Netflix

This web innovator was too smart for its own good when it decided to spin off the DVD-delivery service as Qwikster. The move showed the worst possible timing, as the company had just doubled rates on its combo DVD+streaming plan. Netflix had a one-stop shop to order DVD deliveries or stream movies to any web-connected device – HDTV, MacBook Pro, smart phone – but users would now be forced to go to a different website for each service. Netflix reversed its decision within a month, but took a big hit to its reputation.

Google

The high-flying Google axed a lot of products in 2011, often without warning, and suffered some backlash for it. With a presence on every platform from Android tablets to Apple’s iMac, Google has always provided great tools, but when they disappear people are often left with broken workflows. In 2011, Google dumped the following apps and services:

• Android App Inventor, a favorite of computer science teachers;
• Buzz, a bust as a social network;
• Labs, the near-legendary collection of cool, useful, experimental apps;
• Code Search, a developer tool;
• Timeline, a date-range filter for search results;
• Wave, a poorly defined collaborative real-time something-or-other; and
• various other apps and services.

If you depended on the trashed tools, you are out of luck. Fortunately, some of them – App Inventor and Code Search, to name two – went “open source” and are still available.

Hewlett-Packard

HP bought Palm in 2010 and got webOS with it. Tech observers were hoping for a “third way” for tablets, an alternative to iOS and Android, but got the notoriously kludgey HP TouchPad. We see the popularity of our iPad rental and understand why companies want to emulate its success, but HP’s idea of beating the Apple tablet on price ensured the TouchPad’s demise. Soon enough, retailers were sitting on several hundred thousand of them.

In a move that precipitated his replacement by Meg Whitman, then-CEO Leo Apotheker axed the product and blew them out the door starting at $99, a move repeated in mid-December. Although HP appeared to be leaving the consumer PC market altogether, that didn’t quite happen, but after Whitman replaced Apotheker the company released webOS as open-source code. Perhaps “the crowd in the cloud” can finish what HP started.

Don’t want to be on the losing end of technology? For high-end post-production gear like render farms or trade show convention rentals, get the winning solution with CRE Rentals. Simply call or e-mail to get an experienced Account Executive to help. Or use the Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need. We are always ready with the right solution, right now!

Smarter smartphones

Apple’s iPhone 4S is still a generation or two ahead of its rivals, a growing number of which are getting quite good, like the Samsung Galaxy and Nexus. The iPhone’s dual-core chip (which also powers our iPad rental) and camera technology, front and back, are both much improved. What sets it apart, though, are two future-is-now features: (1) its revamped antenna, which has markedly improved connection rates and call quality on both AT&T and Sprint networks, and (2) Siri, a talking voice-control system that starts out good and learns to be, well, insanely great.

Lighter laptops

Netbooks arrived a few years back and seemed to define a new form factor for lightweight laptops: low-power CPUs, limited RAM, a few gigabytes of flash storage, WiFi, pygmy-sized keyboards and a low price. Manufacturers stepped up, however – Apple with the MacBook Air, Sony with its VAIO line, Samsung with Series 9 – and brought Grade A design, power and style (at higher prices, naturally). Still, as with the iconic iMac, Apple sets the standard. Bottom line for the Air: The 2011 makeover brought a big power boost, it does Windows, the 11- and 13-inch screens are gorgeous and a 15-inch version is rumored to be in the works.

iPad, tablets and apps

In 2011, the “Year of the Tablet,” the second generation Apple iPad arrived with impressive new features, including the fabulous iOS 5 software. But it’s the several hundred thousand fun, productive and/or useful apps that make it numero uno. No other pads or tablets, not even our tablet PC rentals, have the iPad’s extensive library, and if you’re a “creative” type there is really no alternative. For less demanding people, however, a growing number of new tablets – Android no-names, the very good Samsung Galaxy Tab and, in particular, Amazon’s new Kindle Fire – will gobble up all the TV episodes, movies, music, YouTube clips, e-books and other media you care to consume.

Need for speed…USB3.0 and Thunderbolt

Another set of technologies, the protocols for connecting digital devices, kept improving throughout 2011. USB 3.0 on new PCs operates at 4.8Gbps and the new Thunderbolt bus, featured on the Mac Pro and other new Apple computers, runs two 10Gbps channels simultaneously. Apple’s previous high-speed connection, FireWire 800, is less than one-tenth as fast as Thunderbolt and not bi-directional.

If you want to move in a new direction, CRE can help. Find out how new technology can help you blast through production bottlenecks, or how our event production rentals can help you make a dramatic impact at your next conference. Contact us by phone or e-mail, or use the handy Quick Rental Quote form. We’re here, ready to help!

And don’t forget to check out Thursday’s blog, Technology in 2011: The Downside.

Boogie Board Rip LCD writing tablet

The newest Boogie Board Rip LCD writing tablet from Kent Displays is the first one that can save your notes and sketches. With the introduction of this new model, the firm now offers a comprehensive line of “eWriters” that are viable, paperless alternatives to other media. Unlike Windows-based tablet PC rentals, however, the Boogie Boards do not convert handwriting to text, but save everything as high-resolution PDF files. The addition of handwriting recognition in the future will make the Boogie Boards even more valuable than they already are.

A beast of a bag

The Bheestie Bag (pronounced “beastie”) is a welcome solution to a very common problem – wet mobile devices. Surely you – okay, someone you know – must have dropped a phone or mp3 player in the sink, toilet or pool. The Bheestie Bag is made to save that electronic gizmo by pulling the moisture out. Unzip the Bheestie Bag and place the drenched device in it, and the special beads do their work.

The company tested the bag (so you don’t have to) with phones and other handheld devices like our digital recorder rentals. The product dimensions are not given, but the testimonials include success stories with cameras, and the bag appears large enough for small tablets with 7″ screens, too. For about $20, it seems like good insurance.

USB chargers for iPod, iPhone and iPad

It’s always smart to have extra chargers for your mobile devices, and two  new products worth a look: the InCharge Home USB and the Energizer USB Charger. They both have 10 watts of power, both are designed for the same types of devices and both solve another common problem – staying “powered up” on the go. Whether it’s your smart phone or an iPad rental, you’re covered.

The InCharge model’s thin wall plug has flip-out prongs, making it easy to share wall outlets. (The Energizer’s plug is similar but somewhat thicker.) If you’re a seasoned techie traveling with a MacBook Pro, you can recharge many devices from its USB ports. But millions of people don’t travel with a laptop, so the InCharge and Energizer products are real problem-solvers. The InCharge costs a bit more than the Energizer, but both are affordable if you shop wisely.

At CRE, we know value, just as we know technology, and that’s why we are the premier source for convention, trade show, audio-visual, computer and post-production solutions. From mass storage to Audience Response Systems (ARS), out expert Account Executives can help you achieve your goal, too. One call or e-mail, or a few clicks on our Quick Rental Quote form, and you are ready to roll!

New, smaller “targets”

On the creation side, mobile tech changed entertainment production and post-production by bringing additional target devices to the broadcast/distribution mix. Instead of preparing final output for just movie screens, TV or color print jobs, production pros now have smart phones, tablets, game consoles and  iPad rental to consider. People are consuming content by the cyberbushel these days on all these devices.

The pros that produce all this content are doing so in new, decentralized ways because that same mobile tech keeps them plugged in to their production cycles from afar. The main challenge for content creators is preparing the vast majority of media that is going to be broadcast via live streaming. Apple, among many other firms, knows that the future of broadcast is the Internet, and has crafted super-potent hardware like the Mac Pro and flexible software like Final Cut to take us there. In the field of mobile tech, continuing education is not optional.

Enabling technologies

Already a media pro favorite, the iPad has over a dozen apps for remote control of a computer. Other mobile tech advances enable post pros to control their computers remotely via smart phones, Android tablets or a MacBook Pro, as well. And there are plenty of other mobile tech tools that empower the “virtual team” model – audio- and/or video-conferencing, e-mail, instant messaging and collaborative work environments (think Google Docs or iCloud) where project information and documentation can be shared.

Creative work can be done on a PC desktop computer rental in L.A. and integrated into workflows in India, Ireland or Italy, if need be, but when personal contact is required, many teams use video for virtual meetings. Both in-house solutions and “pre-fab” conference websites like LiveMeeting are critical for teams distributed across cities, states and nations. All major operating systems (OS) and environments that connect to the Internet will support this kind of collaboration, so Mac OSX, iOS 5, Android 3.0, Windows 7 and Linux users are all welcome to team up, virtually speaking.

Bottom line

Of course, it bears repeating that managing production and post-production does not depend on what kind of smart phone apps you have, or whether you’re working on a PC or an iMac. It comes down to planning, execution and oversight, all of which depend on good communication. Good communication is good management, all other things being equal.

Mobile tech has changed production in the entertainment industry, it’s true, but there’s another old saying about change that you should remember: The more things change, the more they stay the same. This applies to CRE, because no matter how far technology advances, you can count on us to be right on the leading edge. A call or e-mail is all it takes to get an experienced Account Executive on the job for you, or you can use the Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need. Whatever the challenge, CRE is here to empower you.

What’s New: The best additions to iOS 5 are iMessage, iCloud support, native Twitter, enhanced Camera features and “multitasking gestures” for iPad 2. Android 3.1 rolled out the new “refined” UI (User Interface), a Recent Apps list, customizable Home screen and improved browsing.

Battery Life: This depends on your hardware, and there are many different Android tablets. You can rent laptops with battery time up to five or six hours, but tablet batteries last longer (up to 10 hours). In limited tests, iOS devices seemed to have slightly shorter battery life than Android models.

Browser support: Web surfing on a iMac rental is no different (except for screen size) than on an iOS device. Safari Reader now displays web articles without ads for offline reading. Android 3.1 also improved browsing, but has been weaker in this area.

User Interface (UI): Apple’s UIs changed the world. OS X Lion (10.7) is fabulous on a Mac Pro rental, while iOS 5 is also efficient and elegant. Google’s primary goal with Android 3.1 was refining the look, but it’s still a work in progress.

Third-Party Support: Android is open source software, based on Linux, which means more opportunities for more developers to improve it over time. Apple’s iOS 5 platform is not open source, and developers need to register with Apple and jump through the many hoops keeping Apple’s “ecosystem” in order. Of course, many of these hoops are actually quality control steps, which is why iOS apps meet a higher standard.

Apps & Games Availability: Apple’s App Store has over 300,000 apps – utilities, games, networking, social media, productivity, etc. – while there are some 100,000 in the Android Market.

Flash Support: Flash support used to be a big advantage for Android. The new iOS 5 provides full Flash support (for you tech-heads, it is done by “on-the-fly transcoding”). Flash apps are still not usable, but Flash video is now viewable, a welcome addition for iPad rental users, but an original feature of Android.

Conclusion: It’s silly to condescend to either Apple iOS 5 or Android 3.1. Both have new features making them even more efficient, reliable and robust. There is tough competition ahead between Android 3.1 and Apple iOS 5, as new products are introduced to make maximum use of their advanced features. We will keep you posted.

CRE’s high-tech rentals solve production bottlenecks, while our expert event production services empower you at trade shows and conferences. One call or e-mail (or a few clicks on our Quick Rental Quote page) puts an experienced Account Executive on the job for you right now!

• Announced at Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference 2011 in June and fully previewed at the October 4th event.
• Release date, via iTunes 10.5 download, is October 12th.
• Numbers: 200 million iOS devices sold.
• Compatibility includes the new iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and 3GS; both iPad models; and the iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation models.
• The OS now updates wirelessly, and you’ll just get what’s new or changed instead of a huge 600MB download.
• Devices can now be activated without plugging them into a computer.
• You can now create and delete iOS calendars and mailboxes.

And don’t forget iCloud! You will simply enter your Apple ID and password to keep all of your mail, calendars, contacts, apps and media updated across your various devices – without ever connecting to a computer. On the flip side, you can access iCloud and interact with iOS devices whether you use a Macintosh or a PC desktop computer rentals.

New features on iOS 5

The new iMessage is like text messaging or BlackBerry BBM and is available to all iOS users. With an iPad rental you can now send text, pictures, videos or contact info, over both Wi-Fi and 3G.

The Notification Center aggregates all your Notifications so you can access them with a simple swipe down from the top of the screen.

The Newsstand is another aggregator, for your newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

Twitter support is now native. Sign in once through the Settings menu and any app can be integrated with Twitter. It is fully integrated with the Camera and Photo apps, too.

Safari’s new Reading Mode provides a single, scrolling story with no ads. Other new features include tabbed browsing and a Reading List option to save articles for later. Some folks still don’t know that Safari also works with Windows on tablet PC rentals and other PCs.

The Reminders feature lets you store Lists, assign reminders to any date(s) and save location-specific data, all syncing across devices (and via iCal).

The Camera has a new button on the lock screen, and you can also use the volume button to take pictures. Basic photo editing software (cropping and general enhancements) is now included.

The Mail app now features draggable addresses, flaggable/searchable messages, rich text formatting, a built-in dictionary and, on the iPad, a split keyboard.

CRE is your source for high-tech solutions, whether you need render farms for production or audio visual (A/V) equipment rentals for a company event. One call or e-mail (or a trip to the Quick Rental Quote page) will put an expert Account Executive at your service!

Watch for an upcoming blog, iOS 5 vs. Android, feature by feature, to be posted on October 18th.

Google presents the biggest challenge to Apple in the smart phone and tablet sectors, courtesy of its Android OS. Despite the obvious similarity of many Android and iOS apps, features and capabilities, people choose one over the other for a variety of reasons. There is no objective way to determine which OS is “the best,” but this intro to Android may spur you to investigate more fully which is best for you.

Android overview

You’re not going to rent laptops from CRE and find Android on them, but you will find it on the majority of smart phones that are not Apples or Blackberries. After some early bumps in the road, things settled down with version 2.0, nicknamed Gingerbread. Google has polished this version three times (it’s presently at 2.3), improving the soft keyboard, adding copy/paste, beefing up gaming performance and including support for VoIP and Near Field Communication.

You won’t find Android running any PC desktop computer rental, either, although low-end, small-screen “netbooks” and tablets use versions as old as 1.6. The newest Android version for phones is 2.3, but Google was smart enough to see the future of multiple mobile devices. Version 3.0, Honeycomb, the first tablet-enabled release, supports larger screens, multicore processors and graphics acceleration. In February 2011, Motorola debuted its Xoom with Honeycomb 3.0 tablet, a failed competitor to the iPad rental.

Future of Android

Honeycomb versions 3.1 and 3.2 followed quickly in May and June – adding USB transfer, solving a problem with 7-inch-screens and allowing media files to load directly from SD cards – but the development path is a bit cloudy at present. Some Google partners are hinting that Honeycomb 3.3 is in the works, while Google keeps talking up its “hybrid” OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. This is the long-awaited “Android for all” that will power all sizes and types of devices, from tablet PC rentals to in-car entertainment systems.

Finally, the Android Market claims “200,000″ items, but Apple’s App Store has more (and better) products – for now, anyway. Google recently introduced its Google+ service, but has inexplicably let its “other OS,” Chrome, languish for over a year. It may be that some kind of consolidation of all these products is in order. We’ll keep tabs on that for you.

Call or e-mail an experienced Account Executive for everything from high-end post-production gear to trade show convention rentals. Already know what you need? Use the Quick Rental Quote form right now!

• “CEO of the Decade” by Fortune magazine,
• “Best-Performing CEO in the World” by the Harvard Business Review,
• “Person of the Decade” by the Wall Street Journal and
• man behind the “Brand of the Decade” by Adweek.

This person is Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday,  October 5, 2011 at his Northern California home.

Remaking industries

You can get the whole Apple history elsewhere if you don’t know it already; we are focusing on the astonishing events of the last decade, as Jobs and Apple remade entire industries. Music and entertainment have been revolutionized by iTunes, and personal communications by the iPhone. Meanwhile, computers like MacBook Pro have been at the forefront of advances in mobile computing.

The decade of the 2000′s started with the revolutionary Bondi Blue iMac and futuristic OS X, and ended with a mature, industry-leading iPhone and Apple’s insanely great tablet – the iPad. It was January 2001 when Jobs announced his “digital hub” strategy. The analog era – with its records, cassette tapes and chemically-treated film – was at an end. The world and everything in it would “go digital,” with distribution over an ever-faster Internet.

Only (and always) “the best”

Always at the center of Jobs’ strategy and Apple’s approach would be the best hardware, the best software, the best OS, the best service and the best user experience. The proof of their success is discovered by every CRE customer that rents a Mac Pro or Apple laptops. And as a leader in iMac rentals and other Apple gear – as well as the specialized peripherals needed for digital media, like Ethernet disk RAID – CRE has adopted the same approach of offering “the best”.

The Future…

Steve Jobs has had a powerful effect on the world’s future and his legacy remains with the amazingly successful company he has left behind. Apple will continue to lead the technology industry with “out of the box” thinking and innovation … a tribute to the man that started it all – Steve Jobs.

Our sincerest sympathies to his family and friends.

As opposed to the government-delimited radio/TV spectrum, the Internet has enough bandwidth to accommodate plenty of webcasters. While today’s biggest ones are major media operations that “simulcast” their content, the most exciting thing about webcasting for businesspeople, especially marketing pros, is how easy, inexpensive and effective it can be.

A “Must-Have” Technology

Businesses have gleefully adopted the new technologies of the Internet Era as they have appeared. When the graphical layer of the Internet we call “the World Wide Web” launched in the early 1990s, having a website soon became a must. A series of other must-have technologies followed and, in fact, today’s iPad rentals are one of the most-wanted must-haves ever.

Right now, though, webcasting/simulcasting is the latest “big thing.” Webcasting is already being used quite extensively in firms large and small for presentations, annual meetings, e-learning (class simulcasts and “webinars”) and other communications activities. With potent CRE computer rentals for the media and webcasting duties – and everything from microphones to mixers to capture the “sights and sounds” of the event, courtesy of our audio visual rentals – we’ve got you covered.

Marketing Benefits

Simulcasting adds viewers around the world at very low cost. If you use CRE for your convention rentals, and plan to do a breakout session, we can help you simulcast it over the Internet. Major convention keynote speeches – and events like Sting’s upcoming appearance at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 – have been simulcast for several years now, but costs are now low enough for everyone.

The webcasting experience of Cisco, a major technology leader, is instructive. Adding webcasting to its annual event in 2009 was “a big risk,” or so the execs thought. The result? There were 10,000 at the live event, and another 5,000 remote attendees, over half of whom were first-timers. Better yet, between a quarter and a third of those remote attendees attended the annual event in later years. Cisco’s experience changed the way this already-successful company did business.

With live audiences, you can use CRE’s Audience Response System rentals to elicit real-time feedback. With a webcast, you have free reign to make it as interactive and collaborative as you want. The options are as numerous as the opportunities in this exciting era of “broadcast democratization,” and CRE can help you every step of the way. Call or e-mail an Account Executive, or use the Quick Rental Quote form, and get your show on the road – and simulcast it, too!

6. Android 4. Technoids are looking forward to the Samsung Nexus, and not because of the phone – it will be the first smart phone to run Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4. (Android 3 was called Honeycomb. Go figure.) Although Apple holds the lead in smart phones and tablets with its iOS-powered devices, Android is a solid alternative in both product categories, and new ones like embedded systems.

7. Branded tablets. Following the successful Kindle 3, Amazon is revising its approach to branding and product development. There has been talk of a touchscreen version, and the rumor mill now suggest that Amazon will release two different Android tablets in 2012. Aggressive pricing is a given, as is the entry into the tablet market of innumerable other companies.

8. Hybrid hard drives. Solid State Drives (SSDs) are fast, but expensive. Rotating-platter hard drives are inexpensive and offer huge storage capacities, but can’t keep up with CPU and system bus speeds. Until SSD prices come down with time, hybrid drives will combine fast-booting SSDs with big conventional drives to speed things up a bit. For swift, large- scale storage today you can rely on Ethernet disk RAID rentals, but tomorrow’s technology will encompass a variety of drive types and configurations.

9. Multi-touch commands. The futuristic trackpads on the  new MacBook Pro rentals and Apple’s Magic Trackpad, introduced multi-touch commands to modern computing. Other manufacturers’ laptops, tablets and digitizing pads are moving the same direction, as the touch interface is natural for humans. As the screen costs continuing dropping, you will find touch commands on everything from vending machines to refrigerators.

10. Wireless everything. We had a blog with that title last November, which is ages ago in “tech time.” Suffice it to say that we really mean everything this time. You’ve seen the WiFi all-in-one office devices, right? HP was a trailblazer, but WiFi printing and scanning is old hat now, especially compared to the astonishing new “EyeFi” SecureDigital cards. They’re so astonishing, in fact, that they made our “Gadget Fun for August” blog last week. Pay attention, in particular, to advances in wireless power and charging stations.

CRE pays close attention to tech trends, as well as what its customers need. With great service to complement the expertise of our Account Executives, your call or e-mail will get you the right answers, right now. If you know what you need, of course, our Quick Rental Quote form will get you in, out and on your way.