Should I start blogging again?

It's been almost 4 years! Let me know.

Every show I watch goes off the air (besides the Bachelor)

Over the past few years, somehow the majority of television shows I choose to watch are pulled off the air in under 2 seasons. My wife and I were recently discussing how I have the worst taste in TV shows when we uncovered this fact. Some of these shows you may not have even heard of, but it's a horrible list of shows. If there are any Hollywood Producers that want to know whether or not their show will fail, please call me, if I like the concept, don't produce it!

1. Paradise Hotel - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374440/
2. Sarah Connor Chronicles - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851851/
3. The Hard Times of RJ Berger - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1451387/
4. Terra Nova - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1641349/
5. The Glass House - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387249/
6. Revolution - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/
7. Utopia (going off the air soon I am sure) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3703500/
8. Away (didnt make past 1 season) - Link

Smoothie 3.0

I have been making smoothies every morning for the last 10 years. Refer to this previous post to see my 2.0 recipe.... http://www.dpessis.com/2011/12/waking-up-smoothly-with-smoothie.html. This recipe constantly evolves and improves as I continue to be an expert on nutrition, and better understand what the body needs to thrive and succeed - in addition to eating pizza for 5 meals a week. Below is the recipe, as well as quantities, and links to these products so you can see the details. You don't need to buy from these links as they are easily available at the store.

1. Pour half a cup of oats (quaker oats plain) into a cup, fill the cup with enough water so that it's at the same level of the oats, place in microwave for 30 seconds.
2. Pour 1/2 scoop of Vega One powder into blender (very important this is the first thing you poor into the blender so it's on the bottom, this way it won't stick to the walls of the blender). Also I prefer the french vanilla flavor, although I enjoy vanilla chai as well. This is $10 cheaper on Amazon than if you buy at Whole Foods.
3. Pour just under 1 cup of blueberries .93 cups, or half a bag of Whole Foods 365 frozen blueberries. (I have done lots of research on blueberries, the Whole Foods 365 are the most consistent, enjoyable flavor).
4. Pour 10 oz of vanilla almond milk into blender.
5. Pour the half cup of microwaved oats into blender, use this same cup in the next step.
6. Place 3 ice cubes in the cup, fill with ~3 tablespoons of water, shake the water around the cup to loosen up the oats stuck to the cup, poor the cup into the blender (we don't wan't to waste any ingredients).
7. Add a big generous tablespoon of peanut butter. 
8. Blend her up!!!!  (If you have a weak blender, sometimes it's difficult to get it going with all this stuff jammed in. I recently purchased a Ninja blender, and for the first time in my life I NEVER have this problem). 

Are Samsung phones worth the hype?

Last Friday, I made the bold move of purchasing the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I have been an iOS guy for the past couple years, I've been using the iPhone 5 since it's release, and I've been perfectly happy. With all the hype out there about these Samsung devices I had to see for myself. I would consider myself a power user, I really get into the details of the OS, so in my opinion, my opinion really matters!

Here is the bottom line, iOS used to have a huge lead on Android, but that gap has now closed. There are pros and cons to each device, but at the end of the day both devices are on par with each other. I believe we have finally come close to perfecting the smart phone! Below you'll find my list of pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 vs. iPhone 5.

Pros of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

• Huge awesome screen (I have barely used my iPad since purchasing this phone)
• I am a google Apps user, and the Gmail App as well as the Calendar is a far superior experience
• Widgets (obviously), calendar, weather, contacts etc.
• The motion gestures, for example, I can just swipe my hand across the screen to take a screenshot, or tilt the device to zoom in on a webpage.. very convenient!
•  When I take a picture, then click share, it gives me a list of all the apps I have the ability to share with, as opposed to iPhone, I have to go directly to the app, then image gallery, then select the photo
• I like the blinking light that lets me know there is a notification
• This is due the large screen but, Google Docs and Dropbox are unreal, so easy to view, read and share documents, still not a fan of editing documents outside of the desktop
• Note: I Have not gotten around to using the Stylus yet, but I am sure it's awesome
• The ability to pull down from the top of the screen, and see all the latest notifications, cannot beat this, it's perhaps the best feature, to have everything centralized

Cons of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

• Occasional bugs/slowdown - for example I'll be in the Gmail App, and clicking through emails, and suddenly it just closes out, same for Skype. Gmail most disappointing since this is an Android phone, the OS built by Google
• I love on the iPhone how I can access my Starbucks App, or Boarding passes right from the lock screen without logging in,  as far as I know can't do that on the Note 2
• I am so used to the back button in iOS in the upper left on almost all Apps, so all the navigation is up top on most iOS apps, with Android, that is the case too, but most of time time you have to use the built in back button on the bottom of the Note 2 to go back, I find myself going to the top of the phone to navigate, then the bottom of the phone to go back, this is particularly annoying with a phone of this size, but I think I'll get used to it
• You have to go into each specific app to customize notification settings, as opposed to iOS where you have a central notifications section in settings, this is fairly annoying
• No iMessage :-)
• No integration with my Apple TV, loved how my photos automatically showed up on Apple TV

Conclusion: Samsung phones aren't worth the hype, but it's finally nice to have another Smartphone manufacturer that's on par with the iPhone. Competition is good for innovation, and pricing for the consumers!

My Favorite Movies

The following is a list of my favorite movies in no particular order....

1. Apollo 13
2. Spy Game
3. A Beautiful Mind
4. Rocky Balboa
5. Good Will Hunting
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
7. American Psycho
8. American Gangster
9. Terminator 2
10. Saving Private Ryan
11. A Few Good Men
12. Batman Begins
13. The Aviator
14. Shutter Island
15. The 6th Sense
16. Gladiator
17. Back to the Future 2
18. Greece
19. Gangs of New York
20. Shaw Shank Redemption
21. Hangover 2
22. Catch Me if You Can
23. Castaway
24. Mission Impossible
25. The Patriot
26. The Bourne Identity
27. Total Recall
28. Wall Street
29. The Truman Show
30. Titanic
31. The Notebook
32. The Good Shepard
33. School Ties
34. Big
35. Rain Man
36. Forrest Gump
37. Alpha Dog
38. In Time
39. Fight Club
40. Casino
41. The Matrix
42. Man on Fire
43. That Thing You Do
44. Source Code
45. Groundhog Day
46. Donnie Brasco
47. The Adjustment Bureau
48. Remember the Titans
49. Field of Dreams
50. Weird Science
51. Can't Buy Me Love
52. Don't Tell Mom The Babysister is Dead
53. Old Skool
54. Superbad

A Simple Facebook IPO Analysis

Disclaimer: I am not a stock analyst, and it's been a long time since I've invested in the stock market. Although, I am proud to say that when the stock market tumbled in 2008, I made money all the way down to the bottom, around DOW 7000, by purchasing an ETF that is 2X bear on the DOW with the symbol SDS. Once the market hit what I thought was the bottom, I flipped my position and purchased SSO which is 2x bull on the DOW. I was once again correct and the market began to climb. I thought I was a stock market genius. Once the market reached 10,000 (see my chart below) I flipped my position again since I thought things were going to tumble again, but the market proceeded to go to 13,000, and I got crushed.

I guess I am a tech nerd, and I should stick with what I know and leave my investing to the professionals. Despite this, I think I have some basic insight into the Facebook IPO. Although, a gazillion articles have been written about this IPO, I am sure nothing I have to say is original, I'd still like to share.

There are a few basic numbers and comparisons one can look at that I believe paint a very clear picture. I stumbled across a Barrons article here which showed the following data:

Some basic things to point out, Market Capitalization is the total number of outstanding shares multiplied by the price of one share. So according to this chart, if you take all of Apple shares and multiply that by the current price you get a number close to $500 billion! This makes Apple the company with the biggest market capitalization in the world. I did some basic math (I hope there are no mistakes) on the numbers above and you see the ratios are very out of whack.

What sticks out to me here is the fact that Apple has a market capitalization that is 4.7 times that of Facebook. Apple has revenues that are 31 times that of Facebook. Despite these astounding metrics, Facebook is trading at a P/E ratio (Stock Price to Profits) that is 6.9 times that of Apple (76 for Facebook vs. 11 for Apple). To put this in perspective, if Apple were to trade at the same P/E ration that Facebook is today, the Market Capitalization would be $3.4 trillion and the stock price would be around $3,600. See the following table. This is what seems so insane to me, and why the upside on the stock price seems so limited right now in the short term.

So why is Facebook trading at this level? This is probably due to the fact that people think there truly is a tremendous upside to Facebook. And there is probably some validity there considering the fact that they almost have 1 billion users worldwide, and have barely figured out how to make money with mobile. After doing some research online, it seems that more than 50% of Facebook traffic comes through mobile devices and probably a lot more. Facebook is not monetizing mobile at all! Facebook indeed had a disappointing opening day as the IPO price went nowhere, but in the coming years, I think it's entirely possible they do become the biggest most successful company in the world.

Lastly, I regularly check The Drudge Report for a quick snapshot of whats going on in the world. I love when he publishes his obscene misleading headlines such as the ones shown here:

Let us be clear here. The IPO provided a return to the pre-IPO investors that is unprecedented. There were reports that more than a 1000 millionaires were created, and a handful of billionaires. The people who did not receive a return were those people who bought at the $38 dollar level the day the stock began trading. I am confident, that if these people hold on, they will be very happy with the returns that Zuckerberg provides in the coming years. To see just how big the IPO was, check out this awesome set of info-graphics provided by the New York Times

On the other side of the coin, after doing this tech nerd analysis, it seems Apple might be undervalued. Take a look a this chart from TechCrunch:

In only 4 years Apple has sold almost 200 million iPhones, and in 2 years nearly 50 million iPads, and there is absolutely no sign of a slowdown for either product, look at that trajectory! Maybe Apple's P/E ration should be trading closer to the P/E ratio of Facebook which is an amazing 76. The average P/E ratio of the S&P is 20, and Apple's is a meager 11. Either way, it's exciting times for the tech industry, and I am more excited than ever to be a part of it.

In conclusion, I think Apple is a buy right now, and I'd stay away from FB for a while until the dust settles.

VIdeo of High Rise Construction in River North, Chicago

Construction of a 43-story, 450-unit apartment tower at 360 West Hubbard in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, according to my calculations began December 22nd, 2011 when they shut down the parking lot. I have a unique view since my office is across the street. Since the beginning I have been taking a picture a day and compiling them into a video slideshow.

The exact location of the building can be seen here in the circle, as well as my vantage point from the 3rd floor of my office building across the street:

The video, so far can be seen below....  I know this is nothing new, but cool nonetheless. I also added some romantic background music. Enjoy!

Cloud Chaos

Everybody’s talking about the CLOUD. It might save the U.S. Government $12 billion from the annual deficit, it’s currently creating a generation of tech-savvy kids with their heads stuck in this new trend, and according to Bloomberg’s Adam Johnson, it’s the “single most powerful theme within tech today.”  Cloud storage, or the ability to quickly access your content from any device when and where you want it, is a cultural phenomenon. The biggest players right now are Dropbox with an impressive 50 million users and Box with 8 million users respectively. Their valuations are incredible and the amount of capital they have raised is mind boggling. Moreover, finally after 6 years of talk and rumors, Google recently released their version of cloud storage named Google Drive. And even Microsoft hopped on the bandwagon when they released their version called SkyDrive.  So what does this all mean? Though the Cloud has made content easily sharable and accessible for users, it has become significantly more complex and difficult for system administrators to contain and control such content– a phenomenon we call “Cloud Chaos”.

I recently read an article from Box that had some absolutely fascinating statistics. Apparently, 82% of Fortune 500 companies choose Box! I don't know exactly what that means – are they enterprise customers where these products were rolled out across organizations, or just individual users that happen to work at these companies? I find this interesting, because a number of my colleagues whom I have spoken to that work at Fortune 500 companies are explicitly prohibited from using these types of tools due to corporate compliance and privacy policies.

I’ll admit it; these products are awesome when you need to collaborate within your organization. From one employee to another, they have enabled organizations to share, collaborate, discuss, and review, like never before.  These products connect staff within an organization allowing anyone to upload content and share with whomever they want, but management has little ability to track their employees’ actions. It is difficult to see which content has been shared, who has shared it, or how many times an employee or customer accesses a particular document.  I think it’s safe to say that most companies’ management teams would love the ability to directly manage content, customers, and employees through advanced activity tracking on a cloud based application. But today’s mainstream products don’t have these abilities.

Furthermore, if you want to share outside of your organization, it’s nearly impossible to maintain absolute control.  Although Dropbox, Box.net, and Google Drive, are great for sharing information among employees, they do not create any boundaries. The question that remains is:  Do Fortune 500 companies really want to invite their customers into a Box folder to share sensitive data? Do they want to force their customers to download Dropbox just to keep them up-to-date?  By using these powerful cloud storage tools sharing becomes the easy part, but it is impossible to control the user experience or the organizations’ intellectual property. Even more, instead of highlighting each individual organization’s brand or unique web experience, the Box or Dropbox logo is the first thing a customer sees when logging in and all content sharing transports the customer to an outside environment, which diminishes the exclusive customer experience each company normally creates.

The capabilities of cloud storage today are phenomenal, but in practice, the act of sharing outside of organizations demands a more secure, branded environment. Without this protected environment, organizations will become a part of this ever growing mass of cloud chaos. Basically, companies need to keep track of content sharing for ROI purposes and must be able to control the look and feel of their distinctive customer experience across all devices. This is cloud storage with boundaries and control, something that today's mainstream tools simply do not offer. So as we look to the future of technology, there is no telling which direction this cloud trend will blow, but one can surely say this type of storage must become organized with specific restrictions to protect company and user privacy; or we just might end up in a world of Cloud Chaos.

Statistics are B.S. and I love Pizza

Back in 2007 I was sent to Australia on business. Throughout the year I was there, I was constantly bombarded with comments from Australians, how they love America, but they hate President Bush (no surprise there). Well, after recently getting married this past March, my new wife and I went on our honeymoon to Australia. I was happy to see the "I hate Bush" comments were replaced by much more positive comments about our current President Obama. Believe me I realize this is completely anecdotal, but interesting nonetheless. I recently came across an article entitled "Obama's popularity abroad on the wane, survey finds", and due to my recent experience in Australia I quickly clicked in. In paragraph 4, I read the statement:

"Approval ratings for the original pool of 116 countries, meanwhile, declined from 47 percent to 43 percent between 2010 and 2011."

This sounded like a tiny margin, so I was curious to see where the data came form. I then googled "Gallup Presidential Ratings", and after a few clicks I came across the source of the article's data at the following link: "U.S. Leadership Losing Some Status in Key Countries". I wanted to see their polling methodology, and as I scrolled down to the section entitled "Survey Methods" I read the following:

For results based on the total samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranges from ±1.7 percentage points to ±5.7 percentage points.

First of all, WTF does that even mean, with 95% confidence they still give a range? So 47% approval rating in 2010 minus 43% approval rating in 2011 equals 4%. So based on Gallup's methodology I can say with 95% certainty, that this falls within the uncertainty range of the survey, therefore the results are statistically insignificant, and yet you still have such a strong headline about Obama's popularity waning. As a side note, I am not even an Obama fan, yet this still bothers me tremendously. Even more disturbing are the anti-Obama comments on the article, and how angry they are that his popularity is waning abroad and "he needs to go!". All this over data that is clearly statistically insignificant.

For those of you who know me, I eat a ton of pizza. It's my favorite food. A close friend of mine, who is a total health nut sent me an article with the following headline: "Study Identifies Link Between Depression and Certain Foods", pizza being one of the foods. I laughed. Being that this person was a very healthy person, who works out, and eats a healthy diet, high in protein, and low in carbs, I decided to google, "high protein diet depression". Low and behold I came across the following article: "Does a High-Protein Diet Cause Depression?"and quickly sent it back. Her response was "Hahaha. Touché!".

So what's the point I am getting at? If you haven't figured it out already, I have come to the following conclusions. You can make statistics do and say whatever you want. It's all about changing the lenses you use to look at the data. Secondly, when reading an article with such a strong headline, before taking it literally, do your homework! Find out the sources of the data, look at the levels of uncertainty, look at the credibility of the source. Mainstream media is always gonna inundate us with loads of stats., but it's our job to be smart and figure out for ourselves what's legit, and what's BS.

Waking up Smoothly with a Smoothie

The name of this smoothie is SmoothEx

Almost every morning I wake up and eat a smoothie. I have been working on this recipe for over 5 years, and it's absolutely perfected. It has the best of ingredients. When consumed in the AM, it gives your body everything it needs to kick ass for the day. Since they take some time to make I usually double the ingredients to make 2 at a time. I'll keep one in the fridge to eat the following morning. Obviously if you cut this recipe in half it's perfect for 1.

If you have other ideas or other ingredients to add, please comment!

2 cups of frozen blueberries

2 table spoons of All Natural Jiff Peanut butter - you can buy any peanut butter you like, almond butter is good too, but the peanut butter gives the most flavor. 

1 cup of plain Greek low-fat yogurt

1 cup of Quaker Oats (fill cup with water and microwave for 30 seconds to soften up)

1 generous scoop of Super Green super food. (This gives you all your greens for the day, great if you have trouble getting eating celery and spinach regularly. Can be found here: http://amzn.to/iVCxDi )

1 generous scoop of vanilla whey protein (if you're doing heavy weight lifting you can add 3-5 scoops)

1 handful of almonds (healthy, and gives a nice crunch to the smoothie)

Half cup of water, and half cup of ice

Put it all in the blender, mix it up. Don't blend for more than 30 seconds, you don't want to completely grind up the almonds, you wand to keep some chunks in there, gives the smoothie a fantastic texture. Enjoy!

Turning off my email push notifications on my mobile phone

I used to think it was great to have my mobile device notify me the second I receive a new email. This is known as "Push" notifications. This way I would never miss a client request or important email. I also have Gchat installed on my PC, which notifies me in the bottom right hand corner every time a new email comes in. So, if I was sitting at my desk working away on a task and a new email came in, I would get a notification on my PC from gchat, and my phone would vibrate and make a tone. I thought this was great, because I would never miss that all important email.

The obvious problem with this is that it becomes a major distraction. Humans are not meant to move from task to task. I know we all think multi-tasking is the only way in this new hyper world, but the human brain can only focus on 1 task at a time. So, if you're working productively on a task, then an email comes in, I'd read the notification, then read the email if it seemed even slightly important. I'd then have to ramp back up on the task at hand. As the owner of my company, this becomes an issue when I'm getting hundreds of emails a day, and a major distraction. I am already ADD, so this is just amplifying the problem!

The solution? Turn off those notifications! If an email is that important or urgent and needs to be addressed immediately, the person will call. I have since changed the settings on my iPhone to fetch. This means my phone only downloads emails when I tell it to. I've been doing this for only the past week and I can tell you I am more productive already. I can't prove it, but I feel like my blood pressure has been lowered as well. This week I had lunch with an old friend, so the time was valuable since I hadn't seen him for a year. If it had been a week earlier, I'd be checking my phone every time a new email came in when the phone vibrated in my pocket. This would be a waste of time, especially since none of those emails are ever that important. I was able to dedicate 100% of my attention to my friend.

Taking this a step further, everyone nowadays brings their cellphones to meetings. We are all tempted to check our phones to make sure we are not missing that "important" email. You look around the room and everyone has their phones on the conference room table, and periodically checking their phones. Well, we are instituting a new policy at FIPPEX, no cell phones in the conference room. This allows everyone to focus on the agenda of the meeting, after all, why call a meeting in the first place if people are distracted every time their phone vibrates or lights up. At our office, we only call meetings when absolutely necessary, so when we do we need to make sure we are as productive as possible, and use everyone's time as best as possible.

The bottom line is, to increase productivity - turn off those notifications and keep cellphones out of meetings!

iPhone 4S day 3 review

Well, I have found solutions on the iPhone to some of my issues in my last post:

First off, in the favorites section, you can click "John Mobile" and it will call John, or I can click the little blue arrow to the right and it pulls up the entire contact record, so I can choose to call office/phone or even email them. I am relieved!

Secondly, I can get the NFL redzone through the NFL app, so I am relieved there.

Thirdly, I can download a GPS app, I have to pay, but I can still do it. It costs a little extra, seems like $1 a month, which I can obviously live with. And now I won't get lost.

Feeling much better. Learning to love this phone.

iPhone 4S day 2 review

As I have continued use of my new iPhone, I have more and more to discuss in terms of the comparison between android and iOS.

The greatest benefit of the iPhone thus far is its responsiveness. There are times on android, where I'll click a contact to call them, and it takes seconds for the actual call to go through. It makes Android feel heavy at times. With iOS, I click on a contact and the call instantly begins. HUGE POSITIVE,

I loved the ability on Android to create shortcuts to contacts. So, I can swipe to one of my custom pages, and click on a contact, the contact card would pop open, and I could choose to email them, call them, or gtalk them etc. With iOS there is no such feature. I have the favorites section but it has to be a specific phone number of a specific person. Annoying, but it's something I can definitely get used to.

The email search functionality on iOS, although supposedly improved still sucks. On Android, when I do a search it just works. With iOS, sometimes the email I am looking for shows up, sometimes it doesn't. Very frustrating. As a work around I can go to my gmail account through the web, and search old emails that way.

I drove to Wisconsin yesterday to go apple picking (this is not a joke, even though I bought my first Apple iPhone). The lack of turn by turn directions was very frustrating. I missed my exit twice. I have become very dependent on my turn by turn navigation on Android. Maybe that's my fault, but it's almost dangerous to try and follow the map on the iPhone while trying to drive. Having the lady on my Android talk to me and tell me where to go was a much appreciated feature.

I have messed with Siri a little bit. Not impressed thus far. With noise in the background it does not seem that effective. I do need to dig deeper into this feature.

I miss me redzone channel, especially when watching the NFL today.

I have 2 email accounts on my iPhone. My business uses google apps. Funny thing is, through iPhone, if I want to use "Push" functionality, I cannot add as a gmail account. There is a workaround, I have to add it as an exchange account, and to server m.google.com. Seems odd, probably Apple trying to make it more difficult to use Google apps on the iPhone. Can't use gtalk either. Furthermore, I cannot silence the notifications on the personal email account while keeping the business account notifications active. Seems pretty stupid, but it's definitely annoying...

Despite all these small short falls of iOS, there is something about the simplicity that make it so nice to use. It's quick, it's responsive, and it just works. While ultimately Android is more configurable, it seems to have become heavy and slow. Ever since my android phone was updated, it seems to reboot sporadically, and has slowed down.

For now I am leaning towards keeping the iPhone. BUT, if Android were as responsive and reliable as iOS I would definitely be thinking differently.

My first iPhone, impression after 2 hours of ownership

After having the phone for a mere 2 hours, here is my initial feedback.

The phone itself, the hardware, the screen, the buttons feel awesome. It has a very solid, heavy feel unlike any android phone I've owned. See my previous posts for how many different phones I have owned. I have been on android for 2+ years now.

My previous phone was the Motorola Droid X, so my feedback is based on comparison with that:

1. I lost my NFL Red Zone channel
2. I lost turn by turn directions in google maps
3. I do not see my sent messages in the email thread (will explain in more detail why this annoys me)
4. I have 2 email accounts on my phone, 1 is personal, 1 is for business, I want to silence the personal account and I cannot seem to do that
5. No gtalk

I am hoping in the next week or so, all the positives I find will far outweigh what I have lost above... Maybe there is even a way to fix #4!

Stay tuned for more.

Xoom vs. iPad2 Part 2

You may remember I owned the Motorola Xoom for 2 weeks before returning it.  Now, for the past 2 weeks, I've been in possession of the iPad2 and I can tell you right now, I will NOT return it.

The iPad2 is the first Apple product I have owned since I bought the original iPod in 2002, and had to purchase a Firewire PCI card for my desktop PC so I could load my songs. But enough with super nerdy stuff, lets just stick with the moderately nerdy stuff.

To be clear and direct from the start, I absolutely love the iPad2. I am not fixated on the things that everyone talks about, the screen, battery, speed, etc. We all know it's an outstanding product across the board. I'll just focus on the key differences between the Xoom and the iPad2 from a software standpoint.

As I mentioned in my first post, the one major advantage I noticed the Xoom (Honeycomb) had over the iPad was the ability to add widgets. I absolutely miss that feature in the iPad. It was awesome to be able to turn on my Xoom and see all my information right there front and center. Weather, tasks, email, photos, listed right on my home screen, without another click. I do wish the iPad had this feature.

The second feature the iPad is missing is the "Notifications Section" which is on the Xoom. This is the feature:



Basically you get all the notifications in the bottom right hand corner, new tweets, email, Facebook messages, etc. You simply touch the clock and you have everything listed right there for you, as shown above.

When you first open up your iPad, you need to go into each individual application to see the new messages, texts, voice mails, etc. You do not have a central place to easily see all your latest notifications. I find this interesting and ironic, because the iPad gives you the simplest way to adjust all of your notification settings in one central place, but not view all your notifications in one place.

For example, on the iPad if you want to adjust the notification settings of your email, or twitter, or chat, you simply go to the settings->notifications, and each application is listed for you, and you have the ability to turn each application's notifications on and off. With the Xoom, it's not so simple. You need to go to each individual application, launch it, click on the settings, and set up your notifications that way. This is cumbersome because each application has it's own settings and menu navigation. See below for how simple it is on the iPad, all centralized in one place.



In the iPad I love the feature for dragging apps on top of each other to automatically create a folder. Brilliant! I also love how if I double tap the button on the iPad2, then hold down on an icon, I can kill any App I want to preserve resources. With the Xoom, you either need to go into the settings area, or you need to download and App called "Task Killer". Seems like such an important feature to make it so difficult to kill Apps to preserve resources and battery power.

As I write this post, I am realizing that centralization is the most important thing for me. I like to have all my information related to specific functions in one place. Apple does this brilliantly with notification settings, and application management. Xoom does this well with the notifications bar, and those awesome widgets! Sad to say though, the iPad is so well done, that those 2 advantages the Xoom has does not even bring it close to approaching how well the iPad2 was done.

From a functionality standpoint, they both do the exact same thing. Overall, the iPad just seems to be more streamlined. The Xoom (Honeycomb) definitely has some catching up to do, but I do believe it's only a matter of time.

Xoom vs. iPad2: Part 1

Since I am a huge Android fan, I decided to purchase the Motorola Xoom Tablet from Verizon. My business partner purchased the iPad2 at the exact same time, so it was a great way to compare the devices.

My first impressions of the Motorola Xoom were extremely positive. It's a great looking device with all the bells and whistles from a hardware standpoint. However, comparing it to the iPad2, I could instantly tell that the iPad2 had a nicer screen. The iPad definitely has a cleaner, sharper and clearer image.

I was nervous I had made the wrong decision already.....

The greatest advantage of the Xoom over the iPad2 is the ability to install widgets on your home screen. When I turn on the device, I have all my shortcuts as with the iPad, however, but I also have an email widget, a weather widget, a tasks widget, etc. It's basically a quick snapshot of my day, and I can quickly and easily get information. You do not have the ability to add widgets to your home screen on the iPad2. Sad to say, but this is perhaps the ONLY advantage the Motorola Xoom has over the iPad.

For the Xoom, the app store seems very immature when it comes to apps ready for Honeycomb. Most of the apps (to be clear I am only referring to the apps I use) are all configured for the smart phone screen resolution, not for the larger honeycomb screen resolution. There are some that were great, but most are not ready for prime-time on the Xoom, yet. I am sure this will improve with time, but I am currently disappointed.

The web browsing experience on the Xoom is supposed to be fantastic.  I saw in many reviews that this was one of the better qualities of the Xoom with the tabbed browsing. When I first got going with the browser this was indeed the case. But now I find the browser force quitting on almost a daily basis. I am sure this is a software glitch that can be fixed with time, but annoying nonetheless.

The standard case that comes with the Xoom is very cool. Only one problem, when the case is closed on the Xoom, it blocks the charging port. The only way to charge the Xoom is to have the case fully open so the charging port is exposed. Not a deal breaker, but definitely annoying especially if you are at a hotel with a small night stand.

Additionally, every Android device in the world is using the Micro USB to charge. I have one at the office, next to the bed, next to the couch etc., etc. For some stupid reason Motorola decided to use a new charger format with this little thing that sticks into the Xoom, and tends to fall out if you are using it while charging. Very annoying...... and I will have to buy more. I hate when companies change their charging adapters for no good reason.

Motorola has some learning to do for it's second generation tablet, which I am sure will be kick ass. Honeycomb definitely needs some work, and the App store needs time to mature as well. I look forward to the awesome Android devices that are released in the next 6-12 months, because that's what I think Motorola, Google, and the application developers need to catch up. I plan on returning the Xoom this week, not sure if I will buy my first Apple device since 2002 (I bought the first iPod ever in 2002), or wait another 6-12 months for an Android tablet that is truly ready for prime-time.

If you need a tablet now and simply can't wait, go for the iPad2.

My addiction to the latest and greatest mobile devices

It all started my sophomore year of college.

It was the year 2000. It was at that time when I was inundated with those stupid PrimeCo commercials, with those cute little aliens telling me about 500 minutes for $50/month. At 10 cents a minute, (at the time that was pretty cheap), I couldn't resist.

Over the next 12 years I spent my time going on the most ridiculous shopping sprees for the newest, latest and greatest cellphones.

At my last count, I have owned almost 30 different mobile phones over a 12 year period.

I had 2 devices on the PrimeCo network. In 2001 I switched to Verizon.

I purchased my first Blackberry in 2003, back in the day when I was going out and trying to pick up girls I thought it wouldn't be cool to pull out my blackberry to get a girl's phone number. For this reason, I switched to AT&T since they had the Sim card (Verizon did not). I was able to use my blackberry during the week, then on Friday nights before I went out on the town I would take my Sim card and place it in my black Razor that I bought on EBAY from China. This was before the black razor was even avaiable in the US.

Damn I was cool. My razor phone and I picked up tons girls. And by tons, I mean few.

Once everyone had a Blackberry, I switched back to Verizon in 2004, I'll never switch to AT&T again.

The phones I have owned include the phone shown in the PrimeCo commercial above, a couple Nokia devices, a ton of Motorola devices, a few LG devices, many Blackberrys and 5 different Android devices over the past year (Droid, HTC Incredible, Droid X, Droid Pro, another Droid X). This doesn't include the 5 different palm pilot devices that I never found a good use for since carrying 2 devices that didn't sync was always a pain in the ass for me.

I am not going to comment on the older phones I once owned because those opinions are worthless. However, I do consider myself an Android Guru. HTC Incredible was pretty bad. I hate the wrapper HTC puts on top of Android, the battery life was weak too. The Droid was solid, however the keyboard was very cumbersome so it became worthless. The Droid Pro had the worst battery life of all time. Sometimes when I would type I would accidentally hit the touch screen which would take me somewhere else - drove me nuts.

By far, the Droid X, with it's huge screen and awesome battery life is the best Droid phone I have owned. Motorola makes great hardware, and they don't put a goofy wrapper on top of Android like HTC does.

I just bought the Motorola Xoom tablet last week, so far so good, stay tuned for my updates. My first opinion is since it has a big screen, I sometimes have trouble deciding whether to use the web to pull information, or go to the app. For example if I want to see whats on CNN or Facebook, should I view the app or just go to the website? More on that in my next post.....

P.S. I have nothing against Apple, just very happy with the many options for Android based devices.

More Flaxseed, More Fun

When I was a kid, (and still to this day), I had a classic case of ADHD. I was always too hyper to sit still in class from grade school all the way up through college. Not only did I find myself fascinated with cool things like electricity and Super Mario, I was always making jokes and acting out in class. Fortunately, my parents never decided to medicate me so I was never a zombie kid addicted to adderall.

Today while surfing the internet, I came across the article below which states "that in 64 percent of children with ADHD, the symptoms were caused by food."

The cure? Flaxseed oil.

Flaxseed oil is the cure to growing a healthy brain and calming us crazy kids down.

If only my parents had known this, I'm sure they would have spiked my peanut butter sandwiches with flaxseed oil.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/for-64-percent-of-kids-with-adhd-food-is-the-cause.html

David Pessis

David Pessis is the Founder of FIPPEX. A proven entrepreneur, David has devoted his career to creating and managing solutions for companies who want to streamline and simplify their enterprise application portfolios. David has worked with leading technology companies such as IBM and Accenture.

David earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and his Master of Science in Information Technology from Northwestern University.


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