Category Archives: General

Proof the Google Tablet is Coming!

I found the most convincing proof I’ve seen that Google is making a Tablet. I found it while hunting down screenshots and pictures of the Apple iPad using Google Image Search. No matter how hard I tried I kept coming up with everything but pictures of the iPad.

So I did something I very seldom try – I used Bing…and suddenly I have tons of pics!

Now I love a lot of things about Microsoft, but Bing isn’t one of them. In all honesty, it very seldom returns the thing I’m actually looking for. And trust me – I’ve used Bing a LOT. I was in the beta program and used it enough to get a free copy of Zoo Tycoon.

I gotta say, it really looks like Google is “cooking the books” on this one. Missing the mark on a search this badly  just doesn’t fit. Even if you yank the image size criteria I entered, you still get a bunch of images that very clearly are not an actual iPad.

I’m sure folks will come up with all sorts of reasons that it makes perfect sense that Google has completely failed to return the search results I expected, but they’ve never missed this badly before – it just doesn’t make sense!

What do you think?

googlesearch

bingsearch

Search Criteria:

Text = Apple iPad

Image Size = Large

iPad, Kindle, and an Idea for Amazon

azA lot of people are writing their opinions on the effect the iPad will have on Amazon’s Kindle sales, and their ideas of Amazon should be doing in light of last week’s Apple announcement. Here’s mine:

Turn their eBook collection into an online, cloud-based lending library.

What I mean by this is to offer a service like the one LaLa now has, where I can buy songs for 1/10 of what I’d pay for the downloadable mp3, but I can’t download the songs. I can, however, listen to them any time I want – I “own” the listening rights, but the songs stay online.
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CES Minus Apple Equals Showtunes

One thing you may not know about Marc is that he’s a really good singer.

One thing you may not know about me is that I really like musicals.

So when Marc and I decided to bet on whether Apple would exhibit at CES after announcing they were dropping MacWorld, the obvious stakes to put up were that he’d sing a few showtunes of my choosing.

Now that I’ve won (I’m pretty sure that Marc was just humoring me with the whole thing, but I’m not letting that get in the way), I’m working on my choices. I’ve got a big list of songs – my problem is narrowing them down.

But since I know that at least a few people who read this are also musicals fans, I thought I’d ask for suggestions before I make my final decision. So if you’ve got an idea for what you think would be good to have Marc perform, post it here, or reply on Twitter.

And watch this space for the final picks, as well as the release of the videos to YouTube!

A Nice Thing You Do

One really nice thing that a lot of people have done is to call and tell us that we’ve been mentioned in a magazine.

We’ve gotten a lot of mentions and writeups over the last 12 years – I’ve got several shelves of a bookcase dedicated to magazines in which we’ve been written up – but it’s always a thrill to go into a bookstore and find our name in print.

So many thanks to whoever called today and told Marc that eWallet was mentioned in the January 2010 issue of Consumer Reports. And thanks to the person who told us earlier in the week that we’d been included in an NPR segement. And to everyone else who’s gone out of their way to tell us about seeing or hearing our name somewhere, thank you too! We really appreciate it!

What’s with the Windows bugs?

Although most of the people who have upgraded to eWallet 7 on Windows PCare having no trouble at all, there are a few folks running into bugs. A few of these bugs are really frustrating and we’re not taking this lightly. We’ve got developers working non-stop on these and we hope to have an update in the near future.

Most of the people who are running into trouble are already working with Kevin, Lee, and myself on getting the issues ironed out but I wanted to just take a minute to explain why you are seeing bugs! Understanding the developer end of things may not make everything better, but it might help give some insight into what is going on.

I’m also going to mention a few of the bugs we’ve seen at the end of this post. One reminder, however…please send us email if you need support. We just can’t do it here in the blog comments!

That said…read on if you want the full story!

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eWallet 7 Released! (Update 2)

walletHey, everyone! The response to eWallet 7 is overwhelming. Thank you to everyone for your excitement about this new version of our flagship product! (If this is the first you’ve heard of the release of eWallet 7, definitely check out the post here that gives all the details!)

And I’d like to repeat something:  a special “THANK YOU” to everyone who has gone to iTunes and either added a positive review or updated a review! We really appreciate that!!! Honestly – I can’t thank you enough – around here we DO NOT feel that posting positive reviews as a customers “job”, so we see every positive review as a kindness – thank you again!

On to the updates! The biggst update is this:

We fixed the BlackBerry unlock issue and the eWallet Crash for Non-English Windows Installations!

If you download the latest version from our site you’ll get the fix! Again – VERY sorry for the trouble there – like I said – rewrite an application from the ground up and you’re going to hit some snags.

If you want the rest of the details (some of which are repeats that I want to keep around for new visitors to the blog), read on after the jump!

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eWallet 7 Release Update!

walletHey, everyone! As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the biggest release we have ever undertaken and it is extremely exciting. The response we’re getting from customers is phenomenal. Thank you to everyone for your kind words and support! (If this is the first you’ve heard of the release of eWallet 7, definitely check out the post here that gives all the details!)

And a special “THANK YOU” to everyone who has gone to iTunes and either added a positive review or updated a review! We really appreciate that!!! Honestly – I can’t thank you enough – around here we DO NOT feel that posting positive reviews as a customers “job”, so we see every positive review as a kindness – thank you again!

Needless to say, a release of this type is bound to have some hiccups and this one is no different. The following are issues we are currently working on or frequently asked questions. For all the details, read on after the jump!

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eWallet 6 to eWallet 7 iPhone Sync Compatibility

oopsAs some of you know, we made a bit of a screw up in our wording of the iPhone Sync Update message (we apologize for that – it wasn’t our intent to mislead anyone). As a result, our developers leaped into action and busted out a special build of eWallet 6 for Windows PC that lets you synchronize eWallet 6 on the Windows PC with eWallet 7 on the iPhone.

What Is It? A special version of eWallet 6 that lets you synchronize eWallet 6 on the Windows PC with eWallet 7 on the iPhone.

How Does It Work? Just download the file here and run the installer. If it asks for your registration code, your eWallet 6 codes should work. If you don’t have your eWallet 6 codes any longer, you can request them here. IF YOU INSTALLED eWALLET 7 FOR DESKTOP, UNINSTALL IT FIRST.

Who Need It? ONLY iPhone users who own eWallet 6 on the desktop and do not want to upgrade their desktop software to eWallet 7 need this. If you are upgrading to 7 or don’t own an iPhone. You do NOT need this.

So there you go! Hopefully this will help out the folks who got stuck with eWallet 7 on their iPhone. I’m pretty sure most people will want to upgrade to eWallet 7, but at least this way you’ve got a choice!

Thanks and sorry for the trouble!

Marc

PS: We did a bunch of testing and believe this should work fine, but please let us know ASAP if you run into any trouble! We’ll work on any issues immediately.