Though the Asus 7″ 1280×800 tablet is “just around the corner”, and with rumors flying about the impending release of the Apple iPad 3 retailers are trying to clear out what stock they have.  Spotted FutureShop (in Canada, at least) dropping prices on all their iPad 2 – and their staff is flogging them heavily to any unsuspecting customer that happens to walk down the aisle with all the other tablets.

I just spotted Fred Meyer (yes, they actually sell electronics…) selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.  Specs include:

• Android Honeycomb 3.2
• 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor
• 16GB memory
• Front and rear camera

Doesn’t mention whether it’s locked or unlocked or any other details on their flyer but what I don’t quite understand is the price – $349.99 it would seem that they are not trying to get rid of these.  I’ve seen this for as low as $299.99 at FM several months ago so don’t quite understand their pricing strategy (and that price is at a $50.00 savings off the regular price of $399.99).

But if you’re looking for a 7″ tablet and can’t wait for the Asus then the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 is a nice tablet.

It is really interesting to see how social media is used, forget about the misadventures of some people who try to cheat their insurance companies, or lie to get out of work and post NSFW (or NFW) photos on platforms like FaceBook.  Those types of stories are a great read, but once read they are generally forgotten.

But how does the world use social media?

Based on 2009 data from the site eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com) here is some great detail:

1. 81.50% of people use social media to stay in touch with friends; do you wonder why the USPS and other mail companies are bleeding cash?  Even my parents are on Facebook, and though my wife’s mom isn’t her brothers and sisters are so they are always in touch.
2. Coming close behind messaging friends is uploading photos at 76.30% – digital cameras, and smart phones have probably accelerated that number.  Why print photos, when you can simply e-mail them to friends and family or post them on Facebook and other photo sharing sites?
3. Is it surprising that social networking is used by 74.30% of people to find old friends and another 56.40% of people use social networking to find new friends.

This study was conducted by Universal McCann “Power to the people: Social Media Tracker Wave 4″.  See the full article at eMarketer or head over to Universal McCann at http://www.umww.com

The article is a bit old by any standards, but well worth the read if you are trying to learn more about social networking.  Follow the link: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007232

It’s probably happened to you.  You “LIKE” something, then a few days later your FaceBook account gets a mind of its own liking porn or worse of the worst on the web.

Chances are you liked what looked like a legitimate page, and accepted the permissions (most apps/likes etc., almost always want to post to your FB page as you) and now you’re in a conundrum.  You don’t want to delete your profile and start over.  How do you fix it?

You can try and find the Customer Service address for Facebook – I tried that once without much luck, maybe it was staring me in the face but couldn’t locate it and when I did nobody ever replied to me.  Or you can take matters into your own hands.  It’s easy.

First find the offending post(s), for this example I’ll use ZAGG (they are a GREAT company – this is ONLY BEING USED for an example):

Hover your mouse above the BOXED ARROW as shown in the picture above and CLICK on it.  Next you should see this:

At this point you can either REPORT STORY OR SPAM or HIDE ALL BY [offending item name]

You’re done.

If you HIDE ALL these rogue posts will never show-up on your account, but I would also recommend REPORTING THE STORY.  Hopefully FB would then take action against those rogue posts.

I am very happy with my 7″ Acer Iconia A100 Tablet even though there are issues with it, I can normally get a full-day on one charge.  But this year at CES ASUS blew me away with the announcement of a 7″ tablet powered by the Tegra 3 chipset and sporting the latest version of Android – Ice Cream Sandwich.

We’re talking quad-core CPU and priced at $249.00 – only $50.00 more than the Kindle and it will do more than the Kindle will ever be able to do.  Seems to me that this is a no brainer.

The 7″ ASUS is set to be released in the first half of 2012, no firm date was provided by ASUS.

Did I mention that it also nabbed the Best of CES 2012 Award?

http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/01/worlds-first-7-inch-tegra-3-tablet-nabs-cnet-best-of-ces-2012-award/

The problem with wireless networking is that if you’re having to download large files of the Internet – it’s slow.  If you live in an area that is saturated with other wireless networks you end up having issues.  Not to mention that most wireless networks are still G which is what most cordless phones and other devices run on.

If you don’t have the option of running a hard wire to your router or your home isn’t roughed in for Ethernet you’re stuck.  Well not really.  You can pick-up this life saver from Amazon.

The TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) allows you to access the internet over your existing home power.

Simply plug one adapter close to where your router is, connect the Ethernet cable from router to adapter.  Plug the second adapter wherever your computer is, connect the Ethernet cable from the adapter to your PC – and you’re done.  You’ve got (or should have) fairly high-speed Internet access without running cabling all over the place.

When I initially saw this product, I was skeptical.  Will it work?  The reviews were mixed, and the tech I spoke with said it was merely OK.

Although my PC was WiFi and my router supports WiFi, the router (plus cable modem) is not very configurable as such I can’t change a lot of the settings on the router/modem.  The only solution was to live with the constant wireless outages and slow transfer speeds, or run a cable from cable modem to PC (not a popular option with the wife, not to mention unsightly) or try the TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K).  Given the opportunity to try it out how could I say no?

Seriously – simple plug and play.  I upgraded the firmware on the kit and I was connected.  I installed the TRENDnet Powerline Utility to monitor the plugs.  I consistently get between 176mbps to as much as 198mbps – I’ve never seen anywhere near 500mbps, but that is perfectly fine.  I never saw these speeds wireless!

Screen shot of the TRENDnet Powerline Utility.

MAIN TAB provides you with the screen above, the ability to see all the adapters currently connected and in-use, plus the transfer rate on each.

PRIVACY TAB allows you to change the name of the private network.  I had a lot of issues when I changed this, as did many people who purchased this product (based on reviews).  I left mine AS-IS and have not had any issues.

DIAGNOTICS TAB allows you to see system information on the adapters, plus remote device history.  If you’re not a techie, you won’t care about this.

I don’t get 500mpbs but didn’t try moving the plug to different outlets and the distance between my rout

er and laptop is about 20 feet.

If you want a quick solution try this product – it works and it’s not expensive.  TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) can be purchased on Amazon for around $100.00 US, worth the money (and peace and quiet in the house).

You can buy the TrendNet 500mbps Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (TPL-401E2K) right now on Amazon.

Key Features

• Includes two TPL-401E adapters
• High speed building-wide networking over an existing electrical system
• 1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX Gigabit port
• Connect one 500Mbps** Powerline AV Adapter to the Internet and then plug in up to 15* additional 500Mbps** Powerline AV adapters for instant building-wide connectivity
• One-touch Sync button networks adapters quickly
• Share data intensive files, play games, download music, and more at ultra fast data transfer rates
• Advanced 128-bit AES encryption to ensure total network security
• Power Saving mode reduces electrical consumption by 80%
• Neighbor network support for up to 4 overlapping networks
• Compatible with both 120 volt and 240 volt electrical systems
• Tri-color LED indicator
• Network signal transmits up to 300 meters (984ft.)
• Auto QoS support through traffic classification and multiple priority queuing
• Configuration utility compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP (32/64-bit) operating systems
• 3-year limited warranty

UPDATE January 15, 2012 @ 12:01am PST

As I still have a couple of plugs laying around I thought of connecting my HP 6500A Plus wireless printer to one of the plugs as I have issues with the printer when it goes to sleep (doesn’t always wake-up).  Well all I can say is “that was easy”.  Screen show below showing both devices.  Device 2 is my laptop, and device 3 is my printer.

The TRENDnet Powerline Ethernet Adapters are my Gold Choice / Editors Choice.  It works, and they are inexpensive.  Buy them.

An excellent post this morning over at the Brazen blog – check it out > http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/01/04/6-reasons-you-wont-get-a-better-job-in-2012/

What do you need to stay ahead of the curve and prepare yourself for the job market challenges in 2012?  Here is a summary of the top tech skills needed in 2012.  Read the entire list over at CIO INSIGHT.  Having gone through the post, I am not surprised by any of the items on the list.

HTML 5 was a no-brainer especially since Adobe has said is abandoning mobile Flash player.  Apple iOS and Android will remain in the top 10 for several more years since companies are working furiously to deliver iOS and Android apps for their customers.  While iOS remains strong, sales figures show that Android phones are selling just as well which means that companies will also develop for Android.  As well the Android App Store hit 10,000,000,000 (that’s 10 BILLION) download in December 2011.

1. HTML 5
2. MongoDB
3. Apple iOS
4. Android
5. Mobile App (development)
6. Puppet
7. Hadoop
8. jQuery
9. Platform-as-a-service
10. Social media

If you’re a developer and don’t know some of these, it’s time you did something about it.

I’ve had the pleasure of using an Acer A100 Iconia Tab for the last month.  The Iconia A100 is Acer’s 7″ tablet, however only comes with 8gb on-board memory and retails for anywhere between $299 to $349 — a little expensive for a 7″ tablet that doesn’t even come with 16gb of memory and only a little bit less than the Acer Iconia A500 which sells for between $349 and $399 with 16gb memory.

Quick specs for the Acer A100 Iconia Tab

• 7” HD Multi-Touch Display: (1024 x 600) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio
• NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 Dual Core Mobile Processor
• 1GB DDR2 Memory
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU
• 8GB Internal Storage
• MicroSD memory card slot up to 32GB
• Dolby® Mobile Technology
• Dual Analog Microphone
• Dual Speaker
• 802.11b/g/n Wireless(802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR
• 1- Micro USB 2.0 Port
• 1- USB 2.0 Port
• 1- Micro HDMI™ Out (with support for 1080p & Dual Displays)
• 5MP Rear Facing Camerawith Auto Focus and single LED flash
• 2MP Front Facing Camera
• Sensors:G-Sensor, E-Compass, L-Sensor, Gyro-meter
• Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer Battery

Using this tablet is a pleasure, I like the small form-factor primarily because it’s easier to carry around with you.  Compared to my 1st generation iPad the Acer Iconia A100 is smaller, and lighter.  Though most images I’ve seen and reviews seem to show the tablet being used in portrait mode, I much prefer landscape since you get to see more of the document or website you’re on.  There are a few applications (for example, the app that you can download that can control the Western Digital Live MediaPlayer) that force the screen into portrait mode but those make sense to run in that way.

The tablet is equipped with a Micro USB 2.0 port so that you can expand memory from a measly 8gb to 40gb by adding a 32gb micro-SD memory card, and a USB 2.0 port to connect to your computer. You also have a micro-HDMI port plus a proprietary connection for an Acer docking station.  On the right side of the tablet you’ve also got two speakers, plus the power connection in addition to a pin-hole reset button.

Having a USB port is advantagous in that you can pull information off of the device directly to your computer, or connect virtually any device to your Acer Iconia A100 – for example, an external hard drive (if 40gb isn’t enough for you) however those options are only good if you’re at home or in an office, you don’t want to carry around an external hard drive as that would really defeat the purpose of having a portable device like a tablet.

I didn’t get the opportunity to test the HDMI or the dedicated dock, however read several reviews and didn’t find anything negative about the HDMI output.  As it is a micro HDMI port you will need to buy yet another cable if you don’t already have micro HDMI to (standard) HDMI.

The other side of the device features a headphone jack, plus the power button – not much to see there.

The Acer Iconia A100 is also equipped with two camera, a 2mp front facing and 5mp rear facing.  Images taken with the 2mp front facing camera are very crisp and clear.  Even images taken with the 5mp camera are nice to look at.  I like the front facing camera so that I’m able to video chat with my son, or wife (or anyone that has a similar configuration whether it’s a smartphone or tablet and is running Skype or anyone of the VOIP applications available on the Android Market or Apple App Store) as this device does not have 3G/4G or any wireless capability (at least the device that I was given to use) other than WiFi you need to tether to your smartphone or connect to any available WiFi signal that’s open.

What you don’t see on the device is what’s inside: Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR, GPS, sensors galore (G-Sensor, E-Compass, L-Sensor, Gyro-meter).  Amazon mentions built-in 4G technology, however the device I was given to play with did not have this and from what I’ve read 3G/4G is NOT available on the Acer Icona A100 Tab.

The colors on the screen are rich, and vibrant – the only fail is that the viewing angle isn’t the best although this wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, it could be an annoyance for anyone else that is comparing this to an iPad (which virtually everyone compares their devices to).

Here is more information from Amazon:

The Acer® Iconia Tab A100 is designed to enrich your mobile life with its compact 7″ size that easily fits in your pocket or purse providing a rich and vibrant experience on the go. The orientation-less multi-touch screen display ensures optimal on-screen viewing from every angle – up and down or left to right.

The latest build of Android™ Honeycomb™ operating system provides enhanced audio and visual support, smoother streaming and file transfers, resizable app widgets and more! The Android™ Market lets you choose from thousands of your favorite apps to customize your A100 Tab ANY way you want.

This tablet has the power you want, in the portable size you need for your busy life on the go. Showcasing a stunning 7-inch 16:10 multi-touch screen (1024 x 600 resolution) while offering convenience, versatility and speed.

The stylish Iconia Tab A100 with smooth, rounded edges and lightweight design fits comfortably in one hand- and with all the fun features you’ll definitely be hooked!

NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2, the first mobile dual-core CPU brings the fastest, most visually-rich tablet experience, and extreme multitasking for effortless multimedia enjoyment. Enjoy the best Web experience with up to two times faster browsing, full Adobe® Flash® support*, and console-quality gaming with an NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU.

Discover all the amazing things you can do on your Iconia Tab A100! The 5 point multi-touch display and gyro meter control give you a gaming experience on par with the best consoles. Download the latest HD games from the Android Market place for hours of fun!

This latest Honeycomb OS now supports Google Apps! Rent the latest flicks with Google Movies and listen to your personal play lists with Google Music in great Dolby® Sound! Port this whole entertainment experience to your big screen TV in full 1080p HD glory through the micro-HDMI™ port.

The battery provides up to 4.5-hours of cable-free battery life giving you the freedom to experience fast web browsing, email, view photos and HD videos, play high-end games and read ebooks wherever you may be!

As this was primarily a review device, I didn’t download a lot of paid applications except for several $0.10 apps purchased during the Google celebration of 10,000,000,000 downloads.  Most were games that would also run on my Android phone.

The apps that I did download were:

1. SimCity Deluxe – could not get it to work on this device at all
2. GLWG – ran fine
3. Captain America – ran fine
4. Sleepy Jack – ran fine
5. Sentinel 3 – ran fine
6. Puffle Launch – ran fine
7. Heavy Gunner – ran fine
8. Star Chart – ran fine
9. Amazon Kindle – ran fine
10. Camera Zoom FX - ran fine

Most games ran great on the supercharged device, I didn’t notice any lag on any of the games.  My son also tested out most of the action games like Captain America and Puffle Launch (if your child subscribes or uses Club Penguin from Disney they will love Puffle Launch) and didn’t complain at all though he liked to play the games on his iPad instead.

I also used some other applications on the Acer Iconia A100 Tab, such as Pulse, Twitter, Google+, DVICE, Skype, YouTube and DOCS and found that they are all easy to work with on the smaller screen and form factor.

The other plus is that you can connect a bluetooth keyboard to the device if you want to use another input method instead of the screen – but with the 7″ form factor typing on the screen is much easier thumbing.

So what don’t I like about this?

Battery life is poor as with all smart phones and devices.  I can get through a work day easily since I can’t use it much and on those days pay very close attention to the screen settings, ensuring BT and WiFi is off.  On days that I’m out and about, I still watch battery usage quite closely as I didn’t have a car charger and you can’t charge using USB but could manage to pull in an 8-hour day with very tight (manual) power management.  I didn’t spend money on Juice Defender or any other similar application.

Screen viewing angles are not as good as it is on the iPad, but again this would not be a deal breaker for me.

Overall I was quite happy with the Acer Iconia A100 Tab.  It performs exceptionally well, sound and image quality is superb and I thoroughly enjoyed the 7″ form factor.  Combined with a device that comes equipped with a dual core processor, 1gb of memory plus 8gb RAM which is expandable by adding up to 32gb via micro-SD you’ve got a device that’s ready to go.  Initially I thought not having 3G/4G connectivity would hamper but I pair with my phone when I need to – sure that’s not the same as “always available” but a minor inconvenience.  As well I don’t need a separate plan for my phone and device.

The reviews found on Amazon have been mostly positive with 69 reviews.  55 of those reviews gave the Acer Iconia A100 Tab 4 – 5 stars.

The Acer Iconia A100 Tab is definately something you will want to consider when looking for a 7″ device.

UPDATE January 15, 2012

ASUS has announced a 7″ tablet during the recent CES.  I’m already seeing the price of their larger tablet drop in price somewhat (between $20.00 and $50.00 price drops locally, and online).  The 7″ Tegra 3 Tab is expected to retail for $250.00 – check out the post over at TechCrunch and ArsTechnica.

If you can’t wait and want a 7″ tablet then the Acer isn’t a bad buy – but I’d wait if you’ve not made the jump.  ASUS builds quality products, and I’m sure that the 7″ will not disappoint.  Eagerly waiting for this tablet to take it for a drive (permanently) — apparently first half of 2012.

Having been on the “hot seat” a few times over the lat 20-years of my career, I’m now in the position to interview candidates.  One of the key areas when running a call center is ensuring that you hire the right candidate otherwise they can become a toxic component in your team.

Here are several questions that I use to weed out who I bring in for a 2nd interview:

1. What is important for you in a job?  What are you expecting from us?
2. How do you handle a difficult colleague?
   1. Ideally if you’ve interviewed correctly, you should not have difficult employees – but some people are exceptional interviewees and you can only spot the toxic ones after you’ve hired them.
3. How will you add value to the team?
4. Talk to be about a time where…
   1. I like this question because if does prompt the candidate to think about what they’ve done in the scenario you present to them.  You can always tell who is honest in their response as well by using these types of questions.
5. Tell me about a mistake you made, and what you did to fix it

Though many companies use hiring agencies to fill certain posts, it is still important to meet with a potential candidate that may well be in your employee for 2, 3 or more years.  The interview is part of the process, and hopefully the agency you use also vets the good from the bad.

If you’ve got interview questions that work for you, please do share them.

With the economy being what it is right now, those graduating from university, or gollege will have a very tough time getting jobs.  There have been many articles written over the year about this issue:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/08/college-graduates-jobs-unemployment_n_893495.html
• http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/18/2886035/recent-college-grads-hit-by-recession.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/24/the-downsized-college-graduate/young-workers-in-a-wage-rut-for-years

I went through the same scenario many years ago and was competing against government employees (accountants) that had years of experience and were willing to work for less in order to just have a job.

So what’s a new college or university graduate to do?

Start their own business.

But even this is not a sure fire proposition and though they are starting to fall in CANADA http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2011/02/20110203-112033.html, http://www.bankruptcycanada.com/bankstats1.htm there are still problems in the US (as can also be seen on the news): http://www.bankruptcy-statistics.com/, http://www.uscourts.gov/Statistics/BankruptcyStatistics.aspx with the constant threat of another recession hot on the heels of one we’ve just worked our way through (others would also argue that we’re still in the recession).

In Canada in August 2011 bankruptcies declined by 3.7% compared with the same month last year.  Consumer bankruptcies were also down by 9% in August 2011 compared to the same month last year.  While the actual breakdown does present other numbers, such as an 11% increase in BC to a 20% decrease in Manitoba you also have to go beyond the numbers to look at the actual numbers and the per-capita rates as all provinces and cities are different in size and dynamics.  One misleading or perhaps misconstrued number that would send someone reeling is the 100% in NT in August 2011 but we’re only talking about single digits here – not in the hundreds, or thousands.

I’m certain you would see something similar in the US, however I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the rate of US bankruptcies however you can get the breakdown at http://www.uscourts.gov/Statistics/BankruptcyStatistics.aspx and at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/bankruptcyprof_blog/bankruptcy_statistics/ which does a great job of explaining the information found at the US Courts website.

Also keep in mind that the US has several different classes if bankruptcy (Chapter 7, 9, 11 – 13, and 15).  Some of the notable ones in the US has been Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual and Worldcom – not to forget the one that everyone remembers Enron (will the USPS [http://newsinabox.net/2215/u-s-postal-service-faces-bankruptcy.html] be the next big one?).

Bankruptcies will also vary by region, for example (http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article663228.ece) noted that new filings for Western New York dipped in November for the 18th month by 17.50%:

New bankruptcy filings in Western New York dipped again in November for the 18th straight month, as fewer people can afford to file for court protection or have fewer reasons to do so.

According to the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York, new cases fell by 17.5 percent in November in the Buffalo and Rochester courts, to 531 filings.

The purpose of this post isn’t to hilight where the economy is or is headed - we all know what’s going on through radio, newspaper, TV and Internet.  What it does go to hilight is that with the amount of uncertainty in the economy and the job prospects bad for well experienced individuals, how does a student compete?  Simple, they don’t and instead consider going into business for themselves.

However when taking this step you need to set out clear, concise goals.  You need to have a vision for what you want to do, and drive yourself forward to that vision.  If you’ve decided upon a business that you want to get yourself into and have done the research build your business plan.  This will help you get money from friends, or family since most banks may not be willing to lend you anything.  It will also help you in that others will be able to scrutinize your plan – see if anyone can poke holes (let them play devils advocate) in the plan.

There are several great resources out there for developing your business plan.  One of the best places to start your research is through LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) and their Answers section.  There is a treasure trove of information there and one post to pay pay attention to is this one http://www.mohamedbhimji.com/business-plan-fundamentals – the link is shortened, but it will take you to LinkedIn.  It’s a long post, so I’ve summarized the information below in bullet form – it’s primarily a list of resources and individuals that you can possibly ping to help you:

• Software – http://www.paloalto.com/
• Individual – http://be.linkedin.com/in/frankliesenborgs
• Software – http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/default.aspx
• Software – http://www.paloalto.com/ps/bp/sampleplan_sample_view.cfm?Studio67
• Software – http://www.dynamicbusinessplan.com/category.asp?ID=1 / http://www.dynamicbusinessplan.com/answer.asp?ID=2
• Resource – http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/businessplans.html
• Resource – http://small-business-resources-cafe.blogspot.com/
• Resource – http://www.businessplans.com
• Resource – http://www.bplans.com
• Resource – http://www.score.org
• Resource – http://www.theresourcequeen.com/businessplans.html

With respect to Score.ORG one person that answered the question had this to say about the resource:

• It is a great asset to have.
• It is a FREE service to use the website.
• You can get FREE mentoring.
• I’ve paid for classes, but that has been for an intimate venue that has specific focus.  But either way, it was not expensive at all.
• When you go to the site, on the left hand side you can click on “Business Tools” and you’ll be right on track with what you need.
• You’ll have more resources than you’ll know what to do with, but luckily most of it is self-explanitory. (But the Mentor is there for when it’s not).
• A great part of having a business plan is the pride of knowing that you worked on it yourself, and in it, you will be able to focus on the parts of your business that you know to be amazing.
• I have gotten A LOT of assistance from SCORE, including how to go about financial backing.

Now if you want to see ALL the information on how to write a successful business plan on LinkedIn you can follow this link http://www.linkedin.com/searchAnswers?results=&sik=1323304496730.

If you have any resources that you would like to share, please leave a comment.  I will approve all comments that add value – don’t spam because I’ll just delete the comment.