So Long AT&T

After a few years of incredibly poor network coverage in LA, I have finally decided I’ve had enough.  But if you wanted an iPhone, there simply was no other choice and it doesn’t look like this will change anytime soon. I have tolerated hundreds of dropped calls over the past couple of years. If anyone reading this has tried to carry on a conversation with me while in my car, I simply can’t talk to you. AT&T drops so many of my calls along Sunset Boulevard that I just no longer have any expectation of a call not being dropped.

Perhaps this is a secret plot to get us Los Angelenos to stay off the phone whilst in the car. While I truly believe it’s safer to not use the phone in the car, for small business owners who need to stay in touch with clients, there aren’t a lot of other options.

I found a great site www.cellreception.com where you can read actual users experiences with the different networks in and around Los Angeles.

Just google “at&t dropped calls los angeles” to see how bad it really is.

I’ll be taking my business lines as well as those of my family over to Verizon. I will hopefully have much better results!

Smartphones – Part 3 of 3

Last week I talked about my experiences with the iPhone. Now let’s have a look at a phone few people talk about, at least in the US. The Nokia E71 – unlocked and using on AT&T network in Los Angeles.

Nokia E71

My Thoughts: Nokia sure knows how to build a beautiful, solid device with excellent aesthetics. I get so many compliments and questions about this phone! I ordered this after being frustrated with Blackberry and Apple.

Smartphones – Part 2 of 3

This is  a continuation of last weeks post on smartphones. Last week I talked about the Blackberry and today I’ll be roasting the iPhone. Let’s have a look.

Apple iPhone

My thoughts: Apple sure knows how to do marketing. People line up for everything they produce! As a long time Blackberry user, I too was sucked in to the hype. I waited for the 2^nd generation though and this is my experience.

Smartphones – Part 1 of 3

In my work with clients, I have to know all the ins and outs of nearly every smartphone on the market. Over the years, I have been fortunate to experience firsthand all of these phones and help my clients bring convenience and mobility to their lives. Since I am mostly on the road every day, I also use a smartphone to stay in touch with my clients, my office and my email. Being in this position, my standards tend to be a little higher and I’m a bit more demanding of technology.  In this series, I’ll describe my experiences with each phone I’ve used in the past few years. I’d like to know what you think; perhaps we can all find a phone we’re happy with.

A call from a client “Someone hacked my email account!”

In the past week, several clients have had their email accounts hacked and the overwhelming feeling is one of shock. Questions emerge, how did this happen? Why did it happen to me? I hope to answer some of those questions, as well as describe just one incidence with the hope that you’ll begin to recognize patterns and be able to prevent this from happening to you. First I want to credit a CNN story that ran a few days ago that describes a real situation where a friend’s email was hacked and the culprit sent out a very real sounding request for help. Fortunately, the author noted some issues that just didn’t feel right and because he listened to his gut, was able to avoid making a bad situation worse.

Website Design, Branding and Copywriting

Throughout my business, clients have always asked me about how to get a great website. The simple answer is that with the advent of iWeb and WordPress, anyone can have a great website with very little cost. If you have the time to invest in learning the tools, you can create a simple website in very little time. But what happens when you don’t have the time but your business demands a serious web presence? Start with the end in mind. Keep your vision on the final result you are looking for.

ÜberGeekGirl Gives Back

Los Angeles Elementary School Receives Technology Makeover

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 03/17/10
• http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/03/17/los-angeles-elementary-school-receives-technology-makeover.aspx

Dayton Heights Elementary School in Los Angeles has made substantial improvements to its education technology offerings, courtesy of technology marketing firm Everything Channel and local volunteer action center L.A. Works. The “makeover” impacts the school’s computer lab, library and teacher workroom.

Everything Channel sponsors Channel@Work, a volunteer program to give back to the community. A component of the program, the Technology Makeover School Edition, is behind the improvements at Dayton Heights. They include six new computers and a printer for the school library and OS and keyboard upgrades for 34 Apple workstations in the school computer lab, as well as a new computer for teacher use.

ÜberGeekGirl sponsoring the Women In Tech Spring Mixer

WITI Los Angeles Regional Network

Spring Mixer with Girls in Tech!
(Sponsored by ÜberGeekGirl®)

Make new contacts, re-connect with former colleagues, invite clients (and make new ones!). You’ll have rare access to a highly diverse group of professionals committed to your success!
http://www.witi.com/la/meeting.php?id=2368

Recovering from an Outlook “uh oh”

Today a client called me in a panic. She had inadvertently removed the category from several hundred contacts. Of course this couldn’t have happened at a more inopportune moment – she was preparing an important mailing about a very important event!

She asked if her Crashplan backup would save her. Unfortunately, the answer was no. Crashplan and other services only backup data such as Microsoft Word documents and photos. Categories in Outlook are a funny thing, there is no easy way to back them up. Next she wondered if her hosted exchange provider could restore her Outlook. Sadly, again the answer was no. Most hosted exchange providers do not provide brick level, individual mailbox restores. They really should offer it, IMHO (even as an optional upgrade, if not a standard feature).

I sat with this for a minute and an idea came to me. What if I could sort the contacts by category, then use the Field Chooser to find a “recently modified” field and then add it to the Outlook column bar? I discovered the “modified” field in the “All Appointments” drop down. Now she could sort by that field, and quickly identify the 130 some odd contacts for whom she had removed the category! It didn’t take long for her to add back the missing information so she could take care of the important mailing.

Going the extra mile and getting creative when many consultants would have said tough luck really made all the difference in the world for this client.

Volunteering via Twitter

Recently one morning I was driving around Santa Monica, feeling grateful for all the wonderful things that have happened to me since relocating from the Midwest. I felt a strong urge to find a way to give back to the community in some way. I thought there might be an organization that I could do a project for and wondered how I might find the right opportunity. Little did I know that the opportunity would find me via Twitter.