Tags: account research, Alerts, Google, RSS, RSS aggregators, web search

After months of rumors and leaked glimpses, Research In Motion (RIM) officially announced that their new BlackBerry® Storm™ mobile communication device, their first offering without a physical keyboard, will be available exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. and to Vodafone customers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand sometime in November.  RIM’s press release provided no specifics about the exact release date(s), saying only: “Additional details related to availability and pricing will be announced in the coming weeks.”

According to RIM, the Storm features “the world’s first tactile touch display that responds like a keyboard and combines multi-touch and gesture support for intuitive selection and application navigation”, referring to the device’s haptic feedback interface.

The Storm is designed to operate on a wide variety of communication network types. In the U.S., the Storm can utilize Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A/CDMA – technology – and HSPA/UMTS as well as quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM for global use.  The Vodafone version supports HSPA and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks.  This flexibility means that the Storm is truly a phone that can be used worldwide, and which will support relatively fast speeds for full HTML Internet browsing.  Both wireless providers will also support text messaging (SMS), picture messaging (MMS), and instant messaging on the Storm.

RIM also says that the Storm’s removable and rechargeable battery will provide about 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 15 days of standby time.

The BlackBerry Storm’s most unique feature is its large (3.26”), 360 x 480 resolution touch screen interface, which according to early user reports, provides a distinct ‘click’ confirmation when depressed, providing a similar experience to using a real keyboard.  This is very different from other virtual touchscreen interfaces, such as the Apple iPhone’s, which provide no physical feedback.  The Storm touchscreen reportedly supports “multi-touches, taps, slides, swipes and other gestures, so customers can easily select, scroll, pan, and zoom for smooth navigation”, according to RIM. The tactile touch screen display gives customers a choice of virtual keyboards, using either RIM’s SureType® layout in portrait and a full QWERTY layout in landscape orientation - and users can switch between the two keyboards, even in the middle of writing a text message or e-mail, just by rotating the device.  Also, unlike the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm will support “cut and paste” functionality across applications.

Other features of the Storm will include:

• Support for seamless integration with corporate email systems
• Enterprise IT policy and security controls
• The ability to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset
• 3.2 megapixel camera, with variable zoom, auto focus, and a flash that also provides continuous lighting when recording video; the camera records video in half-VGA resolution (480×320) or at 176×144 for MMS
• 1 GB of memory storage and an 8 GB microSD memory card included in expandable memory card slot
• A media player for displaying pictures and slideshows, playing movies in full screen mode and playing music
• A sensor automatically adjusts to ambient light for ideal screen viewing and an orientation sensor allows customers to use the handset in a portrait or landscape position

Tags: 9500, BlackBerry Storm, RIM, Verizon, Vodafone

The niche blog Storm Reviews published clear pictures of the interface for the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first device with no physical keyboard.  In general, the interface looks very clean, crisp, and easy to decipher.  The virtual keyboard, which reportedly uses haptic feedback to provide a discernable click when pressing an on-screen key, simulating a physical keyboard user experience, is very clearly laid out in both portrait and landscape formats.  The interface also includes a number of interesting design elements, such as a virtual clock in several formats, and which take advantage of the screen’s high resolution.

Still no word from RIM, Verizon or Vodafone about when the device will be officially released, although many tech blogs continue to speculate that the official availability date is expected to be in mid-November, pending the end of final testing.

Tags: BlackBerry 9530, BlackBerry Storm, Storm screen shots

Although its existence was leaked during the summer, Dell’s new pocket projector, formally dubbed with the instantly forgettable moniker of “M109S“, has been officially released to generally availability.  Weighing only four-fifths of a pound, the ultra-compact 3.6 x 1.5 x 4.1 inches (small enough to fit in the palm of your hand) projector can fit easily into a briefcase or computer bag without breaking any traveling salesperson’s back.

If you use a Dell Latitude or Vostro computer, you can use the same AC adapter to power the M109S.  The device uses a mercury-free LED light to project at SVGA (858 x 600) resolution, up to 60-inch diagonal picture with 50 lumens of brightness, which means you’ll need to darken the room to see the image clearly.  In other words, the M109S is perfect for small group sales presentations.

Priced at US$499, the M109S is now available for purchase on the Dell website - but only in the U.S., for now.

Popular Mechanics tested a prototype of the M109S - their initial results were generally positive:

What we saw was quite impressive. While the colors were a little more washed-out than a top-end home theater projector, this thing should be able to handle road trip PowerPoints with aplomb. And while early reports suggested that the first Pico products would only be able to produce a decent picture up to about the size of a single sheet of paper, we were able to blow up ours far bigger than that—and without too much loss.

For the entire review and a video of the unit in action, check out this link: Dell M109S @ PopMech.

Tags: Dell Pocket Projector, M109S, pico projector

GM introduced the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, its first commercially available electric car, with a home outlet rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Drivers can run on the Volt’s electric motor on an initial overnight charge for short trips up to 40 miles, after which the on-board gasoline generator provides sustained current to the battery, allowing a drive range of “several hundred additional miles,” according to GM.

GM said that the Volt will be no performance slouch, with 250 horsepower and a top speed of 100 miles (160 km) per hour.

The interior of the Volt features a customizable LCD instrument display, 7-inch touchscreen for controlling climate and entertainment systems, built-in Bluetooth, USB connections and optional GPS navigation.

The Volt will be available for purchase in November 2010, according to GM vice chairman Robert Lutz.

GM officials also said that a typical recharge, using a conventional 110 or 120 volt plug, will take about eight hours, and that consumers could save as much as US$1,500 dollars a year in fuel costs, assuming they drive about 15,000 miles annually.  At current electricity prices, recharging the Volt will cost approximately 80 cents per day.

Tags: Chevy Volt, GM

While ultra-tiny pico projectors have been released in other parts of the world, like the Aiptek V10 in Australia, we’ve not yet seen any of these super-portable display devices released in the U.S. - until now!

3M’s German division announced that the MPro110 pocket projector will be available worldwide on September 30th.  Priced at US$359, the MPro110 features:

• Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technology capable of displaying VGA (640 x 480) resolution
• LED lamp requiring no fan for cooling
• Lightweight and compact design: less than a third of a pound (0.14kg) and it fits in the palm of your hand (2.0 x 0.9 x 4.5 inches, or 5.08cm x 2.29cm x 11.43cm)
• Up to 50-inch diagonal display size
• VGA and composite video connections

This is the first ultra-portable pico-projector to be made available in the North American market from a major manufacturer.

Meanwhile, Toshiba has been showing its pocket projector design at industry trade shows.  The Toshiba LED Pico Projector weighs less than a half-pound (100 grams), and measures 10 x 4.5 x 1.7 cm in size - a little larger than a typical smartphone.  The projector is able to display 10 ANSI lumens and uses an LED lamp (meaning: no fan noise). The Pico projector technology was developed by Texas Instruments, whom also has given this technology to Optoma for their Pico projector. Toshiba expects to release the device worldwide in the first quarter of 2009.

Here is a video showing how the Toshiba LED Pico Projector displays a video image on a 50-inch screen.  Although the picture is not too bright, the colors and resolution appear to be acceptable for small group presentations.

Tags: 3M MPro110, Aiptek V10 projector, micro projector, pico projector, pocket projector, Toshiba LED Pico Projector

Apple and Microsoft both tried to out-announce each other this week, and most of what they revealed was of little value to sales professionals looking to boost their productivity.  The two tech giants did, however, show some cool new devices that could offer more than just a little recreation to savvy salespeople.

Apple wants to rock your world

Apple announced a new line-up of its popular iPod media players, including upgraded versions of its nano and touch brands.

The nano now sports a larger 2-inch wide screen, with an internal accelerometer that switches automatically between landscape and portrait display modes (just like the iPhone and iPod touch devices), and either 8GB or 16GB flash storage capacities (at US$149 and $199, respectively).  The nano case now comes in nine different colors of the rainbow, and is very thin and rounded at the edges.

The upgraded iPod touch still includes the revolutionary multi-touch interface of the iPhone (without the phone, of course), but also now features a thin stainless steel case, new hardware volume controls, a built-in speaker, an improved user interface design, and support for the new iTunes Genius feature (which provides you with recommendations for similar music to what you have on the device).  Price varies by flash storage capacity: 8 gigabytes for US$229, 16GB for $299, and 32GB for $399 - all a $100 reduction off of previous pricing.

Microsoft’s got the blues, in a good way

Microsoft also announced a series of upgraded Zune media players.

The upgraded devices include increased storage capacity, a new WiFi music store, and improved software with music recommendations and pre-programmed theme channels.

The 120GB hard-drive storage Zune is now US$250, while the 16GB flash model is $199 and the 8GB model is $149.

Why should salespeople care about portable media players?

I use an Apple iPod Classic with an 80 gigabyte drive, and I love the highly intuitive interface.  Having used other MP3 players in the past (including an iRiver, Creative Zen and ultra-horrible Dell Digital Jukebox), I fully appreciate the simple, straightforward way the iPod operates.  In short, the other MP3 players were complex technical devices that played media, while the iPod is an easy-to-use media appliance.  We also have an iPod Touch in use in my family, and I secretly envy my offspring who taunts me with her media player superiority at every opportunity.

Media players are certainly wonderful devices for recreation.  I store over 3,000 songs on my iPod now, and have used it to watch movies and old TV shows, finding the small screen no barrier to enjoying the content, especially on long plane flights.

However, the potential for using media players such as the iPod or the Zune as a sales skills development tool is a newly emerging opportunity that sales professionals need to consider.  Several sales training firms are now beginning to offer content for use in media players for “just in time” training and development.  The “time shifted”, consume-it-when-you-want-it, flexible and easy to use designs of the iPod and Zune, in particular, make them an ideal platform for training mobile sales professionals.

Imagine you’re on the way to a big meeting with an executive buyer.  Now imagine plugging your media player into your car stereo and listening to a quick summary of how best to manage an executive-level sales call.  Sure, you may know most of this stuff already - but there’s nothing like a quick refresher to give your self-confidence an extra boost, right when you need it most.

I also use my iPod to listen to a wide variety of podcasts about sales best practices.  Here is a sample of recommended audio show content for sales pros:

• The Advanced Selling Podcast
• Sales Gravy
• Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips
• Sales Roundup
• Selling Geek (of course!)
• Solution Selling Today

There are many others - search “sales” and “selling” on iTunes or the Zune Marketplace, and you’ll find many more useful sales-related podcasts.

Portable media players like the iPod and Zune enable sales pros to get useful content and carry it with them, to be consumed whenever they want.  They are perfect just-in-time sales training and development platforms.  If you are a sales pro, and you don’t have a portable media player yet, consider picking one up - you don’t really know what you are missing.

Tags: Apple, iPod, Media players, Microsoft, sales podcasts, sales training, Zune

U.S. airlines have recently installed technology upgrades to improve their customer experience, and others are hurrying to catch up.

First, Delta has streamlined its automated check-in software, by eliminating redundant screens and repetitive verification questions, which will save each customer who uses the system several minutes.  The new screens are also more aesthetically pleasing, and are more consistent with Delta’s brand image.

Delta is also installing in-flight wi-fi wireless Internet connectivity on its entire fleet, starting with its MD-88 planes first.  All Delta planes should have the new Aircell Gogo based system installed before the middle of 2009.

Meanwhile, American Airlines officially released its version of the Aircell Gogo on-board wi-fi system on its fleet of 16 Boeing 767 jets, on routes between New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco or Miami.

Aircell, which supplies the Gogo system used by both Delta and American, says that voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls will be disabled. But, of course, clever computer users have found ways around this restriction already.  One option which apparently worked on American’s wi-fi system was to use Phweet, a VoIP-like option that works through the Twitter micro-blogging system.

Virgin America offers in-flight Wi-Fi on some transcontinental flights, also using the Aircell system,  and intends to offer the service on all of its planes by the end of March 2009.

Southwest Airlines is planning to test satellite-based Wi-Fi on several of its planes in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the intention of offering the service on its fleet if the tests go well.  Alaska Air also plans to test the same satellite-based system, called Row 44, on a single plane.

A couple of airlines also plan to deploy a terrestrial wi-fi system called LiveTV, which is more limited than Aircell or Row 44, providing only a subset of Internet access.  The airlines that are testing or rolling out LiveTV include JetBlue, which is currently testing on one plane, with no firm plans yet for a wider roll-out, and Continental, which intends to offer LiveTV Internet access on the entire domestic fleet starting in January 2009.

Other airlines have not yet announced any official plans for onboard wi-fi service, although there are several rumors in play for each:

• Frontier: no official word from the airline yet, although they already use LiveTV for television service and most likely would use the same for wi-fi
• United: no official word here either, although some articles in the trade press have speculated that it is coming soon
• US Air: earlier in 2008, company officials said they were investigating wi-fi service.  Since then, the troubled airline has begun to pull out on-board entertainment systems to save weight and cut fuel consumption - not a good sign.

Tags: Aircell, American Airlines, check-in kiosk, Continental, Delta, Frontier, GoGo, in-flight wi-fi, JetBlue, LiveTV, Phweet, Row 44, Southwest Airlines, United, US Air, Virgin America

According to a source found by the BoyGeniusReport, the Verizon Wireless version of the cutting-edge BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first device without a physical keyboard, won’t be generally available until “mid-November” in the U.S.  Previously, the reported launch target date was mid-October, but testing and bug fixes are taking longer than expected, according to the source.

Meanwhile, the more conventionally designed BlackBerry Bold will be officially launched on October 2nd, according to BGR, at AT&T stores in the U.S.  AT&T retail outlets “will be allowed to start ordering the BlackBerry Bold on September 24th”, with an anticipated customer availability date of October 2nd.  The Bold includes significant performance improvements over previous BlackBerry models, including a more powerful 624MHz processor, high-speed 3G networking, higher resolution screen, and advanced application support.

Tags: AT&T, BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm, release date, Verizon