I bought my wife an iPhone 3G.

Her birthday is coming soon and more and more she has recognised the need to be able to get emails whilst away from the office, not to mention check her calendar, listen to music, take photos, check stock reports, watch YouTube.. all the things a professional accountant needs to be able to do.. well not really as much for last few items, but now that she can if she wants too..

Anyway, the iPhone is nice and I mean nice.. There is absolutley no doubt that Apple have patented the ability merge sexiness and geekiness into a small black and shiny peice of hardware. Its not too heavy, but enough to feel solid in your hand 

I've always steered away from Apple computer products (which is what the iPhone is.. its not a phone, its not an iPod, its a small computer with a screen size that puts to shame some of the very early laptops) because, well, they operating systems where fluff. The operating system had big round buttons that said things like Yes and No. Functions aren't hidden away, making them impossible to find, unless you had a map, a compass and a packed lunch.

But now, I can see the attraction of their laptops and desktops if the iPhone is anything to go by. Messages 'bounce' and wobble. Screens feel as if they are on elastic, especially when scrolling past the end of a screen or list.

My wife normally uses the phone during the day for work, which is exactly what bought it for her, however, I find that between the time she gets home and before I finally go to bed, the iPhone magically appears in my hand.  I don't know exactly when this happens, but there is a point when I look down at my hand and see it sitting there, silently gleaming under the lights.

I image the senior marketing and design managers sitting around a meeting table 'bullet pointing' such experiences that they hope customers (and their partners) will experience - damn them.

..and of course, watching lego men video clips somehow feels just that little cooler on an iPhone, if you don't think about how much the data downloads are costing you.

There are a few things are aren't as great such as:

1. You cannot send an invite to another person via the Exchange calendar (this is a stand feature on a Windows Mobile device)

2. The battery life isn't what you would call super. If both 3G & WiFi are enabled and you are the kind of person that would use the iPod through out the day, downloading a few songs or surfing the internet and managing an inbox full of emails, you would defiantly be struggling to get through the business portion of the day (let alone allowing your husband to surf Russian car crashes on via YouTube after you get home..)

3. The software keypad is nice, but it can be frustrating when trying to type out a message, especially if you have big fingers (oops does that sound like me again?). Some type of stylus might have been nice

4. Missing battery life/power management. The iPhone is as hungry as a small child in McDonalds so being able to check and manage power usage by the resources that chew through the precious battery would have been nice, not to mention somewhere to view the amount of available drive space (besides having to go into iTunes)

Having had my tech grissle, overall, the iPhone is exactly what normal people would want in a device. Easy to use, easy to access and easy to understand. And techs like me appreciate the large screen and 3G capabilities that actually allow you to do real things

I'm just glad that my wife takes hers away with here and that I don't have one, otherwise, it could be a very depressing..

Cheers

Nathan

With all of the recent news regarding the cost impact of increased fuel and travel costs to business not to mention the speed that the "green computing" trend band wagon (every man and his IT system seem to be jumping onto) appears to be picking up, it comes as no surprise that businesses will increasingly looking for real world conferencing and communications systems that can allow staff in different offices to communicate both in an effective and efficient way.

Until recently, efforts to deliver and implement video conferencing systems had (at best) been some what disappointing and at worst simply unusable. We've all been exposed to it at some point, the shoddy and difficult to use video conferencing solutions with less then usable clarity.

The scenario usually plays out something like this..

“The monthly ‘team’ meeting starts in 10 minutes and it is going to involve video conferencing with one or more interstate offices (forget overseas.. they can read about it later when someone finally emails out the minutes..) Even though the video conferencing system is supposedly so easy to use, a 12 year old playing GTA4 could set it up, there are at least 3 or 4 members of the team leaning over the system rubbing chins and pointing nervous fingers trying to figure whether they have to dial an internal extension or the full number of the interstate office to make the call… “does anyone know if we need to dial a 0 first?..” At this point other meeting attendees role their eyes and begin checking emails or wondering out of the meeting room..”

Eventually, the video conference starts, everyone is corralled back into the meeting room and the attendees in the other states all crowd in on the small desktop camera at their end in a vain attempt to be seen by everyone else in the main office on the low-end 32” display setup in a distant corner. Every few seconds, the display distorts, freezing part of someone’s face whilst their mouth keeps moving, which I’ll be the first to admit is a little humorous..

The audio breaks in and out and eventually (more often then not), the video conference is abandoned through frustration and the meeting resorts to an audio conference call...

For companies that have the dollars to spend (at least $220k per 3-screen installation), poor video conferencing experiences can be a thing of the past with Cisco's TelePresence solution.

Recently, Optus announced it had implemented the same solution its Melbourne and Sydney offices and another two-screen meeting point in the Sydney offices of its services subsidiary Alphawest (Optus hooked on Cisco TelePresence – AustralianIT).

In my opinion, the Cisco TelePresence solution is, for lack of a better word “stunning”.

In a nutshell, it requires at least a 5Mbs link between sites (although it is suggested that 6Mbs is more realistic). This is why I suggest that overseas video conferencing for many Australian businesses will simply be out of reach for sometime to come given the cost of maintaining such a service.

The system not only includes the displays, camera etc, but also includes the table as part of the solution. It has been specially designed to enhance the experience and to make it feel as if everyone is actually sitting at the same ‘virtual’ table, which I think is a nice touch.

In addition, the system:

• Integrates three 65-inch high-definition plasma displays for life-size images at 720p and 1080p resolutions.

• Specially designed, high-definition cameras provide high-quality, high-definition images, with superior eye contact and no user operation required.

• Full-duplex, CD-quality audio facilitates a full, natural conversation with no perceivable latency. The clarity of the audio allows you and other participants to talk in relaxed or soft voices and still be heard as if you are all in the same room.

• The specially designed, optimized environment offers high-quality lighting and sound treatment that works well within normal conference-room lighting, and provides comfortable seating for up to six participants in the room and up to 48 locations for multipoint meetings.

• Integration with the network helps ensure reliability with high availability, security, and QoS for an optimal experience with every call. Highly secure communications are enabled through encryption of both video and call signalling.

Overall, it is simply impressive and such a far cry from a typical video conferencing solution that it does make one wince at the thought earlier systems and with the every increasing burden of fuel and travel costs, it can and does make sense for larger businesses to look at investing in such a solution, not to mention the “Green” badge that a businesses marketing team would kill for.

Here is a great clip about VoIP for small businesses.

Its a bit old now. It was posted in September 06, 2006, but alot of the topics are still relevant.. The speaker is quite a good and very articulate.

Speaking to an audience of independent distributors (telecom agents, channel partners & solution providers) author & educator Steven Sheppard gives a detailed 40-minute analysis of the pros & cons small businesses owners and decision makers need to be properly consulted about before they can "buy into" and benefit from adapting any VoIP solution or migration strategy into their businesses communication and technology suites.

The presentation was delivered in August 2006 at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo and was sponsored by XO communications. The video was recorded and edited by Telecom Association.