Craig Peterson – Tech Talk Radio Show Blog

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Craig, can you recommend a tablet for my wife as an alternative to an iPad?

March 26th, 2012 · Tablet

The iPad on a table in the Apple case

The iPad on a table in the Apple case (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Craig, can you recommend a tablet for my wife as an alternative to an iPad? For comparisons sake. (No 4g required, simply wifi) Maybe from the surplus you came home with from CES, lol?

The iPad is certainly the 800 pound gorilla. It has the most software for it, and is the most compatible with accessories.

I’ve played with a few low-priced units and have found some better than others. Units like the Coby Kyros are inexpensive and work quite well. The short-fall for them is that they are usually built using the open-source versions of the Android operating system and aren’t officially blessed by Google. This means that you won’t be able to run some of the software on them that you’d want to, as Google restricts access to it from these types of devices. I got around much of that myself by signing up as a Google developer and registering the tablet under my developer account — but that’s kinda nerdy.

Unless you are willing to pay somewhere around $400 for a tablet from a cell phone carrier, you are going to run into some bumps in the road.  The various tablet manufacturers even make different models for direct sale verses being sold via the carriers.  You should probably check with retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, Ritz Camera, etc. to find something that will meet your needs.

We’re still in the “buyer beware” mode in the tablet arena, which brings us back to the iPad.  Certainly the best bet — although pretty expensive.

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Congratulations to all US First Competitors at the BAE Granite State Regional!

March 26th, 2012 · Robotics

What a great and exciting weekend we had at the BAE Granite State Regional US First Robotics competition.  The 50 teams competing along with cheering crowds, and hundreds of players, coaches, and refs running onto the field and even a live play-by-play made for a great weekend. It does my heart good to know that it will be kids like these that will be advancing technology in the United States within the next 5-10 years.

This year’s game, called “Rebound Rumble”, will pit co-operative alliances of competitors against other alliances in a multi-faceted game of basketball and balance. I am proud to announce that the alliance of Team 131, CHAOS from Manchester Central High School from Manchester, NH, Team 58 from South Portland High School in South Portland, ME and Team 1831 from Gilford High School in Gilford, NH were the Champions of this event who earned a berth at World Championships in St. Louis in April.  Second Place went to the alliance of Team 1519, Mechanical Mayhem Milford Area Homeschoolers from Milford, NH, Team 885, the Green Team  from the Sharon Academy in Randolph, VT and Team 2791 from Shaker High School in Latham, NY. Congratulations to all these teams.

The top winner of the weekend was Team 1058 of Londonderry High School in Londonderry, NH who won the Regional Chairman’s Award and will go on to compete at World Championships for the National Chairmans Award.

After seeing how the fields of science and technology were beginning to dwindle here in the US, yet sports were encouraged and celebrated by almost everyone throughout society, Dean Kamen founded FIRST to help inspire our youth’s participation in what may be the most important fields within our country.  Since its inception 21 years ago, Graduates of this program are already influencing industry and even R&D in the United States.

Thank you to our sponsors the US Army and NH Precision Metals.

Additionally there were many other accolades awarded to these fantastic teams for their hard work, ingenuity and sportsmanship.  Congratulations to all.

 

Award Team Team Name Person Home Town
Volunteer of the Year 1519  NASA / PTC / BAE Systems / Rockwell Automation & Milford Area Youth Homeschoolers Enriching Minds  Ken Bell  Milford, NH, USA
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen 2791  jcpenney/Sneeringer, Redgrave, Monohan, Provost Title Agency/PVA/Douglas Industrial/Anderson Power Products/O’Malley Law Firm & Shaker High School  Latham, NY, USA
Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors 2342  Daniel Webster College/BAE SYSTEMS/Greater Nashua FIRST Robotics, Inc. & Greater Nashua Area High Schools  Merrimack, NH, USA
Quality Award sponsored by Motorola 3467  NASA/BAE Systems/jcpenney & Windham High School  Windham, NH, USA
Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation 319  BAE SYSTEMS / JOBEAN Technical Solutions / Liberty Machine & Prospect Mountain High School  Alton, NH, USA
Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox 58  Fairchild Semiconductor & South Portland High School  South Portland, ME, USA
Gracious Professionalism Award sponsored by Johnson & Johnson 133  TEM Inc./Fairchild Semiconductor & Bonny Eagle High School  Standish, ME, USA
Team Spirit Award sponsored by Chrysler 1519  NASA / PTC / BAE Systems / Rockwell Automation & Milford Area Youth Homeschoolers Enriching Minds  Milford, NH, USA
Engineering Excellence Award sponsored by Delphi 811  BAE SYSTEMS/FireLink, LLC/Raytheon IDS/L-3 Communications & Bishop Guertin High School  Nashua, NH, USA
Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers 1547  General Motors of Canada / Bank of Montreal & Trafalgar Castle School  Whitby, ON, Canada
Rookie Inspiration Award 4034  jcpenney/Flir/Pelham Plastics & Pelham High School  Pelham, NH, USA
Rookie All Star Award 4403  MET MEX PEÑOLES, S.A. DE C.V. & Tec de Monterrey Campus Laguna  Torreon, CU, Mexico
Judges’ Award 501  BURNDY/Dynamic Network Services & Manchester High School WEST  Manchester, NH, USA
Highest Rookie Seed 4403  MET MEX PEÑOLES, S.A. DE C.V. & Tec de Monterrey Campus Laguna  Torreon, CU, Mexico
Website Award 501  BURNDY/Dynamic Network Services & Manchester High School WEST  Manchester, NH, USA
Industrial Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories 20  General Electric Volunteers/Global Foundries-Town of Malta Foundation/BAE SYSTEMS/TCT Federal Credit Union/Advanced Manufacturing Techniques Inc./Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & Shenendehowa High School  Clifton Park, NY, USA
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award 58  Fairchild Semiconductor & South Portland High School  Ralph Newell  South Portland, ME, USA
Coopertition Award 4403  MET MEX PEÑOLES, S.A. DE C.V. & Tec de Monterrey Campus Laguna  Torreon, CU, Mexico
Engineering Inspiration Award 126  Nypro Inc./PTC & Clinton High School  Clinton, MA, USA
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist Award #2 1519  NASA / PTC / BAE Systems / Rockwell Automation & Milford Area Youth Homeschoolers Enriching Minds  Amelia Jennings  Milford, NH, USA
FIRST Dean’s List Finalist Award #1 1058  BAE Systems/Parker Pneutronics/Fleet Ready Corp./jcpenney & Londonderry High School Tristan Evarts  Londonderry, NH, USA

 

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Come On Down or Listen In As We Broadcast From The US FIRST Robotics Granite State Regional

March 3rd, 2012 · Robotics

A robot participates in the 2008 FIRST Robotic...

2008 Competition

You might think that robotics are geeky and boring — and you’d be wrong when it comes to the US First Robotics competition this weekend.  If you’ve ever been to the “Super Bowl” you might have some idea of just how exciting this weekend will be. There will be teams competing along with cheering crowds, there will be hundreds of players, coaches, and refs running onto the field and even a live play-by-play. But this isn’t your average sporting event.

This is the #1 event on the calendar for thousands of youth from high schools around the United States. This weekend, Manchester New Hampshire is hosting the area’s regional FIRST competition at the Verizon Wireless Arena. More than 45 teams comprised of hundreds of high school-aged students will be competing for a two-dozen prizes by entering their self-designed and built robots into a two-part competition.

This year’s game, called “Rebound Rumble”, will pit co-operative alliances of competitors against other alliances in a multi-faceted game of basketball and balance. More details can be found on the games website.

After seeing how the fields of science and technology were beginning to dwindle here in the US, yet sports were encouraged and celebrated by almost everyone throughout society, Dean Kamen founded FIRST to help inspire our youth’s participation in what may be the most important fields within our country.

This weekend I will be broadcasting live from the event, interviewing participants, organizers, coaches, sponsors and even doing live play-by-plays. Coverage of this event was made possible by the US Army and NH Precision Metals.  Please encourage your friends and families to listen on-the-air or on-line. The event will be covered as an over the air broadcast or on the Internet at http://wgiram.com and on WQSO 96.7 11 am to 2 pm.   The event is open to the public and is free of charge.

I hope to see you there!

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Small Dog Electronics — New England’s Largest Apple Specialist

February 28th, 2012 · Apple, Technology

 

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Small Dog Electronics provides us with an Apple Expert every Sunday at 5:30pm to answer your questions about everything and anything Apple. If you have a question, visit WGIR/AM or 96.7 The Wave and fill out the form.  You can listen live to our segments at WGIR AM 610 or 96.7 FM the Wave

Small Dog Electronics is New England’s largest Apple Specialist with over 16 tears of experience selling and servicing the complete Apple line. They share their passion for technology by providing the most personable, dependable and complete Apple shopping, training and support experience.

Their headquarters is in Waitsfield, Vermont.  Their three retail stores are located in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Mall of New Hampshire, and South Burlington and Waitsfield, Vermont. Their website, www.smalldog.com, features close to 3,000 products for the Mac or PC enthusiast.

Socially responsible, they are incredibly motivated by the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. The effect they have on their community, environment, customers and employees factors into the equation they call “success.”

They offer complete solutions for businesses, regardless of platform, including systems analysis, sales and implementation, as well as training, technical support, maintenance and repair. Small Dog Consultants can provide on-site or remote support including troubleshooting, training, delivery, set-up and education on your new equipment.

Each of their three locations offers complete Apple repair services by Certified Apple Technicians. Services include data transfers, back-ups, data recovery, file system repair, software installations and more.

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Home Security Via the Cloud

December 26th, 2011 · Security

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 08:  A Samsung Wi-Fi v...

Looking to protect your home or office? How about broadcasting real-time video? Today we spoke with Devin Chawda, the President of Y-cam about their Internet/Cloud-based Security Cameras

1. It is now possible to set up a video camera at your home or business which records instantly to the cloud rather than on some local recording device. This is a revolution in home/business security as it not only means the video is stored safely away from the property but it can be viewed from anywhere and motion alerts sent to any mobile device.
2. Anyone that wants to broadcast live steaming video to their local community, or even the world can now do so. Whether you’re a watersports shop owner on the beach wanting to show off the waves or a homeowner just wanting to share the amazing view outside her bedroom window, it’s now accessible to anyone.
3. Now you can use your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch and your existing Wi-Fi network to monitor your baby in a way that wasn’t possible before

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Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation

November 23rd, 2011 · Facebook

Deutsch: Das Kleine-Welt-Phänomen: künstlerisc...

The study was carried out in May and involved all of the social network’s active members.

Facebook defines a user as active if they have logged on at least once over the past 28 days.

Some journalists misreported the news claiming there were 4.74 degrees of separation. However, this confused the number of degrees with the distance – or hops – between each of the people on the friendship chain.

The authors of the report say that they “assume that ‘degree of separation‘ is the same as ‘distance minus one’”.

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Who is Craig Talking to this weekend

November 20th, 2011 · Advertising, Audio, Business, Cloud, Computers, Email, Energy, Marketing, Networking, Security, Tablet

Now we are finally caught up and this Sunday November 20, 2011 we will air our 630 show. Craig will speak with the following people.

Malcom Lewis the SVP and General Manager at Spreebird. Craig and Malcom will discuss Social Media and Black Friday and how Websites, Email and Mobile can get you daily deals from thousands of merchants. About 1 in 4 smartphone owners will use a mobile device for holiday shopping, according to an annual holiday survey by Deloitte. About 59% will use their phones to compare or check prices, 46% will use phones to check product availability, and 41% will get coupons through their handsets.        Mobile search, for example, matches local businesses’ products and services with the needs of busy household managers, empowering consumers by providing valuable search environments for discovering local deals, saving time and money, and shopping smarter, during the heaviest shopping season of the year.

Nick Swinmurn the Founder of Rankd. Craig and Nick will talk about Black Friday and how you can use RNKD as a fun way to earn VIP status, discounts and rewards from the brands you love by showing them which products you already own.

Kevin Johnson the CEO at E-Bates. Craig and Kevin will discuss E-commerce and Digital Marketing. From niceties to necessities, members of Ebates benefit from incentives at top-name merchants for everything from furniture to fashion and appliances to airfare hassle-free shopping with Ebates that includes no rebate forms to fill out and no points or miles to redeem, the site supports a strong community of savvy shoppers across the country and around the world.

Amar Hanspal the SVP of Platform Solutions at Autodesk. Criag and Amar will discuss how Autodesk has taken advantage of the iPhone, iPad and the infinite computing power available in the cloud to offer companies of any size access to high performance visualization, simulation, analysis and collaboration technologies including AutoCAD WS and the Inventor Publisher Mobile Viewer App. Additionally, Mobile and web technologies are also making it possible for Autodesk to offer a new audience of amateur designers, home owners, students and casual creators access to professional strength design tools through SketchBook, Homestyler and TinkerBox.

Todd McKeller the VP North America for Mobiles Republic. Craig and Todd discuss Apps what makes them successful. Mobiles Republic quickly established a reputation for innovation and excellence in developing successful apps for the smartphone market as well as award winning apps for feature phones including the prestigious Sony Ericsson Content Award. News Republic delivers 10,000 news stories a day from over 180 major news providers, but allows users to create topic-specific “My News” streams that filter this mass of information down to the exact stories that interest them.  For example, if you create a “My News” stream for “Paul Westcott,” that stream will capture every article about Paul Westcott for you.

Michael Wong the CEO and Founder of CooTek. Craig and Michael will discuss how to enrich the functionality of your mobile devices. TouchPal Keyboard, based on CooTek’s multiple patented technology, offers a good substitution to stock mobile device keyboards. After using TouchPal  Keyboard for a while, users often find they can type faster than ever on a virtual keyboard.

Bob Schena the CEO and Co-Founder of Rajant Corporation. Craig and Bob will discuss portable wireless mesh networks that offer secure communications-on-the-move through by being able to rapidly reconfigure and adapt in real-time. Rajant’s kinetic mesh networks are a new approach to portable wireless networks where all of the components of the networks including the nodes are constantly in motion.

Sonpreet Bhatia the Co-Founder of MyCityWay. Craig and Sonpreet will discuss MyCityWay which was designed to help anyone navigate and explore the world’s cities, like never before. for example: To find a Chinese restaurant in your neighborhood, locate the nearest wireless hotspot, or buy tickets for the next showing of a blockbuster movie or even to Connect with other users to find the perfect lunch spot, keep tabs on apartments for rent, or check a live traffic feed before you leave the office.

Andy Zimmerman the Chief Marketing Officer at Brainshark. Craig and Andy will discuss how to conduct business on the go cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations – using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone – and then share and track their content anytime, anywhere improving the reach and results of their business communications, while dramatically reducing communications costs.

Catherine D’Amato the Executive Director at the Greater Boston Food Bank. Craig and Catherine will discuss how the Greater Boston Food Banks distribution of food has increased from 8 to 35 million pounds of food per year and how they are using Social Media to raise awareness and involve people in their mission. They have released an app called Give a Doodle.

Todd Porter – VP Product Innovation and Marketing at QUMU. Craig and Todd will discuss Mobile Video Solutions that engage and inspire employees, improve productivity, and reduce costs Regardless of audience size, viewer device, or network configuration, Qumu simply makes video work. Only Qumu delivers the Freedom to work with existing infrastructure; the Power to reach everyone; and the Control to do it right.

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Last Weeks show

November 20th, 2011 · Advertising, Audio, Automotive, Business, Cloud, Computers, Email, Government, Tablet

As you may or may not know, fall weather in New England can throw some curve balls and on Oct 28 we got 24 inches of heavy wet snow. While snow is usually not a problem when the leaves have not fallen — it was. We had no street power or internet for 171 hours. So needless to say it has taken us a while to get caught up. But we are catching up …. And Last Week we aired show 629 where Craig spoke with the following guests:

Scott Hirsch the Founder of AppsBar joins Craig to discuss the gap between over-simplified apps and costly, professionally-produced apps. appsbar is the first tool for any business, group or individual to create professional, personalized apps for use on mobile devices with no cost. . appsbar is one platform to create and submit apps to popular app stores. It presents myriad personalization opportunities with a unique interface that guides creators through the entire process – from creation, to editing, to publication – with visual and textual clues at each step.

Mahesh Makhija an Associate Vice President at Infosys joins Craig to discuss end to end business solutions that utilize the best of technology. Infosys provides solutions that span the entire software life cycle encompassing consulting, design, development, software re-engineering, maintenance, systems integration, package evaluation and implementation and infrastructure management services.

PV Kannan the CEO and 24/7 Customer joins Craig to discuss a simple and easy way for companies to acquire and retain their customers, and for customers to seek solutions to their queries, anytime and anywhere in the world.24/7 Customer, Inc. is a managed services provider of online predictive experience solutions.We transform and own the outcome of digital sales and service experiences for large enterprises with thousands of call center agents. We deliver the highest CSAT at the lowest cost, and eliminate calls.

Tom Jeineck the Founder and President of On Target Web Solutions joins Craig to discuss Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Solutions. At On Target Web Solutions, we are passionate about educating our clients about effective web design, effective and engaging social media campaigns, organic search engine marketing, the power of blogging, the power of permission based marketing and the power of ethical online business practices.

Jonathan Spira the CEO at Basex joins Craig to discuss collaborative Business Knowledge, which is the intersection of content management, portals, knowledge management, and collaboration. Information Overload is costing organizations billions of dollars annually as well as productivity time, which impacts the bottom line and revenue. When employees have to sort through a ton information and determine which of that data is correct, current and reliable. Searching for the correct answer or corroborating evidence can be time consuming and is no guarantee that the information is correct, which again costs organizations time and money.

Linda Rohrbough an Author and Consultant at Study by App joins Craig to talk about connecting students of all ages with bold and dynamic content. Study by App is an educational software development company that develops apps for the iPhone/iTouch/iPad. Our staff is a collective of teachers, authors, scholars, professors, and publishers from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

Sumeet Shrivastava the President at Array IT joins Craig to discuss how federal IT initiatives and impact the government and the private sector and how new and emerging technologies and leading-edge solutions can delivering best-of-the-best industry programs and practices.

Zack Urlocker the COO at ZenDesk joins Craig to discuss Cloud Based help desk software. Zendesk is the proven cloud-based help desk software that is the fastest way to enable great customer service in rapidly growing companies. Zendesk is so easy to use and their services are trusted by 10,000 organizations for their most valuable assets: customers, partners, and employees.

Thomas Swalla the COO at Savings.com joins Craig to discuss how to find the best deals on everything you want. Tell us what brands and categories you like to shop, where you live, and Savings.com will deliver the best deals for you handpicked by expert DealPros®. In addition to providing personalized recommendations, Savings.com has one of the most in-depth databases of coupons.

Dr. Rajiv Kumar the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Shape-up joins Craig to discuss the worst health problems we face as a nation–obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, osteoarthritis, depression–are related to our collective unhealthy lifestyle. Founded initially on the basic premise that people are more likely to succeed at reaching their goals when they work together with the people they care about, ShapeUp continues to stay true to its original philosophy. The company has remained focused on uniting people to improve their health while at the same time expanding its vision for the future. ShapeUp aims to build the largest platform in the world that unites individuals with their entire health care ecosystem – including their friends, family, colleagues, employer, health plan, physicians, pharmacy, health coach, and more. By creating a simple, central place to connect with the activities, information, ideas, and people that can lead us to better health, ShapeUp is working toward improving the health of the entire world.

Brad Murdoch the Chief Marketing Officer at Visible World joins Craig to discuss how to transform your advertising production giving it more relevance and delivering it with greater effectiveness. Visible World is the leading provider of targeted television advertising solutions. The company’s suite of services enables advertisers, agencies, and media companies to deliver addressable, interactive, and measurable ads.

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