Fiduciary Magazine

Archive for the ‘Tech Tips’ Category

This is a great article from The New Yorker called Publish or Perish.

It discusses the e-book business and the iPad and Kindle, the latter of which I own. All of the books I review are sent to me for free and I usually give them away once I’m done with them.

Traditionally, publishers have sold books to stores, with the wholesale price for hardcovers set at fifty per cent of the cover price. Authors are paid royalties at a rate of about fifteen per cent of the cover price. On a twenty-six-dollar book, the publisher receives thirteen dollars, out of which it pays all the costs of making the book. The author gets $3.90 in royalties. Bookstores return about forty per cent of the hardcovers they buy; this accounts for $5.20 per book. Another $3 goes to overhead costs and the price of producing and shipping the book—leaving, in the best case, about a dollar of profit per book.

Why, Mossberg asked, should consumers “pay Apple $14.99 when they can buy the same book from Amazon for $9.99?”

“That won’t be the case,” Jobs said, seeming implacably confident.

With Google Apps Connector for BES version 1.5, large businesses can now support 500 BlackBerry devices per server, double the previous number. This lets them serve more users with fewer servers.

BlackBerry® Messenger is the instant messaging (IM) program that’s unique to BlackBerry smartphone users. You can instantly chat, send and receive pictures, and set your availability status using a familiar desktop IM look and feel—all from your BlackBerry smartphone.

These IM’s are outside your own carrier and run through RIM’s network. One key benefit: if you’re traveling overseas, using BB Messenger will help you avoid International SMS messaging costs.

Consumer Reports has a good article here, with a 4:30 embedded video with the “pro” versus “con.”

If you are trading stocks from your pda, you might be an addict.

Sprint has launched a funny ad that looks like it was inspired by the folks at Apple…

Meanwhile, Maggie Reardon the rock start behind CNET Wireless, has some great analysis behind Palm’s numbers that’s worth a read.

By Marguerite Reardon, CNET

To be eligible for the $5 unlimited international calling plan, users must already be signed up to an unlimited national calling plan that costs $40, $45, or $50 a month. Making international phone calls from a cell phone has typically been rather expensive with major carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

I love when I come across a cool topic and it covers two categories…

Famed Wine expert Natalie MacLean has an awesome app for your iPhone or BlackBerry called Mobile Matcher.

This app will give you over 380,000 meal/wine pairing recommendations!

As her site says, “You’ll find matches for every dish, from appetizers and cheeses, to main courses and desserts. Never get stuck in a liquor store or restaurant wondering which bottle to choose again. It’s like having a sommelier and a bartender in your pocket.”

Just saw this really cool app for your BlackBerry called Call Informer. The app is designed to help sales people quickly identify and respond to incoming calls. Having contact notes available before you answer a call allows you to make informed choices about your response.

When you receive an incoming call from a contact in your address book, CallInfomer displays the following; Caller Name, Organization, Number (inc. type such as Home, Work, Mobile etc), Contact Notes (and previous call notes) and the date/time of the last time this contact called you and the date/time of the last time you called them.

You can update the contact notes right there or you can choose to send an sms to the caller and all of this can be done from one screen before you choose to answer the call.

Features:

* Information displayed on screen as call arrives
* Contact notes and time of last phone contact is displayed
* Update contact notes without having to leave screen
* Send sms to caller without having to leave screen
* Perform all actions before answering the call
* Allows you to make informed decisions about your call response

Ever get a call when you’re right in the middle of something, tell the person “I’ll call you right back!” and then remember 7 hours later that you owe someone a call? This is a cool BlackBerry app that will help you remember by putting a reminder right on your calendar. Free download too.