As a professional, I pride myself and providing the best information I can to each and every client.  I try to go the extra mile to make sure they have the best service possibly for their money.  But when they blatantly ignore my advise and purchase items that will not work for their needs, it gets aggravating.  It makes me feel like that my professional opinion doesn’t matter to them.  In the case of buying a Coby Kyros Mini tablet to operate business functions, all I can do is hand it to the client and remind them of my advice.  The client is looking for a tablet that can support the functions of Square.com to process credit cards.  Needless to say, this one isn’t going to work for them.

The Coby Kyros mini tablet using the 4.3-inch display is an Internet device.  It was never really intended to be much more than that.  It’s low price tag spawned from a lack of power makes it an attractive gift.  But with larger and more feature rich devices on the market, does this tablet really warrant much attention?  For those who just want a small device to browse the Internet and possible a few apps, it could be well worth the $50 at Walmart.

Display:
The 4.3-inch display of the Coby Kyros Mini supports a 480 x 272 pixel resolution.  This is actually quite a deficit if you come across websites that aren’t tailored to such mobile devices.  When I tried to do some simple browsing, it was next to impossible to read some of the fonts on those websites.  Needless to say, I wasn’t very impressed.  However, it’s going to be difficult to impress someone who uses high resolutions on every device he owns.

CPU and Memory:
The Cortex A8 1-ghz processor drives the Coby Kyros Mini backed with 512MB of memory.  For a small device that is primarily used for browsing the Internet, this miniature tablet has more than enough power to provide a decent online experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Since around December, so-called experts have been speculating on when the new arrivals from Apple would be adorning the shelves.  Many of them had there dials pointed at March, which has come and gone without a single product.  Personally, I don’t think the iPad 5 will be in circulation until October-ish.  It seems like Apple likes to finish out the Fiscal year strong.

As for the iPad Mini 2?  I hope it has more firepower than the last one.  The poor attempt to wow the masses fell short when the hardware loaded into the iPad Mini was nothing short of disappointing.  Like we mentioned in a previous article, there was more power in the older Acer Iconia than in the iPad Mini.  Not to mention that it fell short against the stats for the Nexus 7.

iPad 3 w/Retina – iPad 4 looks identical

Personally, I hate rumors and don’t put much stock in them when they float around.  However, there is an article I read about some of the iPad Mini 2′s features including a vastly improved resolution and processor.  With the Tegra 4 unveiling a few months ago, it better.  According to an article at ExtremeTech.com, the resolutions will be running at 2048×1536 with 326 ppi.  That’s pretty impressive for the just-under-eight-inch device.

I was truly not impressed with the first iPad Mini, and not because I have a bias against Apple – which I am trying to work on since I have a “table” website.  The technology just wasn’t there compared to existing and older tablets.  It felt like Apple was just throwing spare parts into a package and selling it to the masses hoping to make a buck because it had the Apple logo on it.  Technology that is more then six months old had more power than this brand new device that hit the shelves.  Personally, I was offended by Apple’s attempt to quell the arguments of the 7-inch tablet audience who simply can’t afford $500-$700 for a device.

Lately, Apple hasn’t been impressing much of anyone.  Their stock sank by $200 per share recently, the iPad 4 was nothing more than a processor and storage upgrade, and the iPhone 5s are not seeing as much traction as the iPhone 4s had.  In the same article mentioned above, the author speculated how iDevices may have hit their peak.  I’m not entirely sure that is 100% accurate.  Or, at least not directly.

Since January of 2012, Android devices have steadily grown as a predominant operating system on the Internet.  According to StatCounter.com, Android mobile devices make up 37.23% of the mobile devices used on the Internet world-wide while iOS on takes 27.14%.  Although iOS saw a jump between December 2012 and January 2013, it still isn’t enough.  As Android’s market has been growing steadily, Apple was stagnant prior to December.  Could the reason behind Apple’s drop in stock be due to the fact that more people are switching to Android from other mobile operating systems?  We won’t even mention the damage Symbian and Blackberry have witnessed.

We will see what 2013 brings for Apple – however they better step up their game before they wind up becoming the next Blackberry – an awesome device that everyone wanted until something better came along.  It happened once with their computer systems and it could happen again.  Without Steve Jobs at the helm (RiP), it could be a sign of disastrous times ahead.

Google Calendar, for those who need a system of synchronization across devices. (tweet this)

For those who are new to the world of mobile technologies, there are plenty of apps available on your devices that are very efficient ways to keep your life connected.  Your Google account information is more than just a way to log into Google+, Gmail, or YouTube.  It is a way that allows all of your tools to become synchronized along every one of the devices you use regularly.

Google Calendar is one such free tool that can amaze the beginner user.  Using your desktop computer, you can log into Google Calendar, enter an event such as a day of golfing and save.  Once that is done, the event is instantly synchronized with any of your Android devices that are registered to your account.  On your smartphone or tablet, simply open the Calendar app and viola…event tracking through your calender.  There is even support for synchronizing this information with your iOS devices.

So far, I have yet to see an Android device that didn’t come pre-loaded with the app.  It is safe to assume that any of your Android devices will have this and others such as Google+ as default installations.  If you don’t have this app installed, you can download it here from Google Play.

One of the coolest aspects I geek out about Google Calendar is the slowly moving red line that progresses down the day in real-time.  Essentially this red line will tell you what time of the day it is and how much longer you have until the next event.  What can I say…I am easy to please most of the time.

Google Calendar from Google Play

From a business perspective, the Calendar itself can be used to share information publicly.  This is a great method for detailing upcoming social events and possible release dates of goods or services to anyone who follows you.  These can also be submitted for local search results and could possibly assist in furthering your optimization efforts.

Sharing your calendar information is as easy as adding in someone’s email address.  From there, you can set his or her permissions in order to allow them specific rights to the calendar such as read only or direct manipulation of the calendar itself.  This is great for teams who need to share information about upcoming events and such.

Google Calendar is just one of the many tools that the search result super giant gives away for free to those who want to use them.  By discovering what these apps can do, you can increase efficiency within your life and your business.  The possibilities are near endless as long as you take the time in discovering what you have available to yourself.