Tag: Apple

gadgets, Rumors, tech

New iPads with FaceTime – it’s about time

Josyan McGregor

As with most of the critics, I too was disappointed with the iPad’s lack of a camera.

This rumor (from MacRumors) might change that.  The addition of the FaceTime on a second generation iPad, which is currently available only on the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod Touch, would certainly increase its user base.  More devices with FaceTime equals better adoption overall of the feature.

branding, gadgets

The mic is OFF!

Josyan McGregor

Don’t get me wrong… it’s a wonderful ad but did ya notice the mic is OFF throughout the entire ad!

Now I have to check if they are all like that!

UPDATE: They are! Take a look at this TechCrunch article.  Am I not understanding the pictogram? It means the mic is off right?


branding, gadgets, tech

All will be revealed on January 27

Josyan McGregor

It’s finally official – January 27, 2010 will be THE day that Apple announces it’s latest creation at a special event in San Francisco.

Am I Curious? Hell YES!

I predict a new iPhone OS 4.0, iLife ’10 and integration of all those components in this “newest creation”.

What do you think it will be called?  iSlate? Macbook Tablet? Apple Canvas (if you interpret the invite design)?

Let me know what your guess is.

online shopping, stats

Tips for a glitch-free online shopping experience

Josyan McGregor

Some 36% of online shoppers ran into roadblocks when buying gifts this past holiday season — ranging from slow website response, to fruitless efforts to check out, to outright system crashes — according to a survey of 1,000 online consumers, conducted for Guidance by Synovate, reports Retailer Daily.

According to the survey, online shopping hassles affect the overall degree to which people will shop online: Across nearly every demographic breakdown — other than race — the group least likely to say their online shopping was incident-free was also the group least likely to shop online.

Other major findings of the survey can be found here.  But before you click, I have put together a few guidelines to ensure your online shopping experience remains glitch-free.

I have shopped online for over 4 years now and I can pretty much say it has been a ‘glitch-free’ experience.  Over the years, I have purchased from Amazon, Future Shop, Best Buy, CDW, eBay, Etsy, and Apple.  Perhaps this unlucky 36% were victims of cyber-Monday or even that the sites they trying to purchase from were not necessarily ‘big box retailers’ who tend to be better at handling the in-coming cyber-traffic.

Here are a few tricks I can recommend if you want to make sure your online shopping experience remains a painless one:

  1. Be realistic. If your still on dial-up, forget it.  The purchase process will likely be too much for your modem and the sluggishness will likely lead to issues.
  2. Choose a ‘big box retailer’ you know and trust. IT departments in a big box retailer tend to be better prepared to manage the incoming cyber-traffic.
  3. Go with your gut. As you navigate sites, judge their response rate, evaluate the site’s organization and most of all, answer the question:  Do I ‘get’ this site?  If your experience is sketchy, chances are so will the purchasing experience.

Finally, consider this: A website has its own personality, just like each of us.  We don’t ‘get’ everyone so why would we ‘get’ every website.  So if you find yourself confused about a site and not sure where its trying to lead you, chances are you’re not ‘getting’ the site and you’ll probably encounter these same difficulties when you go through their shopping cart process.  My recommendation is to reconsider purchasing from this site.  It will save you from a potentially frustrating experience.

I’d love to know if you’ve ever reconsidered purchasing online from a site because of a ‘gut feeling’.