The New Apple iPad
Posted by Travis Austin in Ramblings on January 28th, 2010
On January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s newest product: Apple iPad.
Some our clients have already asked me for my thoughts on this new technology. As a service to all of our clients, I’m sharing my thoughts here for your reference.
What is it?
iPad is a tablet computer. It’s flat, with a touch-screen. In a lot of ways, it’s like an iPod Touch or an iPhone on steroids, but it’s designed to support productivity. Apple’s vision is that iPad will replace a paper tablet, allowing the user to have their entire set of notes and electronic resources at their disposal, no matter where they are.
For connectivity, iPad has a wireless card (to connect to the Internet at hotspots and home wireless networks), and includes software to browse the Internet, watch YouTube videos, check email, and take notes.
Apple also announced the iBookstore, which many are comparing to the service Amazon released with their Kindle. The iBookstore allows the user of iPad to browse a virtual store of books, and purchase and then download the books they want directly to iPad. The idea is that the user will always have a huge selection of books at their disposal, and won’t need to go shopping to buy their books any longer. Instead, the user just turns on their iPad, finds their book, and downloads it (for a fee).
What’s my take?
I think the iPad is making a much smaller splash than many people had hoped it would. I am hearing and reading of many people who say they likely won’t be purchasing iPad for a miriad of reasons:
- no handwriting recognition (you can’t “write” on the screen and have iPad recognize it and change it to text)
- no camera
- “wasted” space with the bezel (the black frame around the front is quite large)
- not replacing any devices (it’s not small enough to replace a phone, and not feature-rich enough to replace a laptop — it’s simply another gadget to carry around)
I personally am not going to be buying anytime soon. I simply don’t see a good use for it in the enterprise, and I don’t think I’d ever use it. When I want power, I use my laptop. When I need portability, I use my BlackBerry. There’s never a time during my week that I’d expect to need the “powerful portability” of this device.
Wordpress for your BlackBerry
Posted by Travis Austin in Windows Apps on July 21st, 2009
The Rezitech Blog is powered by a software package called WordPress. It allows us to add entries, tag articles, accept comments, and generally. This entry, I am writing on my BlackBerry using the WordPress for BlackBerry program.
Since I am typing this entry with my thumbs, it will be short.
Babies should come with Backups
Posted by Travis Austin in Ramblings on April 21st, 2009
I have now heard the third story in a month of a young family who lost their data and their infant child’s first months’ worth of photos.
I think a parenting-class-topic should be “Data Backup”.
Email2AT Close to Beta Release
Posted by Travis Austin in Autotask on April 10th, 2009
For those of you who were at the Autotask CommunITy Live 2009 event, you probably heard about, read about, talked about, or saw a demonstration of our new and upcoming Smartest Inbound Email Parser. And hopefully you were excited about it as I was and am!
For now, I’m calling it Email2AT, and I expect it to be released in beta early next week. If you gave me your business card at the Autotask event, I’ll be emailing you soon with more inforamtion. If not, you can sign up at www.autotasktoolbox.com.
Anyway, I need to get back to the projects-at-hand, but I at least wanted to drop a quick line and share that I will, indeed, be releasing the beta early next week.
Happy Good Friday!
LiveLink: Starbucks Nearby (Ticket)
Posted by Travis Austin in Autotask on April 2nd, 2009
I recently had the honor to speak at Autotask’s Community Live 2009 Conference in Nashville, TN. During my talk on using the Autotask developer tools to extend Autotask’s features, I promised I’d publish instructions on creating a LiveLink to locate a Starbucks close to the location of a Ticket.
If you’re unfamiliar with LiveLink creation in general, the Autotask documentation has a lot of great info, as does my blog titled How to Create a LiveLink in Autotask.
Create a new LiveLink and provide it the following settings:
If you’d prefer to copy/paste the information, I’ll include it here as well:
| LiveLink Name | Starbucks Nearby (Ticket) |
| Label | Starbucks Nearby |
| Category | Other Extensions |
| Entity | Ticket |
| Base URL | http://maps.google.com/maps |
| QueryString Values | ?q=starbucks+near+<ACCOUNTADDRESS1>,+<CITY>+ <ACCOUNTSTATE>+<ACCOUNTPOSTALCODE> |
How to Create a LiveLink in Autotask
Posted by Travis Austin in Autotask on April 2nd, 2009
Autotask software includes an innovative feature called a “LiveLink”. This allows a site administrator to create a link inside of the Autotask instance which will allow a user to link directly to another page either inside or outside of Autotask.
The link is dynamic, and can include variable information about the entity from which the link originates (Account name, Ticket Title, Contact Email Address, etc).
To create a LiveLink, hover the Admin menu and select LiveLinks Designer (see image to right).
On the screen that shows up, click the “+ New” button at the top.
Enter a name, label, and description of the LiveLink. Select an Entity, then enter the Base URL, Querystring Values, and Form Post Parameters.
Click the “Save and Publish” button at the top, and check the users and departments that should be allowed to access the LiveLink.
Rezitech CEO Awarded “Most Innovative Contributor” at Autotask Community Live 2009
Posted by admin in Press Releases on April 2nd, 2009
During Autotask Community Live 2009, a national event held for the IT Services industry, Rezitech CEO Travis Austin was named the “Most Innovative Contributor” by Autotask CEO Bob Godgart and CMO Bob Vogel.
“What a great honor,” Austin said. “I am humbled by the feedback I received throughout the entire event. It’s encouraged me to continue to drive Rezitech towards invention and innovation in an industry that all-to-often follows the next guy instead of developing new solutions.”
Brielle Whittaker, of Tulsa based IT Services firm Ace Net Consulting, said “I just wish I could think like this man, he doesn’t see road blocks, its like toys to him.”
Austin led a presentation on developing custom integrations using the Autotask Web Services API and other developer tools, and is available for speaking engagements and consulting.
Rezitech CEO Quoted on MSPmentor.net and worksWithU.com
Posted by admin in Article Reprints on April 1st, 2009
Travis recently met up with industry media mogul Joe Panettieri at the Autotask Community Live 2009 event. Joe was impressed with Rezitech’s use of open source technology to provide a rock-solid backbone to Rezitech’s enterprise customers.
Read about it: MSPmentor.net or worksWithU.com
Rezitech CEO Quoted by ChannelWeb Regarding Autotask’s New Release
Posted by admin in Article Reprints on March 30th, 2009
Travis recently spoke with ChannelWeb’s Scott Campbell regarding Autotask’s newly-released Outsource Management, Client Access Portal, and TaskFire software.
Read about it: crn.com
I’m Going to Rent A Train Car
Posted by Travis Austin in Ramblings on March 23rd, 2009
Not today, or tomorrow, but it’s now on my “list”.
I was browsing around the ‘net tonight looking for airport transportation, and, don’t ask me how, but I came across a website of a number of privately owned train cars that are available for charter. The site claims that the cars can be rented and that Amtrak will pull them as part of a regular Amtrak run.
Seriously!
They have dome-view sightseeing cars, box cars, sleeper cars, lounge cars, and a couple others. I would LOVE to have an excuse to charter one of these things for a vacation, business trip, or any other adventure.
