Greg Austin

Major retailers all over the world are beginning to take notice of a relatively new technology that enables customers to pay for purchases using little more than their cell phone. This technology is called Near-Field Communication, or NFC for short. NFC enables cell phone manufacturers to embed computer chips, which require no power to operate, in to their devices. These chips can be programmed to perform many tasks, such as contact sharing, payment processing, song sharing, embedding messages in to posters, collaboration, and many more uses are being developed as you are reading this. A practical example of how this technology can be utilized includes, a person who wants to learn more about a painting at a local art museum. The museum visitor can simply waive their phone over an NFC transmitter chip embedded in the corner of an art display and the user is instantly shown a video or commentary from the author. Another example includes the purchase of a cup of coffee and some gas. A person who has an NFC chip in their cell phone can walk in to a gas station, waive their phone over the receiver at the register, pay for their coffee, head outside and waive the same phone at the gas pump and begin pumping their gas. All of this can be accomplished without ever reaching for a wallet or purse.

In Japan, retailers, manufacturers and marketing companies have already leveraged the expanding market of NFC enabled devices. Movie posters, train stations, major tourist attractions and many retailers, have placed kiosks and payment terminals in plain-view so that consumers can engage with content and purchase items using cell phones that have NFC chips installed. In The United States, the New Jersey transit authority, has partnered with Google to enable customers to pay for tickets with NFC enabled devices. According to Senior Analyst David Snow, from Juniper Research: “Based on our analysis and interviews with key industry players our view is that the next 18 months will see launches in up to 20 countries. As a result Juniper is forecasting that North America and Western Europe together will exceed the Far East region in under three years based on transaction value.” The report also breaks out the opportunity for value added retail marketing services through coupons and smart posters.

As with any new technology, there are technological limitations and the potential exists for fraud, especially in regards to contactless payment processing. Major technology firms all around the world are working around-the-clock to meet these challenges head-on and deploy this technology to the masses. Many device manufacturers such as Nokia, Google, HTC, Microsoft and Samsung already have devices either released or announced for this year, with many more coming over the next few months.

Contactless payment solutions are not new, in fact, a similar technology exists called RFID, but RFID has a much larger range (typically a few meters). RFID has been heavily utilized as a solution for inventory tracking and other non-monetary transaction-based uses. Chip manufacturers have actually developed dual-purpose chips that have both RFID and NFC embedded so that consumers can interact with both forms of marketing and payment technologies. For instance, if a store had an RFID scanner at the entrance to their store, a customer could enable their phone to “check-in” automatically on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. While at the register, the same customer could then pay for their order and take advantage of a loyalty program with the same chip, using the NFC functionality. NFC is ideal because it only works at a range of under 4 centimeters. NFC is new in the sense that the chips will now be embedded in the sole device that most Americans carry with them just about everywhere they go, their cell phone. Corporations are ready to leverage this technology and major manufacturers have all announced plans for new devices in 2012. Apple computers, makers of the top-selling single cell phone device in the world, the iPhone, has applied for new patents which hint that they too, will have some form of NFC or RFID embedded in their next generation devices as well; although no official announcement from Apple has been made to confirm this, the patent applications prove they are at least considering it.

It is my belief that retailers who adapt and make this technology accessible to their customers, will reap the rewards of being early adopters. The millennial generation will expect and even demand corporations to have NFC very soon. The fact that HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, Google, Nokia and others, are making devices at break-neck speeds to catch-up with consumer technology trends, indicates that the market will be demanding this type of functionality.

Let me start by saying that I have been fishing my whole life; it relaxes me. I grew up fishing in lakes and ponds around Delaware and even in California and Florida a few times. When I was a pre-teen, my grandparents purchased a house in Bowers Beach, Delaware where I worked on The Capatin’s Lady, Stacy Lee, and Phyllis Kay charter boats. I caught a lot of Blues, Striper, Tautog, Oyster crackers, and Flounder in the Delaware Bay. Recently, my friends over at Leafo Photo called and asked if I wanted to go surf fishing. I responded yes, without hesitation. I went over to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), purchased a surf tag for my 4×4 Dodge Ram 1500, and I was ready to roll after I grabbed the necessary equipment. (My wife and I already had fishing licenses and a FIN number)

We spent the 4th of July at Herring Point in the Cape Henlopen State Park. We didn’t catch any fish, but we had a really good time and I learned a lot. Because of my addictive personality and the fact that I dropped $ for a surf tag, I began to search for other areas of the Delaware Shoreline that I could drive on and fish. All I was able to find was a list of Delaware State Parks which had beach access, but I am sure there are more areas in Delaware, particularly Kent County or New Castle County, where I can drive on the beach and fish.

Last evening, my wife and I drove over to Woodland Beach and spent some time trying to catch some perch and striper. There is a small patch of beach there that I guess you could drive on, but it’s not necessary, the parking lot is close enough and there is nowhere to pump up your tires if you did. A guy next to me caught a couple small fish on cut-up herring, I was using bloodworms and even the crabs ignored them, someone reported catching perch about a mile south of the ramp on bloodworms.

The goal of this blog post is to ask what baits you use to fish off the Delaware coast and where you do it, particularly surf fishing in Kent and New Castle Counties. My ultimate goal is to find some summer flounder that I can catch while surf fishing. Of course, blues, perch and striper would be fun as well. Leave a comment, give me a call or send a private email if you can help. Thanks!

Update: This is where you can find tide information in Delaware

Greg Austin Fishing in the Delaware Bay

I have watched a ton of websites launch recently that have a semi-creative header, a colorful footer, and the center of the website has vast empty spaces for no rhyme or reason. This is the area that the website developer has left up to the client to manage. The problem is, the client has no idea how to fill that white space properly (if they can). This is a failure in my opinion. As a developer, I want my work to be somewhat controlled.

Let me explain further…

Look at this page from a local website development company who has a huge, expensive, proprietary, content management system that is extremely inefficient to develop and maintain. I don’t even want to talk about the client hand-holding and training that is involved with these propritary systems. These systems only benefit the developer, because the client can’t just take their website to another website development company like they can with an open source solution like WordPress or Drupal.

Do you see how disjointed this looks? This entire website looks like things were placed mechanically and arbitrarily because the content had to go somewhere, not because it was meant to be there. The developer attempted to build a photo application that was a solution for anyone who uses the system, not just a solution for this client. This is one reason why these patchwork content management systems are a waste of money. If I was this client, I would be extremely dissatisfied. Why is that scroll bar there? Why not put the thumbnails on the right? Where are the directional controls that guide me how to scroll through images? How about a slideshow view? There are so many things wrong with this page that it prompted me to write this article! I can go on about this picture, but I won’t.

Here is another page from the same website. Look at all the wasted space. Why not tile these? Where is the descriptive text? How does this site induce me to make a decision to buy or request more information?

My goal here is not to bash this website, or even this developer. My goal is to prove why proprietary content management systems that are built by small website development companies are hugely inefficient and a waste of time, money and resources that could be spent on more robust and commercially availible solutions. Wordress, Drupal, and Joomla all have page layout options that allow a customer to choose how a page is displayed and can help them avoid all of these common mistakes.

The biggest advantages over a proprietary CMS are security and support. The security teams that work for WordPress and Drupal are literally world class engineers and there are dozens of them. There are also video tutorials, tons of user communities and a vast array of written documentation available. I can find a solution to any problem I have with WordPress or Drupal with a simple Google search or two. Try that with a proprietary CMS.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

It is easy to confuse an iPad as a replacement for a laptop computer. Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, made note of this fact in January of 2010, he said “the iPad is not a laptop replacement, it is just cheaper.” The two devices are intended to co-exist, but not fully replace each other. There are many differences between the iPad and Laptop, and my hope is that after reading this article, you will decide to purchase both a laptop and an iPad to satisfy your online content consumption and creation needs. So, you ask, should I buy a laptop or an iPad? Here are the facts.

Physical Differences between a Laptop and an iPad

Functional Differences between an iPad and a Laptop

Conclusion

Consumers who attempt to replace their aging laptop with an iPad will be sadly disappointed after the honeymoon period. The iPad is a fun device that can perform some of the tasks of a laptop, but it certainly can not replace a laptop. It lacks a physical keyboard, USB ports, DVD drive and multitasking support which are common tasks for any laptop user. For email and online communication, the iPad is a perfect companion; this makes it perfect for students and executives who do not perform a lot of photo editing, video editing, or tedious office application usage. The iPad is thinner, lighter and much easier to use for note taking, social media tasks and entertainment needs, but a laptop is much more flexible and compatible with commercially available hardware and software.

Today is world backup day and I have just read about 10 different posts from a variety of tech blogs that I subscribe too.

I have to admit that I am guilty of not backing up as frequently as I should and its interesting that I am tasked with creating a video for my daughters High School Cheerleading team this week. I have been taking photos and video all season long and it is now time to compile them in to a keepsake video for each young lady to cherish forever. I started reading some horror stories this morning and they reminded me of the importance of backing up irretrievable files. If I was to lose this season’s images and video, my daughter and her team would be very angry and needless to say, I would go from hero to zero instantly. Long story short, I am going to backup my files right now to a 500 Gigabyte portable hard drive that I have collecting dust 10 feet from my laptop. The good thing is, for music files, I started using the new Amazon Cloud Drive and for most of my other files, I have been using Dropbox and Google Docs. The bad thing is, RAW photos and video footage are very large files and it makes them less than ideal for web storage options that are available right now. If anyone has a viable (affordable) option for storing large files, please leave me a comment.

I waited patiently for the new Palm Pre back in June 0f 2009. I drove my co-workers and family crazy for at least 3 months before the day it finally launched on Sprint (great service in Dover, Delaware). I will never forget the day I finally got my hands on its round shape and all-in-one communication hub goodness. Everyone I knew was jealous; iPhone fans loved it, and I felt like the big man on campus for a few months.

Since 2009, many iPhone and Android devices have been released, including many revisions and updates. I knew there would come a day when I had to give up my Palm Pre. I have spent many hours researching the numerous contenders in the smartphone arena. At the end of each search I did for a new phone, I was left with a final decision to wait (I almost pulled the trigger on the HTC Evo 4G more than once). That did not change yesterday when I watched the live feed from the HP / Palm “Think Big. Think Small. Think Beyond.” event.

It took me the last 20 hours to digest what I saw and heard before I committed to writing this blog post.

At the end of the press conference, I was left wanting more and disappointed. While I appreciate that HP is making improvements (arguable) and they are staying with the All-American tradition of Bigger, Better, Harder, Faster. I feel as if I have been lied too. I was promised flash support for my Palm Pre, and I was told that I would get webOS 2.0 on Sprint “in the coming months”. Those were both lies. I do not understand why HP would leave me hanging. I have been loyal, I have been patient, and I even waited from December until February 9, 2011 for their big announcement.

Sadly, I think “this summer” is too late for me and HP to remain friends. If they had opened orders yesterday on the website for these new devices, I think this would be a completely different blog post, I would have probably jumped on a Pre 3 today but, not this summer. Although, they did not mention anything about an improved battery life or 4G. These manufacturers are not taking in to consideration that we (the consumers) are pretty loyal to our carriers and we (most of us) honor our contracts (typically 2 years). This means we are stuck with a device for 2 years and we expect a manufacturer to release updates and enhancements to stay current with technology trends. Sure, there are a few technology geeks, and hard-nose fans who are tied-in to webOS for the long haul such as the kind folks over at precentral and WebOSRoundup but, I work and I don’t have time for games. Angry birds is not enough to keep me around. The Snapdragon processor and expanded memory are coming to all new devices this summer so, why should I wait for HP?

I like webOS; in fact, I love it. It’s fast, fluid and it just works. The thing that rubs me the wrong way is this. HP is not respecting my time and they think unpredictability is just fine. Blanket statements such as “in the coming months” and “coming this summer” do not allow me to plan properly and it gives Android and iPhone another chance to swoon me with their sexiness. I don’t buy 1 phone at a time, I buy 4. I have a family who expects me to treat them to the same gadget love that I have.

I have spent the last 2 years trying to convince my family of 4 that we have the best phone available. My daughter (16) comes home almost weekly telling me how cool her friends EVO or iPhone is because it does (insert cool thing here). My wife comes home from work telling me that her new office software now has native plug-in’s for Android, iPhone and Blackberry (the IT department laughs at her when she mentions adopting webOS/Palm). My son (18) could care less, he uses his phone as an .MP3 player, facebook hub, and Pandora streaming device (all smartphones do this now).

It all comes down to functionality.

My 16 year-old daughter asked me the other day, “Dad, why do all the commercials say to try our new app for Android, Blackberry or iPhone, and they never mention our phones?”

I don’t see this changing in 2011 or 2012, even with an OS tie-in with Windows. The iPhone and Android are too entrenched now and there is simply no room for HP or Blackberry to compete. Don’t get me started on Blackberry, every time I see a tween with one in their hand, I want to smack their parents. Blackberry’s are for international travelers at best, but I digress.

Sprint has been great to me over the last 4 years, I wish they would give Dover, Delaware 4G but, I understand that takes time. As I mentioned before, I am patient.  As a matter of fact, just last week, one of our Palm Pre’s had a modem error and they shipped us a replacement device in 24 hours, with zero drama. I can’t for the life of me figure out why HP would hold a big press event yesterday and not even tell us what provider is going to carry these new devices! So, not only are they saying “Hey, we have some sexy new stuff coming some day in the future”, they are also saying, “Hey, we don’t know if your provider will even carry it”. So, I have nothing to wait for and no need to wait for it. There are way too many devices out there that are definite, and I will take a sure thing over a gamble all day long.

Android here I come.

iPhone 4 here I come…

At the 2011 Consumer Electronic Show, Motorola announced a new device called the Motorola Atrix. Since my first PDA device 6 or 7 years ago, I knew this type of device was coming but, I never expected it this soon.

The Motorola Atrix is a perfect example of technological convergence. It solves many challenges and fits all the criteria most of us will ever need from a mobile computing device. The Motorola Atrix will allow us to travel from home to the office and, even take it on vacation. The Atrix is only the beginning of these ultra portable telephone and computing devices. You can read all about it right here.

A few years ago, when 3D bar codes came out and everyone was running around the office scanning things with their Palm Treo’s, I though about the future. I envisioned a world where as we drive around in our cars, GPS technology would show us advertisements from area businesses. These businesses could then have 3D bar codes or even interactive AD’s that play on your telephone and allow us to take advantage of sales as they happen in real time.  A shop keeper in your neighborhood can blow out an entire inventory of widgets in one day, with little to no planning or upfront financial investment. Google, Bing, facebook, PayPal, Amazon, or Yahoo! would handle the location-based advertising and  merchant services (credit card transaction) and take a percentage of the sale(s) all in one shot. This is already happening today.

This is a fantastic video of Jesse Schell speaking at a conference for game developers called DICE 2010. His presentation is titled “Design Outside The Box”. In the video, Jesse explains how the entire world around us is one big advertising canvas which can be utilized to display marketing in otherwise unconventional and I am sure what will become controversial ways. I won’t add a bunch of hyperbole here, just watch the video and decide for yourself. I welcome your comments!