Tech Trends | At Home with Tech

July 22, 2012

The Joy of Shopping at Midnight in your Underwear

This is one need an online purchase may not satisfy. But there is plenty else to choose from after your mad dash to the 24/7 convenience store.

If a short man and a tall woman in dark suits and sunglasses walked up to you, displayed their IDs, and declared your smart phone was about to be repossessed by a secret government agency, you’d be pretty annoyed, right?

How would you survive?
Without your contacts.
Without phone numbers hard wired to your memory.
No apps. No web access. No music.
When was the last time you even used a pay phone?

But you’d get by. Somehow.
It wasn’t so long ago when smart phones didn’t exist and basic cell phones were making history at the magical rate of $1.99/minute.
(No one ever thought that was a good deal.)

The same story goes for your home computer.
Imagine some sort of futuristic “Free Your Home from the Web” initiative.
(It could happen!)
Without your main computing tool, you’d be limited, but not dead in the water. There’s always your mobile device, your work computer, or even the library (in 30 minute increments). You’d find your way back to Facebook. Don’t worry.

BuyEverythingOnline.com
But what’s up with online shopping?

Once upon a time, I would get in my car and go shopping for the consumer goods I require to live my life as a red blooded American, happily engaged in our great capitalist economy.

Then online shopping was born, and I remember feeling unimpressed. Surely you still needed to go out there to hunt and gather to make sure you got what you wanted. How would you return an item if there was something wrong? The experience would have to be fraught with limitations and problems. Plus, you had to wait days to receive what you needed right now. And how many books could you possibly buy on Amazon?

Wow. There’s been quite the shopping shift over the past few years.
Today, this new shopping behavior has fused itself onto my brainstem.
It’s become an essential tool I simply cannot do without.
And I’m not alone.

So why has shopping online become so much more than another convenience?

$$$
It’s about money, of course.
Online shopping usually costs less.

For an online merchant, it’s the simple economics behind not having to pay for a brick and mortar store and salespeople.

Your local low-priced Walmart down the street isn’t closing any time soon, but your purchasing behaviors are shifting big time.

Hold the Sales Tax
And it doesn’t hurt that you usually don’t get charged state sales tax, unless the online retailer has a store in the state where you live.

You should know your tax free shopping spree may not last forever.
There’s an Internet sales tax bill in Congress that would close this loophole.
It’s called The Marketplace Fairness Act, and it’s picking up steam.

If passed, it surely will help out brick and mortar retail stores.
But it won’t cure their problem that they’ll never be the only game in town again.

Showrooming
Pop quiz- In the past year, how many of you have walked into a retail store, found what you were looking for, and then walked out and bought it online for less?

Exactly. It’s known as showrooming, a term that popped up when bookstores began losing business to Amazon.

Some stores with growing web sales and reduced foot traffic are rolling with the punches and transforming their physical locations into pick-up and return centers for their online cousins. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

Tick Tock
But for me, the X-factor (not the TV show) is time, and not having enough of it.

Who’s got time to waste traveling to the mall, hoping they’ll have what you need and then waiting in a long line? That’s an hour or ninety minute commitment. Easily.

Plus, our jobs are increasingly reaching out to us 24/7 and hijacking our nights and weekends. We’re always a BlackBerry email or cell phone call away. You’re never really off the clock.

So why not just take five minutes at midnight after answering a work email and quickly click on what you need?

Yes, I understand that sometimes you have to get out there and kick the tires (showrooming or not). But for repeat purchases, to keep the staples in the cupboard, I’m happily clicking away after dinner to handle the week’s shopping needs.

That said, every online shopping experience isn’t perfect…

Out of Toilet Paper?
Sometimes you just can’t wait.
And normally, who wants to be lollygagging for days for UPS to arrive? Don’t you want it right away? That’s what used to happen when you bought something.

But waiting for days?!
Yes, this is a counter intuitive shift in our age of uber convenient digital shopping.
But unless you’re out of toilet paper, Advil, or contraceptives, you really don’t have to have it immediately.
Do you?

Shipping Costs
That’s another problem.
I’ve been to the post office. I know how much it costs to mail a package.
It doesn’t cost $17.99 to ship a toothbrush. Nor should it cost $8 to ship a $3 light bulb (or a $14 LED bulb). I think some of these shipping costs are just padding to the profit margin. For me this is the single biggest deterrent to doing a deal online.

But if you’re smart, you can avoid this trap and get your booty shipped for free (mostly).

Many websites have free shipping with minimum purchases.
And of course, there’s Amazon Prime, which gives you free two-day shipping.
(Yes that program costs you $79 year, but it’s well worth it if you’re using Amazon frequently.)

The Shopping List
I know, I know. You can’t buy everything online and have it shipped to your doorstep. That said, here are some of my favorite websites that help me keep the wheels turning in the Lester household:

Technology that’s not an Apple product

bhphotovideo.com
Amazon

Apple products

D’uh

Best coffee I’ve ever had

counterculturecoffee.com

Supplies and toys for my toddler

diapers.com
ecomom.com
yoyo.com (Check the pricing. Sometimes it’s too high.)
onestepahead.com
and of course, Amazon

Clothing for the boy

oldnavy.com

Summer clothes with advanced sun protection for the family

coolibar.com

Cool jewelry for my wife

sundancecatelog.com

Great prices on photo paper

epson.com

House cleaning supplies

soap.com
And yes, Amazon

Perishable food is a whole different story, and I know there are several places you can go online such as peapod.com to order food and have it delivered for an extra delivery charge. I haven’t done a lot of that yet.

The one item I can’t find online, but would immediately pay extra for shipping or delivery is Trader Joe’s Chunky Unsweetened Applesauce.
(Rules are meant to be broken sometimes.)
It’s very yummy.

So where are some of your favorite online shopping hangouts?
Please add to the list!

3 Comments

July 15, 2012

Singing the Blu-ray Blues

Are you still on the Blu-ray Disk bandwagon, or have you moved on? I’ve got five reasons to stick around.

Not so long ago, I was the proud owner of a new Samsung Blu-ray Disk player. I immediately repurchased a few of my favorite sc-fi blockbusters and marveled at the magnificent imagery of this HD-enabling device.

My home entertainment center was worthy, again.
(Is that a tear welling up in the corner of my eye?)
I looked ahead to the gleaming age of HD video with Blu-ray Disks for my 42” Panasonic Plasma TV.

Fast forward to the present.

The Distant Honeymoon
What the frak happened?!
HD video is so yesterday. Now, it’s 3D that’s the bomb.

Yes, Blu-ray Disk sales are still strong.
In fact, 2011 was a banner year with sales up 20%. But digital delivery rose 51% over the same period.

Don’t look now, Blu-ray, but your days on top may be numbered.
Is it just a matter of time until HD streaming technologies take the lead?

So where does this leave you and me?
Again with confusion.
Time to abandon Blu-ray? I hardly knew you.

All I know is my movie collection is a train wreck.

The Costs of Beauty
Blu-ray tech shows off a stunning picture. So I’ve pledged to never go back and buy a standard DVD ever again. That would be sacrilege!

But the premium pricing of Blu-ray Disks never came down that much from their original sticker shock levels. Plunking down $20-$30 to watch a movie in today’s enlightened media landscape is somewhat extravagant. No?

Here’s the current pricing for few new Blu-ray disk titles at Best Buy-
Wrath of the Titans- $19.99
Mirror Mirror- $29.99
The Artist- $24.99
Safe House- $24.99

Where’s the value proposition? (more on this later)

And can I mention how annoying it is to wait for a Blu-ray Disk to load?
(It takes like, FOREVER!)

So, needless to say, my Blu-ray Disk collection has not flourished.

Smarty Pants Strategy Implodes
Of course, I’ve been ordering all my Netflix red envelope movies to arrive wearing Blu-ray stripes.

That strategy quickly became a problem a couple years back when my home theater started growing cobwebs. Remember, I am a proud parent of a toddler.
And that prompted most of my media consumption to go mobile when
I became a mobile media warrior on Metro North.
So now what?

Well I thought I would be very clever. So I jumped down the rabbit hole.
(way down)
I bought myself Panasonic’s prototype portable 9” Blu-ray player and almost broke the bank. (Don’t tell my wife.)

You might ask who in their right mind would spend big money on a tiny screen for watching HD video with a platform that moved at the speed of glue?

I think there were three of us.
(But I got a great deal on Amazon.)

You must understand I had no other choice, right?
I had over-technoligized myself into a corner.
How was I otherwise going to watch my precious movies?
(And remember, as a new parent, going to the flicks the old fashioned way was a distant memory.)

I really got the Blu-ray Blues.

Dead Disk Walking?
Look, the facts don’t lie.
Let me add to the weight and throw a few more rocks onto the future of Blu-ray tech.

Apple never put the darn drives into their computers.
I’ve already got HD streaming via Apple TV and Roku.
Standard DVDs really aren’t that bad. (Please don’t stone me.)

So why not just chuck Blu-ray and move to a higher plane with all streaming?
Well, it turns out there is actually something to the Blu-ray value prop.

Five Reasons to Stick with Blu-ray Disks

-The Downloadable Copy
One big reason I will buy a Blu-ray Disk is if it comes with the digital version.
If you shop smart, you’ll often find a version packaged with a digital copy you can pop right on your mobile phone. Nice.

-The Extras Come with Extra Extras
I know this has marketing ooze all over it, but it works.
They simply pack the Blu-ray Disk extras with more goodness. For example, I wouldn’t know the correct Star Trek movie (2009) plot without having gone through all the deleted scenes. Fascinating. (I had to enlighten a friend who had only bought the standard DVD version.)

-DVD Player, Say Hello to VHS Player in the Attic
It’s over, baby. Thanks for the memories. You can hang around a while longer, but please leave the keys on the way out.

-3D
I’ve said I would never wear those silly glasses at home, if I don’t lose them first. Time will tell…

-I Prefer Owning Atoms instead of Bytes
I’m still stuck on the idea of having a physical object to put on my shelf.
I know. It’s an analog vestige I’ll grow out of some day.

Fold or Hold?
So where does all this leave us in the HD game?
Though this feels like another tech poker tournament, the reality is Blu-Ray Disks aren’t joining their HD DVD cousins and Betamax ancestors any time soon.

Cheer up.
While you’ve got your Blu-ray Blues, at least you’ll be viewing them in the full color spectrum of awesome high definition.

Joy?

July 1, 2012

Remembering MobileMe

Can we have a moment of silence, please? Okay, now why doesn’t my email work anymore?

This morning I woke up to the cold fact that MobileMe had finally expired.

I’ve been going through the seven stages of grief, because for the past year I knew this day was coming.

Lots of worrying about it for months.
And not doing anything about it since last summer. (Yes, I was in denial.)

My digital life was healthy just the way it was. I had no reason to change.

And for those who have been following my ongoing crisis, you can finally relax.
My family’s computing affairs are in order.

I’ve prepared four family computers for three family members, crossing two generations. I’ve taken down all our MobileMe photo and movie galleries. Not that I had to pull the plug myself, but I didn’t want any of my terminal MobileMe files accidentally locked away in some faraway data prison.

Supposedly deleted back in 2012, but then somehow found and released to the galactic Facebook Federation in 2212. Don’t want my family beach vacation photos to become an exhibit at the Guggenheim 2 on Mars.

All Quiet on the Computer Front?
So after a couple weeks of deleting with purpose, (nothing like a deadline to get you motivated) I erased my final MobileMe media gallery.
With just hours to spare.

Last night, iCloud was hovering over the Lester household and prepared to take over.

But my eyes popped open this morning, and I immediately felt a disturbance in the Force.

I sat down with my cup of Joe in its perfectly balanced coffee mug and checked my email on my iMac using my old Entourage email program.
(Yes, I’m intending to upgrade to Outlook with Office for Mac 2011, but I’ve been a little busy lately trying to beat the iCloud storm in a Prometheus-inspired hurry. Please cut me some slack.)

Instead of hearing the familiar PING of a happily received email, a message popped up on my screen.
“ERROR.”

What?!
It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Don’t panic,” I told myself as I began looking for a paper bag.
Maybe iCloud simply requires different email preferences in Entourage.

So I checked out Apple’s page on iCloud’s Mail Server tips.
It revealed a slightly different IMAP name than the one I was using for the incoming mail server.

I updated the field with imap.mail.me.com and pressed ENTER.

Immediately something started to happen.
A new message popped up that said,
“EMPTYING CACHE.”
And a number started counting upwards to reflect each of my emails.

This can’t be good.
The little progress bar proceeded quickly.
And when it was all done updating…

ALL MY EMAILS HAD DISAPPEARED.
Brilliant.

But I didn’t panic, because I knew they also now existed in my iCloud account.
(joy)
((really small joy))

I just had to figure out a way to get my email back into Entourage.
So I looked a little closer at the Apple article.

I came across this-
SSL Required: Yes
And Port: 993

My Entourage preferences didn’t have SSL checked and was using Port 143.
(Don’t worry. I don’t know what this really means either.)

So I made the adjustments…
And just as fast as my communications purge began, I was quickly back in business.

Email restored.
Disaster averted.

I looked at my half empty cup of coffee and reflected on the past fifteen minutes.
I didn’t know how to feel.
Relieved? Victorious? Clever? Lucky?

Yes, I had just made it through the slow moving hurricane of a technological seachange, and I still had all my clothes on.

And yes, I dodged a last minute bullet that could have really ruined my Sunday.

Time to celebrate? Not really.
I actually felt rather drained.

Black Eye? You Should See the other Guy.
I am not bristling with accomplishment at my herculean digital spring-cleaning and my unexpected Entourage curve-ball dodge.

I am tired and cranky.
And a little sad and angry, too.

Sad that my friend MobileMe is gone.

Angry that I’ve had to start all over again and find other digital choices to share my life online.

Yes, I’ve already got perfectly good solutions lined up like Flickr, Vimeo, and Dropbox, but I’m still feeling like a ‘pissy poo.’ (Toddler talk creeping into the vocab. Need to watch out for that at work.)

I’ve run a hard race and crossed the finish line just in time to avoid elimination.
And I’ve got nothing to show for it other than a crappy T-shirt that says everything on my computer still works.

Stiff Headwinds
And that’s a problem with technology. It keeps moving forward, even when you don’t want to.

Last week, Facebook changed everyone’s default email addresses on their accounts to a newly-created Facebook email.
I was happy with my old email address, thank you very much.

And as for hardware, forget-about-it.
Today, you’re lucky to hold onto any kind of computer gear for more than three years before numerous software upgrades render it obsolete. (iPad 1 anyone?)

It’s always great to try the next best thing, but then you can’t settle down and get comfortable.

Like it or not, you’ve got to keep up if you’ve decided to play in the digital sandbox.

If next year someone told you that the English language was being rewritten, and replaced with something better, you’d be pretty cross, wouldn’t you?

And then you’d learn English 2.0.
(But not before screaming in potty mouth 3.0.)

Computer technologies are the de facto tools to help you define who you are in today’s 21st century world. They can represent your voice more than your spoken words.

And the more you use them, the more you rely on their smooth functionality.

The Kool Aid is so Refreshing
Is my life better with iCloud?
Today, my address book and calendar on my computer still sync with my iPhone.
But I had that yesterday.

Look, I know that technology offers us huge steps forward on a regular basis.
I’m just cranky that these transitions require so much effort…

The actual iCloud data transfer was a snap. Kudos to Apple.
It was all the necessary prep (OS upgrades/media deleting) that was such a headache.

And I don’t think this is about being a Transitional. This dynamic has got to cut across all the generations…

Cupertino, We have a Problem…
I think the truth is new technology is never as easy to use as the public wants to believe.

Sure Apple makes it easy as long as you’re using one of their new devices.
Google is magic as long as the search results you need show up on the first page.
Facebook brings the world together until it annoys millions with their newest interface tweak.

The marketing gurus have convinced us it’s all so easy even a child can do it.
More and more today, you’d better have a child around to show you how.

iCloud Forever?
My story today is a cautionary tale.

So keep these words of wisdom in mind-
(Movie advice can be very soothing.)

“Everything that has a beginning has an end.”
“You’re your problem, and you’re also your solution.”
“Wax on. Wax off.”

More importantly,
Don’t listen to the marketing sirens out there.
It’s not always a snap.

Life isn’t easy. Why should your virtual life be any different?
Just don’t take technology for granted, and at least it won’t make things worse.

Sometimes your favorite hang out shuts down.
Mourn and move on. That’s life too.

Goodbye, MobileMe.
I really enjoyed our time together.
(sigh)

Think I’ll go have a sandwich now.

2 Comments

Category: Tech Trends

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