people, very helpful, and back in the good old days when I had a BlackBerry or when my kids would lose one of their low-end phones, you could run over to WalMart, buy another cheapo-phone and the folks at the AT&T store would gladly give me a new SIM card, program the phone again, and smile at my son or daughter, and then thank us for being an A&T Customer.

The reason you should buy your iPhone at an Apple store is because you can really learn to use the phone in ways never though possible by asking questions that often times I have found the AT&T reps just don’t know the answers to.

Another reason:  maybe you’ll switch to the Mac (unless you have already done so) and totally integrate your iPhone with your Mac in ways that you just can’t do with a Windows PC.

Next?  Buy the $100 per year One to One training program from Apple.  For $100 per year, you can have a private session with an Apple consultant once a week.  That comes to about $2 per session. 

I am learning more about my Mac, my iPhone, and how to be more productive in my personal, business and family life than ever before.

Where did you buy your iPhone?  Or if you are planning to buy an iPhone, where are you planning to buy yours?

email me:  alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Source: www.voip-news.com

A new website is going to connect real estate agents to buyers using Skype, Twitter and SMS texting. RealSeekr.com combines release searching for a home with social networking and VoIP technology to provide a full-service experience.

“With Real Seekr(SM), we have utilized the newest Web technologies to make home search - Social, Useful & Fun(SM),” says Grant Freer, Founder and CEO of Real Seekr. “To encourage interaction among users, we have incorporated a number of ways for buyers, sellers and agents to communicate - including Skype(TM), SMS texting and Twitter(TM) connectivity.”

Real Seekr also allows video conferencing and includes virtual tours and photos of the properties listed.

“By working in harmony with MLS’s and REALTOR(R) Associations, as well as partnering with brokers and agents on a local and regional level throughout North America, utilizing IDX raw data feeds, we are making sure that the quality, reliability and integrity of the listing data available to Real Seekr(SM) users is of the highest caliber,” Freer said.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

You can buy refurbished cell phones from AT&T here.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Have you looked at the price of Cisco’s Personal Telepresence that was announced today?

$33,900 USD per seat

That’s 22 years worth of SightSpeed For Business for a ten (10) seat pack.

Granted SightSpeed is my agency’s client, but let’s get real and think about value and the budget. For every $33,900 a company can have hundreds of people inside the company using SightSpeed in the work place versus one glamour puss (CEO). Of course the IT director won’t get fired for buying Cisco, but if they tried SightSpeed to see how much use the video conferencing solution really receives they can quickly do some back of the napkin math to determine need and value to the company.

Oh. And here’s one more point. SightSpeed keeps getting better and improving what they do. All I’m seeing is that Cisco is carving up their Telepresence technology, as it drops down in price.

One has to really wonder if there’s that much difference in IP communications that’s worth an almost 300x investment when prices of technology always drop with each next generation of release. For me, the cost of Telepresence just don’t make sense (and I’m a Cisco shareholder and fan) given the ease of use, and low cost of a high quality service like SightSpeed already being on the market, plus having an award winning and proven track record clearly makes it a more than worthy option to consider.

Candidly, if I was the CFO of a company thinking of making the Telepresence investment, I’d at least want to SEE the comparison between the two with my own eyes before forking over $33,900 dollars for ONE SEAT versus $19.99 a month per seat.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

When I first read this post from Stowe Boyd I remembered back to when Apple had a division for software called Claris and thought…hmmm..

Well now that Microsoft has told the crew leading Yahoo that "we know what you are, and all that we’re dealing with is the price" in so many words, the Valley hotshots have to look in other directions, so why not take two of the Valley’s more successful, well run and loved companies and put them together.

Stowe’s post, which is largely amplification of Robert X. Cringely’s post would be good for all. While Apple has a rock solid software team, most of it revolves around the Mac and iPhone OS. The addition of Adobe would give them a lot, lot more.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

This video illustrates the process of logging on to the AT&T WiFi network at Starbucks, logging on the browser, going to iTunes and seeing the slightly different user experience of buying iTunes music in a Starbucks, as well as seeing what is currently playing and having the option to buy on the spot if you like the song you are hearing.

In simple terms, AT&T does the infrastructure; Starbucks does the physical plant; Apple sells the content.

Media:  OK to call me over the weekend:

Media can call me this weekend on my cell at 210-410-3075. 

Please, no calls on Saturday or Sunday after 7:00 PM CST because of Passover. 

All day Saturday and Sunday is cool, but up until 7:00 PM.

Email is alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

When eBay put started their search for a new CEO for Skype, one of the slow down messages was that eBay was pursuing strategic alternatives for the disruptive service. Skype certainly hasn’t been the boon they expected it to be, and now with Meg out of the way, a new CEO in place and a lot of strategic thinking having taken place (translation Investment Bankers and M&A guys went to market) it’s time to consider what may be the deal of the day.

A rumor coming out of the UK is that eBay is about to sell Skype to Hutchison Whampoa, the company behind 3, which is also the brand that has the Skypephone I use so much in London.

Most of these rumors are just that, but this one makes a lot of sense. Hopefully as the day goes on some light gets shed on this.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Is 44 Billion dollars the right price? Well, the acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft would certainly help MSFT a lot in the quest to stay in the online world battle against Google.

The two do fit nicely together. Both understand content, advertising, entertainment. There’s a lot of complimentary benefits. Here’s why. Yahoo which has a very big audience that has stuck to it, tons of community aspects, and lots of digital and intellectual property assets would bring a lot to Yahoo and vice versa.

In my mind, only a Time Warner-Yahoo combo would be better.

Source: voipcentral.org

Danaher Corp. owned Fluke Electronics Corp is set to acquire Visual Networks for about 75 million dollars. Visual Corp. offers managed VoIP service capabilities. It posted revenues of $ 52 million in 2004.