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Survey Shows iPad Early Adopters are Mac Owners

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Our apologies for starting this week with yet another iPad-related news. But is there any other significant tech-related news today other than the iPad? Anyway, this news is pretty interesting.  According to Piper Jafray’s Gene Munster, majority of the iPad early adopters are  Apple product users.

Based on the survey of 448 iPad buyers, 74% were also Mac users with 96% of them planning to continue using their Macs despite having the iPad. The survey also revealed that 66% of the iPad buyers are iPhone owners and only 1% of them thought they could replace their iPhone with the iPad. It only goes to show that iPad buyers are aware that their new magical device was not meant to replace the Macs.

Now, here’s another interesting point revealed by the survey – 13% of those who were surveyed owned the Amazon Kindle. And 58% of them are planning to replace their Kindle with the iPad.

Moving on the specific iPad results, the survey also found out that the most popular iPad  was the 16GB Wi-Fi only version, 39% of the respondents bought these model. Only 32% bought the 32GB and 28% bought the 64GB model.

As to  how they are planning their newly bought iPads, 74% of the respondents say for surfing the web, 38% for reading books, 32% for email, 26% for watching video, 18% for playing games and only 8% for listening to music.

Originally posted on April 5, 2010 @ 11:15 am

Vlingo Updates its BlackBerry App, Adds “SafeReader”

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We all know that texting while driving is a big no-no. In fact some countries prohibit doing those two activities at the same time and may get you arrested if found guilty. But what if you’re on the road and you need to check a very important incoming message? Well, you can always pull over and check your phone. But that wouldn’t be unwise to do while you’re driving on the freeway. Thanks to Vlingo’s BlackBerry app checking your incoming text messages is now possibly while driving and won’t require you to use your hands.

Vlingo just announced version 4.5 of its cool BlackBerry app with an added feature called “SafeReader.” Any guess on what this feature can do? Ok, SafeReader reads all your incoming messages aloud allowing you to digest your incoming email and text messages while you drive. The spoken messages are delivered audibly to ensure that you understand what the email and SMS messages are saying.

In case you’re not using Vlingo on your BlackBerry app yet, now may be the right time to do so. Aside from this cool “SafeReader” feature, the app also features a powerful speech-to-text technology that lets you compose and send text or email messages, call a friend, search the web, update your Facebook status, use instant messaging, add contacts and calendar entries and other nifty features – just by speaking into your phone. The “SafeReader” feature expands this features by reversing speech-to-text to text-to-speech.

Cool, right? To get the app, simply point your BlackBerry’s browser to www.blackberry.com/appworld or www.vlingo.com. Once installed on your BlackBerry device and before driving, simply press a button, speak to the device and say “Start SafeReader” and your incoming messages will be delivered audibly, without fail through spoken words.

Originally posted on March 24, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

Brightkite Offers Free Group Text Service

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For whatever it’s worth Brightkite actually pioneered the location-based checked-in with social networking service a couple of years ago. Yes, long before Gowalla and Foursquare started to become popular  it  has been offering the same service. But for no apparent reason Brightkite became silent for quite some time now.

Enter Brightkite’s latest offering called Group Text. Aiming solve the tedious process of organizing gigs and events among your friends through sending of numerous text messages addressed to several people, Brightkite is offering a better, faster and more cost-effective solution through Group Text.

So, how does Group Text actually works?  You create a group, enter your contacts and then send out a text to the group. The fun begins when your friends start receiving your messages via text, push notifications, mobile web or from the web itself.  Then when anyone replies to your message, everyone in the conversation thread will receive the message as well. Basically, it’s like having email groups, only this time the main activity is done through text messaging.

Brightkite Group Text allows you to create groups with up to 25 members. Once you’ve created a group, you can easily ping them, introduce new members or start any conversation with all the members of the group. The service is free, so that answers your question on possible mobile data service cost.

Group Text also lets you send photos and locations to your group. You can also send messages directly from your desktop’s web browser.

And finally, Brighkite has submitted an updated version of its iPhone app to Apple. Once approved the new Brightkite iPhone app will have the group text messaging feature.

Originally posted on March 12, 2010 @ 6:35 pm

Yahoo! Contacts Now Lets You Connect with Facebook Easily

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While waiting for the full implementation of Yahoo’s planned integration with Facebook Connect which was announced in December last year, Yahoo wants to give you a sampler of how this will be  integrated across its sites and services. So in case you’re still maintaining and using Yahoo Mail, you can now easily add your Facebook friend’s email addresses to Yahoo Contacts.

Of course, integrating these two Contact lists will enable you to quickly communicate with your contacts where ever you may be at this very moment. Whether you’re  browsing Yahoo Sports and you find something which a Facebook contact would find interesting, you can do so now in just one click. In fact, you simply type the first letter of your contact’s name inside Yahoo! Mail and it will quickly suggest contact names that start with that letter.

To connect your Facebook friends’ email addresses to your Yahoo Contacts’ account, simply go to the Import Contacts landing page, select Facebook, enter your Facebook login credentials and then Yahoo will authenticate your account and starts integrating the two email addresses lists.

Then,  you can check out which of your Facebook friends were added to your Yahoo Contacts. What’s good about this feature is that it won’t create duplicate entries for your contacts.

So there. Are you going to integrate your Facebook friends’ email addresses to your Yahoo Contacts?

Originally posted on March 4, 2010 @ 5:07 pm

LinkedIn Connects with Microsoft Outlook

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What would you get if two of the major players  in business communication – one a desktop email tool and the other the most popular business social networking site join forces?  The possibility could be endless and most definitely fruitful for both parties. That’s what was just announced by LinkedIn as they’ve partner up with Microsoft Outlook.

The result of the deal could be more productive whether you are a LinkedIn or Microsoft Outlook user. Better if you use both since with LinkedIn connected to your Microsoft Outlook, you’d be able to do the following:

Keep track of what your LinkedIn connections are working on and thinking about – this include information on who they are connecting with, articles they are reading and sharing, questions they are asking and answering.

Get the latest contact information for your professional connections – this include email addresses, profile details and photos appearing in an Outlook Contacts folder. It will also allow you to email your LinkedIn connections just by typing their name into your Outlook “To:” box as you let LinkedIn auto-fill it up for you.

Grow your LinkedIn network easily – this is my favorite feature brought about by the partnership. You can now easily add an email sender who is not yet on your LinkedIn network just by simply clicking on the green “Add” icon next to their name. Easy way to build your LinkedIn contacts.

To use this new feature, you need to follow these simple steps – download Outlook Social Connector from Microsoft, download the LinkedIn Outlook Connector, restart your Outlook and follow the instructions for connecting your two accounts.

Once connected, Outlook will start pushing your LinkedIn network information into Outlook.

Originally posted on February 17, 2010 @ 8:28 am