J. Rhoads Research / formerly MobyApp

The Google-developed Android mobile operating system is an alternative to the Apple iPhone, Blackberry and Palm. Even though the Android operating system is relatively new to the market, the popularity of Android phones such as the Evo 4G, Droid Incredible and Motorola Droid suggests that these multitasking feature-rich smartphones are coming in line with what we want our mobile devices to be. Here's a roundup of some of the best Android smartphones on the market today. Motorola Droid For those who must have a physical keyboard, the Motorola Droid is definitely a phone to consider. Despite the fact that the phone has a slide out keyboard, the phone is still relatively thin; actually it is only marginally thicker than the iPhone 3G. The 5 megapixel camera and dual LED flash also allow the phone to take surprisingly good photos – considering that this is actually a phone. While you have to save apps to the phone's internal memory (512MB ROM and 256MB RAM), a memory card will stor

What happened to customer service, more importantly good customer service? This morning on the way into work I had a conversation about Verizon’s customer service. My friend was very upset with how they have been handling her over the years. She was a loyal Blackberry user and she really used the heck out of those BBs . The problem was that batteries didn ’t hold a charge. Very odd for a BB –I wish my iPhone held a charge like a BB. So my friend called Verizon to replace the phone and they gave her the run around. She asks for a manager and is told by the customer service representative that a manager will call her back. The manager never does. My friend calls back and the vicious circle was afoot. Wow! Once upon a time, I worked for United Airlines and my job was working in huge call center. Whenever we had customers ask for a manager, we had someone to hand them off to. They were known a TSRs or technical service reps –they made a $1 more an hour! Hence you never speak to a real man

Here is a great analysis by Google employee Tim Bray on the the scope of the Smartphone Game ( via Daring Fireball ). "The Numbers Are Really Big. Insane, I mean. The billion-plus phones sold per year. The number of active subscriptions, which is greater than half of the human population. The number of new Android devices that check in with Google every day. The line-ups outside Apple stores for every new iOS device. The hundreds of thousands of apps. The ridiculous number of new ones that flow into Android Market every day. Everywhere I look, I see something astounding. This is the big league; bigger today than the computer industry ever was, and growing fast. This is as fierce a concentration of R&D heat and manufacturing virtuosity and distribution wizardry and marketing mojo as humanity has ever seen."

I have been reading Tribal Leadership on the iPad, and it is an awesome book. It describes so many things I have seen in my 18 year career. You do not need to be fired to have experienced the blog post below. It is a good read because so many companies treat their employees badly. I recommend checking out this book at the Tribal Leadership website. Reposted from http://www.triballeadership.net/blog Worst Five Ways to Fire Someone If you have never been fired, then you either work at a Stage Two company where under-achieving is rewarded, or you’ve chosen not to be completely honest when your boss says, “Do you have any feedback for me?” Odds are that at some point you: • “Did not see eye-to-eye with management.” • “Chose to go freelance” • “Wanted to spend more time with family” • “Were unware the sexual harassment laws had changed.” But if you’re lucky, you’re the person on the other end of this conversation. And for you, we would like to offer the top five worst ways to let people go,

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."-- Albert Einstein

Today I am in the cloud. Literally, I am emailing via my jerryemis@me.com email account, rocking out to Pandora Radio, and creating a tech visio-like drawing via Gliffy.com . If my iPad did flash or Gliffy did HTML5, I wouldn't need a computer. If I was using Cisco's CIUS tablet device, based on the Android OS, I would be able to do my Gliffy drawing. My thoughts on Mobile computing are two fold: 1. We are just beginning to realize the benefits of mobile devices (phones & tablets) 2. The cloud will be the back end to these new Mobile computing devices I think we are where the PC (actually the Apple) was in 1983. In 1983 PC's were for games and small office use. IBM (the only big computer company) didn't see them as a threat their fleet of "Big Iron" (Mainframes and Mini-Computers). It is 2010, the PC's and their Intel Servers run the [office] world. Click here to check out (a very young) Steve Jobs Keynote address circa 1983! What will 2015 look like?

Hey all, Changed the title, look, and feel of our Blog. This blog started out as a project for a graduate class and has now morphed into this. Just wanted to drop a quick note as I have been out on vacation. I've been looking at some venture capital blogs out the net. Here are two that caught my fancy: http://voices.allthingsd.com/20100317/the-case-for-the-fat-startup/ http://www.kellblog.com/2010/04/07/the-fit-or-fat-startup/ Lean or Fat? I say we gotta eat! (read the links and you will get my last statement) Jerry

In my reading of What Would Google Do ( WWGD ), Marissa Mayer VP at Google is mentioned many times over. So I did some research on Marissa. Marissa Mayer is the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at the search engine company Google . She rocks and here is why: Mayer received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems , graduating with honors , and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University . She specializes in artificial intelligence (AI). In 2009, the Illinois Institute of Technology granted Mayer an honoris causa doctorate degree honoring her work in the field of search. Mayer was the first female engineer hired at Google and one of their first 20 employees, joining the company in early 1999. Prior to joining Google, Mayer worked at the UBS research lab ( Ubilab ) in Zurich , Switzerland, and at SRI International in Menlo Park , California. Fortune magazine lists her as one of the 50 most powerful women in the world and the youngest woman ever to make the list!!

I have been reading a book titled What Would Google Do (WWGD ) by Jeff Jarvis and I just finished Beyond the Cloud by Marc Benioff (CEO and Founder of SalesForce.com ). The two books have changed my outlook on life, yes life. Our work/jobs are a major part of our lives. We spend more time at work than with our families. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? What if we had a job that paid for what we did versus how many hours you sit at a desk? What if you could spend more time with your family versus time at work or on the blackberry? No I am not preaching AMWAY –however they could be come a potential customer of mine –scratch that---ours! Why do I say ours? Well, in the spirit of WWJD –I asked What Would Google Do? Google would inspire collaboration as to what the company should produce, how many hours the work week would be, who they should hire, what soft drinks or juices to stock in the kitchens, the mission of the company, the structure, and etc. We are talking about total coll

The new iPhone 4 has about 100 new features that aren't available in the current model. Some of the biggest changes include a higher-resolution screen, a bigger battery, a front facing camera, an HD photo (5 megapixels) and video camera, a gyroscope for improved rotation sensitivity and a thinner, more industrial look. Apple unveiled the new phone's operating system in April, which on Monday, Apple redubbed "iOS 4." The new OS will be available to iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 users this summer. It will allow multitasking, use of folders, access to Apple's iBooks app and the new "iAd" mobile advertising network, though not all of the functions will be available on the old iPhones I must have it!

I've been thinking about my new company and I have lots of ideas. Many center around what do I want to develop, who do I want to hire, how big can MobyApp.Mobi become, how to apply the Salesforce.com's 1-1-1 principal to MobyApp.mobi, serving smoothies in break rooms, employee stock options, IPO, and others. Wow, my brain is on overtime and my advise to myself is What Would Google Do (WWGD)? They would Do No Evil. I want to touch people's lives. People will want to work for...scratch that...work with MobyApp.mobi. We will be 1 transparent team, 1 transparent mission, 1 voice, 1 family devoted to making our lives and our world a happier place. Do you know we spend more hours with co-workers than family? What if you didn't like your work, your co-workers, the company's mission --whatever--fill in the blank. We are going to change that: MobyApp.mobi will be a place that centers on the employee, their family, and their morals. We will work together and be happy doing i

The iPhone 4.0 is coming and I am sooo ready for it. The new OS supports multi-tasking, front facing camera, better battery and more. Problem is that AT&T changed their rates for new iPhone/ PDA users. AT&T no longer offers unlimited data plans . So the big question is: When I upgrade to the new iPhone 4.0, Will I be treated as a new iPhone/ PDA user? Will my contract grandfather over? If I need to get a new contract, I may have to go to Verizon for the Droid or an Android OS phone. 200MB or 2GB is not enough, and I only dev on my MAC --meaning I really don't use a PC or MAC anymore. All my Internet usage is via the iphone ! I do sync from time to time, as I don't want to lose my songs and apps. All my songs and apps are downloaded via 3G, not from my MAC. If I am in the car and I Shazam a song --I download it right then and there. I really love my iPhone and I am developing Apps for the iPhone. The apps I am building require Internet access and there aren'

I just incorporated MobyApp . Mobi in Nevada! Well ok , I started the process with BlumbergExcelsior , should be a corporation within a week --wish me luck! Let me tell you it has been an exciting two weeks, hence I have been radio silent on the blog. My biz partner Lin and I have been defining goals and working aggressively to meet them (i.e. a business plan). So far we are on track. Next on the list is trademarking our logo --I will post it once it is official. Our company MobiApp . mobi will develop applications for the iPhone and iPad . Sounds exciting? Do you want a job? We are looking for Objective C and Cocoa developers. On another note I picked up a book titled "Beyond the Cloud". It is written by CEO and Founder of Salesforce .com, Marc Benioff (my new hero and unofficial mentor). The book is about how Marc dreamed up the concept to deliver a Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) system delivered via the Internet cloud. His company, Salesforce .com, is empowere

This is truly a paradigm change or in the words of my boss -- a game changer. Years ago I was on a forum (you know before there were blogs) and a guy posted how he loved Windows CE and wished he could use it on his PC versus Windows 95. I thought yes, Windows CE is stable, but what about applications? How could a PDA be better than Windows 95. Stable --Yes, practical --No! Crazy, I tell ya.....I didn't know I'd eat those words one day. Now fast forward to 2010 and we have the iPad . Some have called it a big iPhone and I said to myself --well yeah!! Hmmm , those words are tasty. See when I first got my iPhone 2g in 2007, I stopped using my MacBook and my Windows PC. I would pick up my full computer to play with the SDK and take advantage of the full browser. All my applications, except MS Office, were then (and now) --in the cloud. Now all I need is MS Office in the cloud and I am set --oh, wait Windows Office Live is in the cloud!! Desktops are dead....computers are for th

"The banking crisis was caused by doing what no society ever allows: Permitting young males to behave in an unregulated way. Anyone who studied neurobiology would have predicted disaster."—Sheelan Kolhatkar, " What If Women Ran Wall Street? " (New York magazine/03.29.10) I am sure you are asking why this quote appeared on my Techie Blog? Yesterday I had coffee with a friend of mine (yes you Alex) and she described her day to me. She asked me if I knew of any WI-MAX carriers in her area. I asked why and she began to explain how a Techie Salesman spoke down to her. Now my friend Alex is a tech-savvy nerd's nerd, that was so sexist on the part of the salesman. Many women in my life are/were in IT. Did you know that I took an interest in IT, not because of my dad or those ECPI commercials of the 70's and 80's, I became interested because my MOM was a COBOL programmer. She loved her job and that old WANG mainframe running MVS! Heck my Dad’s second wife was a

I just read an article on bloomberg about the iPad . I will repost it below: April 1 ( Bloomberg ) -- Apple Inc. ’s iPad touch-screen tablet is a winning product that threatens to replace laptops as the dominant format for personal computers, reviewers said. The iPad , which will begin selling this weekend, is “wicked fast” and has a battery life that’s longer than Apple’s claim of 10 hours, Walt Mossberg , technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, wrote in a review yesterday. It can be used as a replacement for a laptop for most data communication and content consumption, he wrote. “The iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a slender, light device,” Mossberg wrote. The tablet “has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop.” Apple, based in Cupertino , California, started taking orders for the iPad on March 12, offering consumers the choice between home de

From now on I am going to do a quote of the week. Here is my first: Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket --Andrew Carnegie

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." ~Luciano Pavarotti

This article was posted on Seth Godins's Blog . Since it is short and sweet, I figured I'd repost it here and comment. Andrew Carnegie apparently said, "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors......Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory." Is there a typical large corporation working today that still believes this? Most organizations now have it backwards. The factory, the infrastructure, the systems, the patents, the process, the manual... that's king. In fact, shareholders demand it. It turns out that success is coming from the atypical organizations, the ones that can get back to embracing irreplaceable people, the linchpins, the ones that make a difference. Anything else can be replicated cheaper by someone else. I often (wish to be able to) describe myself as the Dale Carnegie, Zig Zigler , and Stephen Covey of the IT world. There are so many powerful peo

Here is another good article . The gist of the aticle is that a Security Executive is having a hard time finding a job. He interviewed with a CIO and had a good feeling. Eventually an executive with an engineering background was hired. I know that security is overlooked and put on the back burner when budget cuts hit home. However I agree that an executive with a engineering background was hired as the CSO . I.T. is in the Engineering and Operations business PERIOD!!!! Security is to support that business by following the CIA triad. Let's examine the CIA triad. First we have Confidentiality, Confidentiality is the term used to prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems. Next up Integrity, In information security, integrity means that data cannot be modified without authorization. Lastly and most importantly, Availability. For any information system to serve its purpose, the information must be available when it is needed. In my experience, ma

I was reading an article titiled "Why IT is designed to Fail". Click here to read the ar ticle. Below is my response. Very good article. I feel the biggest challenge to a CIO, is staffing their departments correctly. The CIO paradox will continue until the CIO realizes he/she is in the IT business and the IT business is Engineering and Operations. Project Management, Life Cycle, and Security are inputs to the final output i.e. Engineering and Operations. Until this happens most IT organizations will be staffed inappropriately and [productive] work flow will slow –the end result is in a loss of productivity and creditability. The basic premise is to understand the difference between an Engineer and an Operator. The next step hire qualified IT Project Managers. In my opinion the IT organization should be heavy with engineers, sprinkle in a few IT Project Managers, Security Analysts and lastly (and most importantly) a dedicated group of Operators. Lastly, your article points out

I was perusing Federalnewsradio.com today and came across the article . Microsoft is looking at the cloud for public sector organizations. According to Teresa Carlson, head of Microsoft Federal, explained that the company has been in the cloud for a very long time, but with this offering they have not just met -- but exceeded -- the federal requirements. Really? I didn’t know there were federal requirements for the cloud, but alas there are standards (FISMA, TIC, FIPS 140-2, and ITAR). Carlson explained that Microsoft’s cloud offering would allow an agency to put its data in a Microsoft data center under the compliance standards she's outlined. "So, there's really a Trusted Internet Connection or TIC back into their system --managed with all the compliance and security enhancements. . . . They [the agency] would consolidate servers. They would not need as much personnel to manage all that data. Their [hardware] upgrades would be instant. They don't have a bunch of in

Baseball great Rogers Hornsby summed it up: "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

This is a quote from Tim Cook at Apple, I found on a Blog I read from time to time: “This [Apple] is the most focused company I know of, am aware of, or have any knowledge of... We say no to good ideas every day.” Cook then pointed out to analysts that every single product the company makes would fit on the single conference table in front of him. “And we had revenue last year of $40 billion."

Say the words "tablet computer" and ten bucks says it's Apple's iPad that springs to mind or so says CNN.com But that doesn't mean other companies aren't busy building their own version of a touch-enabled, multimedia-sporting, slab of portable computing goodness. Dell's first effort at a tablet will be the Mini 5 (a name that is still in beta) -- a slice of plastic and glass with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen that according to Michael Dell will debut "in a couple of months." The Mini 5 will sport a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor. (source cnn.com) Wow, I am seeing a pattern here, PC’s may become old school. However I will not be getting rid of mine anytime soon :). Looks like the iPad will have some competition, let’s see if Dell is going to jump into the Cloud and offer a

Actually the picture on the top is a hoax. The picture on the bottom is the real thing, located at the Smithsonian's "Fast Attack and Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War "exhibit. The hoax claims that this would be the first PC. Notice the steering wheel --I guess it is a 1950's mouse......

I remember reading about books going the way of the dodo bird . Looks like the iPad is going after the Kindle market in a way no-one would have ever thought --Comic Books. Neat huh? Actually this is very a smart concept in regards to cloud computing. I call it in the Pepsi approach to Paradigm Back in the day (mid to late 80’s), Pepsi had a tough time beating out Coca-Cola or Coke. This was after the Pepsi challenge successfully demonstrated that Pepsi tasted better than Coke. So, why was Coke number 1? In a word, Paradigm --people do not like change. Pepsi was took a new approach; they changed their slogan to “ Pepsi, the choice of a new generation ". Hence they went after the kids –me. See the adults wouldn’t change their Paradigm, Pepsi realized that kids grow up and buy things –like a Pepsi Cola. Now as I approach 40, I buy a lot of Pepsi and my Kids drink it. My Parents and Grandparents are Coke fans. So why is this article on my Techie Blog? Well, you see many are skeptical

Seems like this should be a simple question to answer, however it is not. Maybe we should ask ourselves what IT (Information Technology) isn’t. In my opinion IT is not desktop support, printer replacement, deployment teams, service desks, and project management teams. The first four (desktop support, printers, deployment, and helpdesk) are outputs or byproducts of IT and the latter is an input. The reason I bring this up (see previous blogs)? How many of you in the IT world are asked by friends and family “Can you fix my computer”? All you have to do is google the problem. No training required right? Frustrating huh? I will attempt to explain why this “break/fix computer guy/girl mentality dooms many an IT department. What is IT? In a nutshell, (my opinion of course) IT is about the applications, and the infrastructure required to deliver those applications, that support your company’s primary mission. Example, say you work at a hospital and your case management system goes down –your

I have to admit that when the iPad came out, I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for a Mac Tablet, much like my former Acer Windows XP tablet. To my dismay, the iPad is a big iPhone/iTouch. Why would I want one? I have an iPhone. What I wanted was a MAC tablet, one that would replace my MacBook. This device simply won’t do. What is the purpose of this device? So I though of how Apple is always competing with Microsoft and [I] came to the conclusion that a fat PC OS (Operating System) is so old school. The iPad was never meant to compete with Tablet PCs. It is a cloud device and this is a definitely a shot across the bow of Google --the iPad could be a Chrome killer. After all Chrome isn't a full (fat) OS, it is a light OS and all apps are delivered via the cloud. Granted hardware specs are inferior to the PC/Mac, but this isn't a PC or a Mac, it is a simple device. All the processing power is needed on the backend, processing and memory on the iPad should be minimal. After a