Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

You can win Apple’s latest creation, the iPad just by being a part of the nationally-syndicated Living Digital radio show!

The Living Digital show covers today’s technology from cell phones, to 3D TV to your personal computer with a special focus on how your technology impacts your life.

The show airs from 2-5 PM CST on Saturday afternoon and
can also be heard online.

So How Can I Win an iPad?

There are a few different ways you can win.  Each time you complete one of the following actions, you will receive one entry in the drawing for the iPad.  There is no limit to the number of times you can enter, so feel free to enter as often as you like:

1. Call 1-800-825-5865 between 2-5 PM CST and ask a technology question on the air – Worth 10 entries
2. Email your technology question for use on the air at thor<.at.>livingdigitalshow.com – Worth 3 entries
3. Post a valid (not spammy) comment on any post on this blog.  You receive one entry for each comment you post. You must include a valid email address in the appropriate field. – Worth 1 entry per comment
   
4. Follow @thorschrock on Twitter and RT this message for a bonus entry every day you are following me! I entered the Living Digital Show Apple iPad giveaway!  You can enter too at http://www.livingdigitalshow.com. #ipad
   

   – Worth 1 entry per day automatically
   

How Does the Contest Work?

Entries in the contest will be accumulated between now and the public availibility date of the iPad.

When the iPad is available for purchase, we will buy one and no additional entries will be accepted at that time.

The iPad will be filmed in an unboxing video, repackaged and immediately shipped to the winner (who we will congratulate in the video).

If you are entering from outside the US, please understand that we must comply with duties, taxes, and export regulations that are applicable in your country.

All radio callers, emailers, twitter followers who re-tweet, and comment posters will be aggregated and numbered.  Then a random number will be generated.  The entry that corresponds to the generated number wins the iPad.

How Will the Winner be Notified?

The winner will be notified by email or telephone, depending on the contact information we have available.  The winner will have 1 business day to claim the prize, or we will draw another winner.

The purpose of this contest is to generate interest and callers for the Living Digital show, and that is why the contest has been slanted for callers and emailers unlike the last contest I did a number of months back.

The Anti Phishing Working Group reported that in the third quarter of 2009, 48% of the computers scanned for malware were infected with downloaders, password stealers, or other forms of malware.

Their report also indicated a 5.5% increase in reports of first time phishing attempts, with an overall decrease in the number of victims.

This indicates that cyber criminals are working faster to get new phishing sites online, but those sites are being discovered and neutralized more quickly than ever.

The report continues on to indicate that the single greatest problem in the battle against phishing scams is a general lack of awareness among those in the public about how the scams work and how to avoid becoming a victim.

If 2009 was the year of the netbook then 2010 may be the year of the slate PC.

Apple’s iPad tablet device on follows the demonstration of an HP tablet device (also called a slate PC) at the CES.

As the recession hit the US in 2009, computer sales were only 2.8% up in the US as compared to a 24% increase in 2008.  In fact the first three quarters of 2009 were awful for computer sales across the country – until netbooks saved the day in Q4.

The idea of a 10″ touch screen device that has the power of a notebook and the size of a netbook intrigues me.  I can see moving my front desk employees off their desktop PCs and onto iPads or Slates.

Size and Options Mater

I thought it was really interesting that Apple is only introducing the iPad in one size.  Apple is clearly targeting the iPad as a lifestyle device while PC manufacturers are targeting the slate form factor as a flexible and useful productivity tool.

Its almost like apple is lining up another Mac vs. PC battle that they can never win – a proprietary Apple device with a closed software distribution channel and PC with flexible devices with customizable options and a ton of inexpensive software already in the pipe.

It’s all About the Content Stupid

While PC manufacturers will most likely sell many more slates than Apple will iPads, the real money is not in the device its self, it is in the content that is consumed on the device.

Apple will be releasing its new web-based version of iTunes later this year, which will allow Apple users to synchronize their content between multiple devices like an iPhone, and iPod and an iPad.

Apple followed a similar release model with the iPhone.  When the 1st generation phone was released it was lacking in many basic cell phone features (ability to shoot video, picture messaging, etc) yet Apple released it anyway.  They needed to get a device in the market so developers would begin building content.

As the content grew, so did iPhone’s advantage over other smart phones and subsequent versions could be subsidized to include more features because Apple was making it back on the content.

I would expect a similar model for the iPad.  The 1st generation device has no webcam, yet has software handles for video calling for example.  I would expect subsequent revisions of the iPad to add additional features as the content growth allows.

How do you think the iPad will do?

This afternoon at 2:00 CST Chris Goforth and I will be kicking off a new syndicated radio show called Living Digital.

Many of you know that I currently do a 1 hour show every Saturday at 10 AM CST called Compute This.  Living Digital will be similar in concept to Compute This, but will differ in some important ways.

Compute This is designed to be live and local.  It is specifically designed to service the people of Lincoln and the current and future customers of Schrock Innovations.

Living Digital is designed to have a more widespread focus and cover areas that are influenced by technology, but are not necessarily computers.

For example, Living Digital will cover televisions, cell phones, gaming systems, digital cameras and more.  With all of the new technologies coming out it is easy to become overwhelmed.  The Living Digital Show is designed to make your technology work for you and be more of a help than a headache.

You can listen to Living Digital every Saturday afternoon in Lincoln, NE on http://kfor1240.com (KFOR 1240 AM).  This week the show will be slightly shorter in Lincoln because of Nebraska Weslyean Basketball coverage, but I promise it will be a blast!

There has been a lot of chatter all over the web regarding Apple’s expected announcement of the iSlate tablet device on or around January 26, 2010.

There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas about what the iSlate tablet is, what product niche it is designed to fill in Apple’s product line, what its features will be, and how much it will cost.  While no one knows the specifics yet, I believe a lot of the rumors are slightly off-base.

Everyone is wrapped up in what Apple has ordered from suppliers, what the iPhone can do, Apple’s supposed need to compete with netbooks, and pure desire for something new from Steve Jobs.

Many of the people turning the crank on the rumor machine are fogetting some of the known Apple quantities:

1. Steve Jobs doesn’t chase market niches – he redefines them
2. Steve jobs has publicly stated that netbooks are substandard hardware
3. Apple risks cheapening its brand by selling a sub-$1000 computing device
4. This is a lifestyle device – people will not buy it because the need it.  People will need it because they want it

Rather than getting all caught up in the expected specifications, whether or not it has an OLED screen, or attempting to decode vague requests to iPhone application developers for more high-resolution apps, I am going to make three general Thorstradamus predictions:

1. There is a distinct possibility that the late January announcement is about an improvement in the iPhone.  I peg this at a 60% chance.  Apple is about the software & apps, and they’re just not there yet.
2. If the announcement is about an Apple tablet, it will cost more than $1200.  It may be re-released later at a lower cost as Apple did with the iPhone
3. I do not think Apple will launch a device designed to compete with $400 netbooks EVER

What do you think?  Post a comment below to go on the record.  Let’s see who is right on this one!

Last week Schrock Innovations received a letter from the City of Lincoln regarding our support of America Recycles Day.

Each year students and businesses across Lincoln pledge to commit themselves to recycle more in the coming year.  Each pledge is placed in a box and a drawing is conducted.

As we have done in the past, we donated a computer system to this year’s pledge winner.  Here is the text from the letter we received from Gene Hanlon, Lancaster County’s Recycling Coordinator:

Dear Thor:

I’m writing to express our sincere appreciation to you for your support of America Recycles Day and donating one of your computers for our Community Grand Prize Drawing.  Your donation of the computer provided a valuable incentive for people to take the time to complete a pledge to increase their recycling efforts or buy recycled products.

This year we received over 1,900 pledges from Lincoln and Lancaster County residents to step up their recycling efforts.  I don’t believe this would have been possible without your support.  I hope you found your involvement in the America Recycles Day campaign beneficial.

Best wishes to you and your family during this holiday season.  I hope that the New Year brings much happiness to you and your family.

Schrock Innovations received a letter last week that our Lincoln Service Center has been selected as one of 100,000 “Favorite Places” on Google.

The selection was based on how many people have sought out information about Schrock Innovations on Google.  That information includes reviews, requests for driving directions, and general search data.

Contained within the letter was a window decal for our Service Center as well as some statistics about how local Lincoln, Nebraska Google users were seeking out Schrock Innovations over the past 6 months:

• An average of 14 people a month request driving directions to Schrock Innovations (pretty nice considering we are on one of the busiest intersections in Lincoln)
• There were 942 requests for specific information about Schrock Innovations (coupons, reviews, etc.)
• The majority of users who look into Schrock Innovations are looking for computer repair services

Gooogle Favorite Places is a sub component of Google Local Business Center.  I was unaware of this program until Google contacted us to let us know we had been selected.

If your business has not been selected, you can apply for consideration by signing up for and completing an entry in Google Local Business Center.

Schrock Innovations had an amazing 2009 in Lincoln and we need another technician to continue building on that success.

We posted an advertisement on Craigslist, and we ask that qualified candidates please apply on our website rather than in person or calling by phone.

What are we looking for?

We need a technician that is proficient with PC and Mac troubleshooting who can work alone in the field or in the service center as part of a team.

We are expanding our on-site hours to include weekends.  We have also taken on a umber of corporate clients in Lincon and Omaha who use Mac and we need more than one technician on staff to handle the workload.

We need a tech who already knows troubleshooting and is experienced with all versions of Windows and Mac OS.  Of course we will train on Schrock procedures, but we need someone who has the skills to do the job on day one for this position.

I saw this USB power outlet online and I honestly will be installing a couple of these in my home office!

These are standard 110-volt outlets with two additional USB ports built right in.  This would allow me to charge my iPhone, video camera, and the host of other USB devices I use in one convenient place!

They are a little pricey for outlets at $10 each, but cool nevertheless!

Microsoft is releasing six new updates today that will impact all Windows users in some way.

The updates, scheduled to be automatically downloaded and installed tonight on most Windows systems, patch severe security issues in Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Microsoft Office.  Because of the Internet Explorer 7 component, just about every Windows System made after 2001 will be impacted.

This set of updates will address a critical security flaw that could allow users to take control of your computer, so it is important you get these installed.

If your computer is having trouble installing updates for any reason, contact us in Lincoln or Omaha, or seek the assistance of a technician who can get them installed before your computer is infected.