Category Archives ⇒ Technology

Get Paid to Take Pictures With Your iPhone

· Brandon Hann

Attention iPhone owners! Get paid to use your camera while walking around various locations where you’re already at! Say what?! That’s right, I just discovered a new company called Gigwalk that creates photo assignments for you to pick up and complete. For that, you get a simple commission.

I downloaded the app and began the signup process, but it looks like they don’t accept just anyone. I’m actually in a virtual line to find out if I’m approved. How they pick and choose who get’s access is beyond me, but until I get an answer, I’ll at least go over how this new service works.

Photo Assignments

Gigwalk uses pre-assigned tasks to hand out to the community of app users based on a number of various requests such as verifying street signs, business locations, interior photos of restaurants, etc. Once you choose an assignment that is close to your current location, Gigwalk will tell you the instructions for what kind of photos you need to take, how many and any other instructions that are required. Once you complete the assignment and it gets approved, you get paid.

So who’s paying for all this and why? It’s business owners and anyone else interested in obtaining photos from people using the app. As an example, if you own a local restaurant and you want Gigwalk users to come take photos of it, you create a new assignment (a Gig) dictating what you want a Gigwalker to take photos of and where to do it. The assignment is then sent out to all the local Gigwalkers and they begin to take the photos.

These assignments can range from the mundane like taking pictures of toilets in bar or the detailed like exploring the ins and outs of a swanky hotel. The cost of these assignments can range drastically. In the case of the toilets, you could make about $4, but the hotel review could bring in about $35.

What’s all this for?

Just like Google is out there mapping the world with street view access to almost any populated area on the Earth, Gigwalk decided to take things a step further. For one, they’re not investing in a huge fleet of camera vehicles that simply drive around and take pictures of whatever it sees. Plus, it allows businesses to decide how they want their businesses to be presented.

For users, I think the biggest benefit is to have more accurate information at your disposal. I’m sure you can understand that one of the most frustrating things about using a GPS or even Google Maps Street View is when you finally locate a business you were looking for, but when you drive to it, it no longer exists. Gigwalk can help with that by providing verification photos of things that have changed.

An example of this might be a user complaint that says such and such restaurant is no longer there, so a Gigwalk assignment is put out for someone to go take a picture of the empty building or even the name of the new place.

My two cents

Of course I can’t actually review the service as I haven’t used it yet, but from the surface, it looks very promising. Since I’m an iPhone owner and I like getting out, I know this will be just one more thing I can do with my device while I’m on the go. And if I make some money doing it, then so be it! I’ll report back with my findings if I get chosen to become a member.

In the meantime, go check out Gigwalk.

Apple iOS 5

· Brandon Hann

Not much is known at this time about what iOS 5 will bring to Apple’s devices, but one this that is becoming certain is that Apple plans to bring software updates directly to your device “over-the-air”.

Currently, you have to plug into iTunes, wait for a 600MB+ download to finish and then proceed with the backup, sync and update of your device. With iOS 5, Apple could send updates like this right over the 3G network. The problem as you might imagine is the 600MB file size!

With AT&T already capping their data transfer rates, consumers could potentially exceed their cap without even knowing how or why. This is all of course if the carriers go for the idea anyway. One way that Apple could “sell” the idea to them is to have many more, smaller updates be released over various lengths of time.

On the surface, this idea doesn’t sound so bad. In fact, it sounds rather convenient for those on the go, but that’s all relative as to how the updates would implement. As it stands now, updates require the phone to not be in use and then a full restart follows the software installation. I can’t imagine what it might be like if iOS 5 needed to restart every day after seemingly insignificant updates. However, for anyone that runs OSX knows, there are few updates that don’t require a system restart!

Another question up for debate is whether a new iPhone will be released with iOS 5. AT&T has already been quoted as saying: “Apple has informed us that they do not plan to release the iPhone in the June to July timeframe.”

Others have speculated that a new iPhone might be in the works for a September release and it may only be a refresher phone much like the 3GS was in comparison to the 3G. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll be waiting either way. I like the iPhone 4 and I can’t see any major reason to upgrade anytime soon.

Apple MacBook Air vs Samsung Series 9

· Brandon Hann

In my never-ending search for the perfect mini-laptop, the Series 9 is looking like a mighty contender to the MacBook Air. Originally, I compared the MacBook Air to the MacBook Pro and iPad 2 to find out which device held up as a better “portable” computer, but it looks like a new competitor has stepped into the ring: Samsung.

From the looks of it, Samsung has a great product and by all accounts it appears to have the Air licked, but after looking closer, it might seem like you get more for your dollar with Apple. When have you ever heard anyone say that before?!

Design

Both of these lightweight computers are designed to be as thin as possible. While I still love the design features of practically all Apple hardware, the Samsung Series 9 is very close in style and material to the Air. In fact, it’s even .04 inches thinner than the MacBook at its thickest point. I know .04 inches is nothing, but I’m sure there are some people out there that might raise a fuss about it!

Apple MacBook AirSamsung Series 9

One major complaint I have about the MacBook Air is that unlike its Pro counterpart, it does not have an edge-to-edge glass screen. The silver border around the screen is actually a separate piece above the screen and this allows dust and grime to accumulate at the edges. Ironically, Apple has veered away from designs like this on every other one of their product partly for this reason.

Features

Take a look at the comparison between the two. While the Samsung has more than the Air on many points below, I still can’t see how they justify their pricing.

Comparison: (Series 9 is compared to base 13-in MacBook Air)

MacBook Air Samsung Series 9
Base Price $1299 $1649
Colors Silver Aluminum Black Duralumin
Dimensions (HxWxD) 0.11-0.68in x 11.8in x 7.56in 0.64in x 12.9in x 8.9in
Weight 2.3 pounds 2.88 pounds
Storage 128GB SSD 128GB SSD
Memory 2GB DDR3 (4GB Max) 4GB DDR3 (8GB Max)
Connections Wi-Fi (A,B,G,N), Bluetooth 2.1 Wi-Fi (B,G,N), Bluetooth 3.0
Screen 13.3in HD LED glossy 13.3in SuperBright LED HD anti-glare
Processor 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor 2537M
Battery Up to 7 hours Up to 7 hours
Camera Standard VGA 1.3MP HD
I/O Ports Mini Display port (supports HDMI, DVI and VGA via adapters), RJ45 LAN (with adapter), Mic-in, Headphone Jack, 1 SD card Slot, 2 USB ports Micro HDMI Input, Headphone Jack, Mic-in, 1 MicroSD Slot, RJ45 LAN, 2 USB Ports (1 Chargeable)

Apple gets beat out in almost every category except for size and weight (although these two factors are not likely to be dealbreakers for most consumers). Not only does Samsung have Apple beat on everything listed above, there are also two other major differences. The first one is that the Series 9 has a backlit keyboard and the second being a 3-year warranty. On the Air, you can’t get the backlit keyboard and the only way to get 3 years of warranty service is to buy AppleCare for another $249.

My two cents

If we’re comparing the lowest priced 13 inch MacBook Air to the Series 9, the Series 9 has Apple beat, however you’ll be paying $350 more for it. If you bring up the MacBook Air to the same 3-yr warranty coverage, you would have only a $100 price difference with Samsung still be the more expensive device.

Another thing to remember is that Apple also has two 11 inch models to consider with prices going as low as $999. My opinion is that the huge difference in price doesn’t seem to justify the small differences in features except maybe the processor and more memory. I’d say if you’re thinking about the Series 9, maybe it’s more of a comparison to the 13 inch MacBook Pro except in thickness and you might want to take a look at where you money is being spent.

The last major difference is obviously the operating system. Although I love Windows 7 and how much better it is than previous versions of Windows, I still love my OSX much better! Plus, if you get the MacBook Air, you can still install Windows on it so you can have the best of both worlds.

If you’re considering spending $1649 on the Series 9, you may want to consider a MacBook Pro. If you’re just looking for a mini-laptop and don’t have the heart to go all the way down to a netbook, check out the MacBook Airs.

Google In Trouble for Location Tracking Software

· Brandon Hann

Directly on the heels of developments revolving around Apple’s iOS 4 privacy concerns, Google is now up to bat. Only this time, there’s a lawsuit involved. $50 million to be exact.

Now, $50 million seems like a drop in the bucket for the likes of Google, but as with most lawsuits, it’s the point that’s more important and this case is no different. According to Wired.com, “Detroit area residents Julie Brown and Kayla Molaski filed a class action lawsuit against Google over concerns that the location data that Android devices send to Google “several times per hour” is tied to a unique (though random) device ID.” What this tells me is that people are becoming more and more aware of just what kind of personal information is getting out to the world. The irony of this is we also live in a world where we’ve never been connected more.

With Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs and the ability to “check-in” to practically all these, does it really surprise you to find your name on Google? If we learn anything from movies these day, we should all know just how traceable the cell phone world is, so does it also surprise you that your smartphone is sending data to the companies that run the software?

Of course not! In fact, it’s not even personal data that’s being transmitted (or so they say). It’s simply location data. Naturally, when you hear such a term, your first thought is a horror story about how Google (or Apple) will always know where you’re at. This is just not the case. At least in Apple’s story, they were collecting location data in the form of cache that allows them to reduce the amount of bandwidth required to pull the same data off the same cell towers everyday. To put it in English, if you are using an app that uses location mapping, your phone has to contact each local cell tower and download some data in order for your phone to know where you’re at. Part of the process includes your device uploading some data to that cell tower. Apple was basically storing that data for you so the next time you accessed it, the desired results would come to you much faster.

The other major concern in both of these cases was how accessible such data could be should your device fall into the wrong hands. In other words, if your mortal enemy got a hold of your phone, could he/she download files that would tell them where you’ve been? It would seem that in Apple’s case, that was true—this was fixed in the latest software update. In Google’s case, the data remained on the phone in an encrypted state that could only be accessed through a root connection (which on Android phones, it’s the equivalent of jailbreaking).

Lastly, the class action lawsuit is claiming that Android devices are collecting this data every few seconds and then transmitting it back to Google every hour or so. Google claims that this data is transferred with a unique (and random) ID number that in no way allows Google to know what device the data came from or who owns it. I for one, am not worried about this. Well, actually my only real concern would be the likelihood that my battery will die much sooner with all those “extra” connections.

The Best of Apple at The Onion

· Brandon Hann

Since it’s Friday, I’m taking some liberties with today’s post. Every so often, I check out The Onion and I always find myself laughing at some of the stuff they come up with. I especially like the Apple “news” because it’s so easy to make fun of almost everything they do! Because of this, I decided to search their website for anything Apple and came up with the 5 I liked most.

iLaunch

March 2007 – Apple launches the iLaunch—a revolutionary product that revolutionizes how innovative technology is unveiled. For the low price of $12,000, you too can have a product-launching product that launches your product with almost no human interaction! Steve Jobs’ new product is poised to take down any other competing product-launch product with features such as automated keynote creation and presentation, the saving of a significant product feature for the end of the presentation to WOW audiences and its simplicity. Jobs said it’s so easy, “Even an intern can use it.” Read more about iLaunch.

iHand

Apple iHand
February 2011 – Finally you can now cut off your hands (or even just one) and install the latest prosthetic appendage from Apple! This new revolutionary device will revolutionize how you use your hands. You can now hold simple, light-weight objects, wave to your family and friends with ease and give high-fives to other Apple fans. Later models will allow you to write and poke people on Facebook. Hackers have already stepped in and are looking for ways to allow the iHand to display the middle-finger gesture should the need for that arise. Read more about iHand. Watch the iHand video.

iPhone 3GI

Apple iPhone 3GI
July 2009 – It’s about time, loyal Apple customers! You can now get the new iPhone 3GI—the new iPhone that’s only visible to you…the real fans. That’s right, non-dedicated Apple customers and other device owners will be jealous beyond normal levels when you walk into the room with the new invisible iPhone. According to Apple, the screen resolution is the finest ever made for a phone. The new iPhone 3GI comes in black, silver and white. Features include the ability to run dozens of simultaneous apps at once, never a single lost bar of signal strength and one-tap video editing using Final Cut Pro. Again, the phone is only available to those who believe in the company more than anything else in the world, and who would never, ever dream of questioning it. Read more about iPhone 3GI.

Apple Friend Bar

July 2010 – As an addition to the already popular Genius Bar available at all Apple Stores, the Friend Bar offers a special place for Apple fans to sit and chat with Apple experts about the latest technology and how they use it. You can discuss anything from how Safari is superior to Firefox to how much time you spend editing skateboarding videos with iMovie. If you can’t get your fix during store hours, Apple has also setup up the Friend Bar to be accessible 24/7 via a toll-free call center. Apple has already announced they’re going a step further by offer the iStore, a $6,000 product that allows you to setup up your own miniature Apple Store inside your own home. Other fees include the monthly salary for your personal Apple employee as well as any products you purchase from your store. Watch the Friend Bar video.

Think Different

Apple - Think Different
February 1999 – For years, Apple has touted their superiority using slogans like “Think Different”, but for one Apple employee, doing just that cost him his job. Brent Barlow was one of the unfortunate individuals to learn the hard way that thinking different at Apple was only for the customers. He was fired after heavily modifying his workspace including the installation of hooks above his desk to hang a mountain bike, using an unapproved desktop image featuring Jim Henson and replacing the familiar Apple startup sound on his computer with that of a portion of “Imagine” by John Lennon. Barlow has stated that the personalzation of his workspace has inspired him to “think outside the box”, but his boss responded, “If he wants to think that different, he can do so on his own time.” Read more about Brent Barlow.

Visit TheOnion.com for much more tech news and have a few laughs at the expense of the industry.

Twitter Gets Banned for The First Time

· Brandon Hann

I’m not really too sure why Twitter was singled out in the news today when it was announced that cell service will be blocked during the Royal Wedding this Saturday, but one thing is for sure, there will be no tweeting of any kind. In fact, with the loss of all cell service, you can say goodbye to Facebook and every other social networking program.

According to Yahoo!, authorities are instituting signal-blocking technologies inside Westminster Abbey during the entire length of the ceremony. I’m not here to report that news because the article already does a fine job of that and really, what else do you need to know?!

However, after reading this, my interest was piqued and now I’m wondering why more and more places and events aren’t using this technology. I can think of a million times when this would serve great purpose, but to save you time (and energy) I’ll just list my top five:

  1. Movie theatres – I don’t care who you are or how popular you may be; there is no valid reason whatsoever for you to be texting or making/receiving calls in the middle of a movie! And while we’re on the topic, you shouldn’t be talking either.
  2. Restaurants – You’re there to celebrate an event, spend time with a loved one, impress a date or just to have conversation with your close friends. The point being made here is that anyone you should be talking to is already at the table, not on a phone.
  3. Museums – Most museums are quiet, tranquil places for people to soak up some culture and feel connected to history. There’s no need to conduct a business meeting while gazing at a Van Gogh.
  4. Weddings – The sheer fact that you aren’t cognizant of turning your phone off (or at least on silent) when you’re at a wedding says volumes about your personality and lack of respect for two people who have spent thousands of dollars to make the day perfect while also providing you with free dinner.
  5. Public transportation – I don’t use public transportation that much, but when I was in New York, I was all over the subways. Fortunately I never ran into any talkative passengers because there is no service underground, but I can imagine what it would be like to be stuck on a bus with someone that just won’t shut up!

I’m all about the latest in technology, but I do have some sense of civility left. In the aforementioned locations, it’s not always about being kind to your neighbors, but it’s also about being respectful to your surroundings. As with anything in life, there is a time and a place for using a cell phone and taking calls.

Signal blocking devices

Fortunately, we no longer have to wait for disrespectful people to hang up their phones. We can now buy our own signal-blocking devices and carry them wherever we go. I found a fairly cheap one on Deal Extreme for about $26. This little thing gives you about a 30 ft range in which you can block all cell phone services! On the battery, it’ll last for about 3 hours so that’s plenty of time to get that nap in you were hoping for. For an even larger model, get one that looks like a router and start blocking signals up to 30 meters away!

The problem with such devices is that they are illegal in many countries including the U.S. so good luck getting one and don’t get caught. In the U.S., a fine can be issued in the amount of $11,000 and you could serve jail time. While this is absurd in my opinion, I do understand that signal jammers not only block the annoying cell users, but also anyone else in the area and that could pose a major problem should someone actually need to use their phone for emergency purposes.

The only alternative to not using these devices is to teach people cell phone etiquette and hope for the best. Whatever happened to everyday manners?

Is Apple "Watching" You Through iOS 4?

· Brandon Hann

It would appear that a newly discovered un-encrypted file located on iOS 4 devices has been storing location information since it launched back on June 21, 2010. What’s not entirely clear is exactly how Apple is using this information, if at all. The file is called consolidated.db and it works by downloading latitude and longitude information taken from triangulated cell phone towers as you move about various locations.

As you would imagine, the iPhone and the iPad are the only iOS 4 devices that this could possibly affect, however there are no indications that any of this information is being sent to Apple. Some believe it’s just an easier way for iPhoto to correctly tag information to pictures taken on the devices while others think it may have to do with the new free MobileMe feature called Find My iPhone that allows you to find the location of a lost phone with the added benefit of being able to send a direct system message to the device and/or wipe its contents remotely.

Of course, this new information is likely to only upset a small handful of users seriously concerned with data privacy issues and anyone developing any new concerns should be reminded that the information collected in this file is the same that any phone company can obtain from their own data-collection processes. With cell phones, it’s possible for any law enforcement agency to find out your previous GPS history—with a court order of course.

As far as protecting you and your device from unwanted eyes, the best thing you can do besides turning your device off is to simply encrypt your iTunes backups.

Finally, for anyone wishing to complain to Apple (or anyone else), understand that all of this information was divulged to us in a long EULA that we all generally fail to read on just about everything with buy! Here’s a direct quote from Apple’s terms:

Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services.

I, for one am not worried about anything—for two reasons—1. I’m doing nothing wrong and 2. There are plenty of apps out there that use location tracking as their primary function.

So, to answer the stated question directly, no, Apple is not watching you! But at least it’s nice to understand how your device works a little bit more, right?

Tonido – Run your own personal cloud

· Brandon Hann

Sometimes I might be away from my home, perhaps at a friend’s out or maybe even out of town. While I generally have my MacBook to keep me connected, there are many times when I go to do something and I can’t because I realize everything is stored on my desktop computer. Of course there are services out there that allow you to upload data to the “cloud”, but I don’t like them because they are either too limited or too costly.

For anyone who doesn’t already know, cloud computing is the new terminology used to describe how we interact with our computers and data on the Internet. In the simplest of terms, creating a cloud allows you to make all of your files available online so you can access them wherever you are.

Tonido

Tonido is free software that allows you to turn your home computer into your own personal cloud! Now, you can run your own cloud services similar to that of Apple’s MobileMe and Google Docs with two major differences: it’s free and you don’t have to upload your files to any 3rd parties.

The top 10 reasons to run Tonido:

  1. Secure and private – Use an external DNS name such as cloud.domain.com to access your Tonidio-enabled computer from anywhere in the world.
  2. File management – You can have full access to all of your files.
  3. Tonido WebShare – Create specific file shares for specific users, allowing them to have access to only what you want them to while using easy-to-remember URLs. There is a $29.99 charge to purchase the Pro version of this which enables quite a few new features. See Tonido Webshare for more information.
  4. Stream videos – Ever wanted to take your movies and videos with you on vacation, but could never decided on which ones to bring because you didn’t want to fill up your hard drive? You can now stream any video file directly from your home computer through Tonido Explorer.
  5. Stream music – Just as you would imagine, you can also stream all of your music. No need to bring your entire music collection with you anymore!
  6. Manage torrents – I used to have to wait until I got home to start any torrent downloads I wanted to get, but Tonido allows you to create and manage all of your downloads remotely.
  7. Manage money – There’s an add-on feature that allows you to manage all your finances remotely too.
  8. Backups – Use Tonido to remotely backup your whole computer to another computer on the network or to any other computer on the Internet.
  9. Personal blog – If you’ve always wanted to run a personal blog, but didn’t want to deal with all of the hassle of webhosting, you can use Tonido’s “Thots” to do just that. Make it only available to you or the whole world; you decide.
  10. Cross platform – Tonido is available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Remote software is available for those as well as the latest smartphones.

My two cents

From the looks of things, everything is free except the WebShare Pro. Ironically, this is probably the piece of software that you’d use most, so all in all, setting up your own cloud would cost about $30. Of course, you also have to provide your own hardware and be willing to leave a computer on 24/7. After all is considered, you really can’t beat this configuration. Even if you went with MobileMe, you’d have to pay about $99 per year plus deal with storage limitations.

If you’re anything like me, then you probably prefer to do everything yourself because at least you’d have full control of your cloud plus you can un-limit yourself by providing as much hard drive space as needed. My weekend project is going to be setting up such a system. I’ll be posting my final reviews on Tonido once I’ve played around with it a bit.

Being Forgotten By Google

· Brandon Hann

This is not the kind of talk that any successful webmaster (or aspiring one) would ever want to entertain! Imagine one day, everything you’ve put into creating your place in the Internet world was simply forgotten by Google—ceased to exist, gone, goodbye, no more. However, it would seem that the desire to be forgotten is not that uncommon for regular people out there.

In Spain, there’s a court case against Google that is requesting they remove information on 90 people found within its indexes. Spain’s Data Privacy Agency is ordering that this information be removed after it received complaints about the content being old and now considered to be embarrassing if not libelous to the individuals involved. I’m not here to report the news, so if you want to read the full article go check out Yahoo’s ‘Right to be Forgotten’ article.

What I do want to talk about is just how much information there is out there in regards to your personal information. As for myself, I’ve always been very careful about what I put online and when I’m on Facebook, I’m very vigilant about staying on top of who’s posting comments and pictures involving me and removing items I don’t “approve” of.

Google yourself

As a test, I Googled my full name and I’m happy to report that where most people might find the top links to be some type of people-finding service and reverse phone-number lookups, I’ve managed to secure the top 10 results with various profile pages of mine and web projects I’ve created or worked on. The reason I’m happy about this is because I control every single one of those links. If one day, I don’t like that I posted my email address online, I can remove it and it will cease to exist from that link forever.

How do you fare when Googling your name? None of this may matter right now, but think about your future. Maybe one day you become famous or run for office and because of this wonderful Internet we have, practically all of your personal information is left to the world forever! We’ve all heard stories about people getting fired from their jobs because of unscrupulous Facebook posts and raunchy pictures. In fact, one of my favorite examples of this is the following:

Employee gets fired on Facebook

Becoming forgotten

According to the aforementioned case, one of the individuals involved is running a plastic surgery business and when his practice is searched, the top link shows you his site and relevant information, but the next one shows off a lawsuit that the surgeon was involved in back in 1991. His argument is that this information is detrimental to his business. I should say so! In fact, I’m kind of thinking that maybe people should know this information before getting involved in plastic surgery. On the other hand, is it right (or fair) to judge someone based on extremely old data?

It goes without saying that Google receives tons of removal requests like this from all over the world, but Google doesn’t remove a single one because they don’t want to jeopardize the integrity of their indexes.

So how does one become forgotten online? There is no complete solution to this dilemma because the Internet just keeps collecting data, day after day, after day. The only true way to control information on yourself is to control the source. If you can’t do that, then always remember this one simple rule: if you put it on the Internet, assume everyone in the world has seen it. And if they haven’t, it’s only a matter of time.

The Future of 'Big Box' Retailers

· Brandon Hann

I started at Best Buy as a seasonal digital camera sales rep in 2002 and ended as an agent of the Geek Squad in 2010, just shy of eight full years. Among the many, many things I learned about retail, technology, people, customers and business, the one question I constantly asked myself (and still do to this day), is how much longer can outfits like these survive?

In our morning meetings, we often heard the latest reports about what our competitors were doing and how we were supposed to respond to changes in the market and I remember a specific statement that was said about Walmart. It was along the lines of ‘People are using [Best Buy] as a means to get informed and then taking this knowledge to Walmart to get the better price.’ What struck me more about this than its truth was that I was also doing that very thing! The difference for me, however was that I was spending my money online. What made me think about all this was I happened across an article about the future of Best Buy and in it, Don Reisinger said:

“For people, like me, getting more comfortable with online purchasing, I simply don’t know what would stop me from using Best Buy as a research center. I can go to the store, check out a new camcorder or surround sound system and then decide if it’s something I want. If it is, I’ll ask the manager if they can match Amazon’s deeply discounted price. If he can, I’ll buy it at Best Buy. If not, I’ll go home and order it online.”

The answer to the implied question is the only thing that would stop someone from doing that would be a price match. I doubt even great customer service can save them in the end.

Online Shopping

So what makes people shop in a store rather than shopping online for the convenience and cost-savings? The short answer might be trust. I think we still have a large group of people (mostly in the older generations) that don’t have a full grasp of the concept of the Internet and people are naturally fearful of what they don’t understand. You mix this in with the horror stories of online identity theft, items that ship broken or bad eBay experiences and you get a recipe for disaster.

In my opinion, it’s actually safer/more economical/better to shop online! There…I said it! Let me explain why I believe this:

  1. Credit Cards: Shopping online requires the use of electronic payments and therefore you’re not lugging around a wad of cash or an antiquated checkbook into a store that can target you for theft (or loss).
  2. Fraud protection: Check with your credit card company…I can promise you that if you use your credit card online and there is even the slightest hint of fraud, you will get your money back.
  3. Price: No or low overhead (stores, sales people, etc.) equals lower prices.
  4. Co2 footprint: Reduce your carbon emissions by not driving to the store and sitting in traffic.
  5. Convenience: Patience is a virtue and even though you have to wait for your items to arrive, the added bonus of being able to use your iPhone to make a purchase while you’re waiting for your kids to get out of school is much better.
  6. Availability: Sometimes online shops do go out of stock, but not nearly as often as a regular store.
  7. Selection: Try walking into Best Buy and choosing from over 13,000,000 songs like you can on iTunes.

Above all, the deciding factor for me is simply price. It’s very hard to find a product in a store that can’t be found online for less. Plus, online, you sometimes have the option of buying overstock models, discontinued items, lightly used items and refurbished products–all of which can knock off lots of dollars. In my case, I worked at Best Buy and they give all their employees an employee discount. In case you were wondering how much, it’s cost plus 5%. This equates to whatever the cost Best Buy paid for the item and an additional 5%. Anyone who knows retail knows that low margin items such as computers, anything made by Apple, music cds and older DVDs don’t give you much of a discount where as higher margin items like printer and video cables, accessories and some software can range dramatically.

Interestingly enough, I found that my discount actually cost more than some items online! In other cases, if something was on sale (like a new DVD release), I would end up spending more if I processed the transaction with my employee number!!

Anyway, having a brick and mortar store is nice because if offers these advantages:

  • Physical product you can touch and play with or test out.
  • Live human beings you can talk to and ask questions or hear opinions.
  • A real shopping cart you can stand on and fly down the aisles.
  • Instant delivery of product.

If all those matter to you, maybe shopping at an actual store is your style or maybe you just like to use a store to do research and then take your money elsewhere to get a better price like the rest of us! At any rate, I’m not proposing that Best Buy simply shut down and disappear, but I do think there’s something to be said about the convenience and selection of stores like Amazon.com.

In fact, their new slogan is, “Earth’s largest selection.”