Let the battle begin: Microsoft vs. Google




What’s happening? It's Colin again for Makeaquick.com and I have got a hot topic for you today. Have you seen those advertisements lately, overstimulating your mind with information from top search results for keywords like ‘Hawaii’ and ‘tickets’? At the end of the commercial you are directed to a new search engine, excuse me I mean ‘decision-making’ engine. If you have no idea what I’m talking about watch the video below and you will hopefully gain more clarity throughout the rest of this post.

Basically Bing.com is Microsoft’s $100 million marketing campaign aimed at capturing a chunk of Google’s growing loyalists. It appears as though Microsoft’s main concern at this point is merely web surfers devoted to search engines and a better searching experience. If you want to see some of the ‘real’ people staking their claims of life before and after Bing.com, click on the linked words. The testimonials go as far as showing a user on a Google search page. 
The question arose in my mind whether or not Google would offer any sort of response to all this Bing.com hoopla and it has been confirmed that the minds behind Google Docs, Google Maps, and the expanding list of Google apps, are not focused on just search engine results. They are focused on a Google operating system; Google Chrome OS. Check out an AP reporting of it. The Google Chrome web browsing software was released in late 2008 and as of yesterday, plans are full speed ahead to get an open-source operating system on computers for consumers by the second half of 2010. According to reports, the OS will be designed for “budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the Web.” 
Okay so all this information is all fine and dandy but how does it relate to you, the consumer and Microsoft, the billion dollar software giant? Let’s start with you. When Google Chrome OS is available, you will have four major competitors for your business; Microsoft’s Windows, Mac OS X, Google Chrome, and Red Hat’s Linux. If you have been keeping up with my posts, you can probably guess which way I’ll lean. To be sure, I will continue investigating all options. Microsoft hopes consumers will continue to go and get a computer with Windows OS preloaded, curbing their software autonomy. This is where Google slides into play. Now computer shoppers will have to pause for a moment and think about which software giant they want curtailing their personal computing experience. Which one will you choose?


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My Newest BFF - IPhone 3G S.




Hey everyone it's Colin, the freshest face on the Makeaquick.com blogging team. I've been testing the iPhone 3G S for a couple weeks to provide marketing research and feedback for various advertisers, firms, and friends. It has been quite a treat because I was holding out with my 1st generation 2G 8GB iPhone from the summer of 2007! Now that the rest of the world, seriously just about the whole world, has access to iPhone 3G S's new functionalities and Apple's OS 3.0, I thought I'd recap my experience with the "fastest, most powerful iPhone yet."

Let's get the basics out of the way. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you should update to OS 3.0 immediately, although iPod Touch users will be tagged with a $9.95 upgrade charge. The 3G S has four key components that separate it from its lesser 3G: a 3 megapixel, auto-focus camera with video capabilities, voice command for your most common functions, Spotlight search, and a compass. iPhone OS 3.0 offers other significant updates from OS version 2.2.1 you can find here, but that is a whole other story.
So how good are these new features? I'll speak to a few but let one testimonial do its own talking. The camera is a nice upgrade but not dramatic enough to corner the mobile phone, picture taking market. The video camera is decent, with minimal on board editing features, but good enough for a local Miami CBS news reporter to shoot an entire story using only the video camera and voice recorder application on his iPhone 3G S. Just watch this news story, shot with iPhone's video camera and be your own judge. Impressive nonetheless.
The voice command features are convenient when you need to be hands free and offer abilities to control your entire iPod, including playing specific artists, albums, songs and playlists, while also dialing specific phones of any contact in your address book. The voice control becomes interactive as well, allowing iPodders to ask for song information and requesting more music with similar rhythms. Pretty clever stuff, though I am waiting for complete voice control features like requesting certain songs be added to playlists or to never be played again.

The Spotlight search was a natural progression for the search features on recent Apple operating system upgrades. It allows users to search their growing iPhone storage collection. The 3G S comes in 16GB and 32GB varieties so search is more desirable than on the 3G 8GB and 16GB models. I've found it most useful for searching multiple e-mail accounts synced on my phone. But as you Spotlight users know, it does keyword search for everything you might have on your hard drive.
As for the compass, I have minimal use for such a feature. I'm sure there are some wild outdoorsmen that have been navigating trails, hiking mountains, skiing slopes, and wandering the Earth with one thought in mind; Why can't Apple just make a compass for my iPhone?! Well guys, and some girls out there somewhere, here you go! Your own compass app to replace the traditional magnetic compass control by the poles, moon, and other orbiting bodies in our solar system. There truly is an app for basically anything.
Having been given an "S" for speed, the iPhone 3G S really has outperformed smartphone competitors in overall data transfer rates. Our friends over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog recently posted speed test results comparing the iPhone 3G, one running OS 2.2.1 and another OS 3.0, the 3G S on OS 3.0, Google's G1 running Android OS 1.5, and the Palm Pre running Web version 1.0.2. Transfer rates were compared against a baseline 2GHz Core 2 Duo Macbook operating on OSX 10.5.7. Of course each smartphone has its own service provider (iPhone with AT&T, G1 on T-Mobile, Palm Pre paired with Sprint.) The results speak for themselves and I am here to attest to the speediness of my 3G S over the past few weeks. Check out the charted results for yourself! I think the "S" stands for sweet!
My conclusion is this: I will be keeping my iPhone 3G S as a full time companion. No matter what criticisms I might have of the newest member in the Apple family, the iPhone still sets the precedent for the mobile phone slash smartphone market. I look forward to making speedier posts, faster tweets, and more immediate status updates for the Makeaquick.com fan base. All courtesy of our sponsors and my newest bff, iPhone 3G S.


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The End of an Era: Dolce on Melrose is closing its doors June 30th


 Ciao Los Angeles,
When I accepted a position as an office assistant at Dolce, I assumed the job title came with the usual responsibilities any other hostess or secretary position requires of you. Two days before Dolce opened its doors, Lonnie Moore, CEO of Dolce Group and longtime pal of mine, said to me "You have to be the backbone of this place!" All of 20 years old, it was unclear to me whether he meant the office, the restaurant or both because Lonnie always has a way of making employees feel like his place is your place too, which only leads to a happier work environment. And thanks to partner Mike Malin, of the NBC reality hit Big Brother, celebrity investors were eager to embark on this journey as well. I was ecstatic on my way to work that first Tuesday morning! I had a cool job that was not only fun, but obviously was going to challenge me, which is just what I like! Little did I know Ashton Kutcher had gone on David Letterman the night before and held up one of Dolce's menus (the very menu I faxed to Letterman's people days earlier) and told America to go check this place out.

The restaurant had four phone lines in the beginning and they rang during my entire shift from 9am to 6pm! Everyone wanted to be there! The "boys", as I so affectionately refer to Lonnie and Mike, would come in to the office after their morning engagements and be slightly disgruntled when they discovered I had not even so much as checked the mail, much less attended to all the other responsibilities in the office, because I had been answering phones and taking reservations all day! I kept telling them over and over, "Y'all just don't understand, this thing is huge!"

But understand they did, which is why their savvy business persona is unrivaled today. Dolce on Melrose may be closing its doors, but you can rest assured Dolce Group is thriving! With an elite fleet of clubs and restaurants now spanning the country, there is virtually no end in sight. However, for you Angelenos who crave delicious Pumpkin Ravioli (my personal fave), two weeks from now you'll be S.O.L. All good things must come to an end and unfortunately our favorite local Italian eatery is no different. So make your reservations and plan your return to 8286 Melrose before it's too late!

Thinking back on all the special times I've spent at Dolce, the birthday dinners, drinks after work, and bad dates (where the only saving grace for the night was the delicious pesto chicken gnocchi), I do get quite nostalgic. So give them a call today at 323.302.4284 and be sure to tell them the folks at Makeaquick.com sent you! Grazie!

Arrive' derci!

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