Benson Hendrix dot Com

Actors Paid to Line Up for iPhone Launch in Poland

Turns out not everyone is gaga over the iPhone, people in Poland are saying “hell no!” to wanting to pay for the “privilege” of shelling out a lot of cash in monthly phone bills, in addition to giving richly for some of Steve-O Jobs’ love.  So instead, Orange (the Apple approved phone operator of choice – Orange… Apple… insert joke here if you can) has decided to pay actors to stand in line outside of stores to try and create fake buzz in the iPhone.

Why do I get the feeling that if Microsoft or RIM did this, the iCabal would be up in arms – arms I say!! – about it.  Hell, they threw a tantrum about the Mojave Experiment campaign when it started…

(UPDATE: I have a review of the Sony Imagination Studio Suite HERE)

About a year ago, I wrote a post about the iLife suite for Mac (which to be honest, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – I tried to use it at work and Garageband is the best, and only decent, program in the suite) and that some companies should try to come up with a PC version of the iLife suite, if Steve-O Jobs didn’t want to release his beloved suite.  I even put together some bundles of PC software from Sony, Adobe and Open Source/Windows built in software to show how these could work together.

It turns out, Sony was listening. Not only that, but they also appeared to take quite a bit of my advice.

Now I don’t know if they were reading this blog per se, but since I had been writing about it, and the biggest hits on here by far are my iLife for PC posts, and that I’ve got just enough of an ego to think I had an impact, I’m gonna say the crew at Sony Creative Software (great people by the way, I met them at the New Media Expo – more on that later) and Sony picked up on the need for a content creataion studio for PC vibe and created a new suite that includes the software I mentioned before (Vegas Studio, ACID Studio, Photo Go, and Sound Forge) with an addition I hadn’t thought of – Cinescore Studio, so soundtrack music is quickly available for any length of video you wish to create.

This new suite of software is only available from Dell, another interesting move since Dell was also offering a small studio from Adobe that was Dell only.  A big move for Dell, getting a nice suite of software to compete with iLife that you (might be able to) get on preloaded on a Dell.

So ladies and gentlemen, let me present you with Sony’s new content creation studio – the Sony Imagination Studio Suite.

Sony’s Imagination Studio includes all of the tools you need, sans iWeb, to create content and get it up on YouTube or Sony’s own AcidPlanet (what?  you expected them to export to the nightmare that is Mobile Me?).

So what is in this new iLife for PC possibility?  Let’s take a look at the tools!

Read more…

In this age of advancing technology and Google’s growing hegemony in your online life, this is just a quick reminder to say that if you have a Google Account (Gmail, iGoogle, etc) then you might want to try out this old-school method of account security.

Write your password down on this thing called paper.

Before you scoff at this reuse of old technology, please hear my tale, it’s sad but true… about a girl that I once …er still know. (OK, cancel the “Runaround Sue” pun.)

Recently I bought a new laptop for my fiancee.  It’s pretty sweet, a new Dell XPS 1530, and I’ve been transferring data from her old laptop to this one.  But we didn’t get the passwords moved over from her old computer’s Firefox file to this one, and she couldn’t remember the password for her account.  No problem, you might think, just have Google send the password to her backup email account.  That would work great if the company hadn’t unknowingly shut down (since she used her Gmail account for everything there was no need for that email).

What about the backup question?  I’d like an answer to that one as well, because after typing in the answer, and any possible permutation of the backup question and that little cheesy captcha file, Google still would not let her reset her password.

So we finally found a way to contact Google, because being the big web company they are, they don’t actually want people to contact them when their stuff goes haywire (unless of course, you are a big consumer account, which being only two people, we aren’t).  We filled out the form with all of the information we had on the account and sent it in, only to get a response from Google telling us they can’t send her information because she didn’t have enough information to send in (aka, she’s not using enough of their services and she’s screwed, again we’re not a big corporate account).

The end result of all of this?  Well, my fiancee has another Gmail account for backup (that I created for her) and she still can’t access her Gmail contacts, or the businesses (bank, car payment, etc) that contact her through that email address and she’s getting stressed about all of this.  So thanks Google, it’s such a great plan to give stress to someone with a heart condition.

And the lesson learned from this little weekend debacle?  Just use some retro tech and remember to write your passwords down someplace safe (Dad, hint hint)

P.S. and if anyone from Google ever stumbles across this, a little help here?

What can I say?  I’m convinced…

I’ve been trying to keep up with the stories about people who are still having problems with Windows Vista.  Some of the problems appear to be people with Vista on their new computers, which is understandable since it’s Microsoft’s first OS upgrade in a long time – understandable but still a pain in the ass, because Microsoft should not have overpromised and underdelivered on Vista.

(as I’ve said before, Vista has been a pretty solid OS for me.  I haven’t baby’d my laptop either – it’s my main computer and I’m usually running a handful of video, audio or web editing software on it and it trucks along.  Not as fast as XP, but Vista is Mike Alstott to XP’s Warrick Dunn.)

Some of the people bitching about Vista haven’t tried Vista yet, but read some of the negative comments about it and added gas to the fire.  Or saw Apple’s innovative ads poking fun at Vista (Steve Jobs’s gratitude for Bill Gates bailing him out and saving Apple a few years back, but I digress)

And some of the complaining seems to come from people who have tried to install Vista on that cutting-edge 1996 computer they just can’t seem to get rid of, for some pack-rat sentimental reason.  Microsoft, instead of subtly nudging people into upgrading their computers so they can run on Vista, decided to shoehorn Windows users into getting Vista – and worse, getting them on computers that won’t run Vista properly.

This has caused quite the PR kerfluffle within the computer world.  This isn’t “the good ole days” when Microsoft released XP.  Nowadays detractors have media outlets to complain to (or with) that were not available with the great XP unveiling – blogs and other social media. (Ha!  I knew I could tie blogging into this somehow!) MS should have been a little more savvy to the segment of their consumer base that isn’t ready to,  or capable of, adopting.  Now Microsoft has opened itself up to some deserved criticism as the end of life date for XP looms closer – Microsoft is really not going to cut off service to millions, if not tens or hundreds of millions, of XP users are they?

Some savvy computer makers (Ok, right now it’s just Dell, but expect other’s to follow quickly) have stated they will continue to install XP Pro on computers after the cut-off deadline, thanks to a loophole that allows them to offer XP Pro to those who purchase a computer with Vista Business or Ultimate. Microsoft should offer the same kind of deal.

Listen up Ballmer, I’m going to tell you how to turn this into a PR, and actual customer, win.

Read more…

A quick note to the gang over at Mozilla. If you’re going to update your browser, it would be nice if it would not lock up every 5 minutes after the update. Firefox 2.0.12 was bad enough, but the latest update is ridiculous! I keep having to force shutdown my browser window every time I turn around.

With four windows open, we’re looking at browser lockup, with 57% of my computing power, and almost 250MB working on one window. I thought this whole memory leak was taken care of?

Between Firefox locking me up, and Safari trying to force its way onto my desktop like a needier version of Kim Basinger in Wayne’s World 2 I’m getting ready to fire up Internet Explorer until Mozilla gets v. 3 ready.

A question for Comcast cable: What will it take for me to watch Breaking Bad on AMC without dealing with ghost images from another of your channels?  Or anything on AMC without three other channels bleeding over into what I’m watching?

Your crappy technical service is getting to the point where we’ve started looking into Dish TV for a clear picture.  (And it’s not just our house, when we were in the hospital it was just as bad – so it’s something on your end.)

Opera, the Web browser preferred by literally dozens of people worldwide, is apparently in desperate need of funding to continue their groundbreaking Web browser research. Unfortunately, the groundbreaking was already done by companies like Mozilla, Microsoft and even Apple (the Safari browser is decent on Leopa-Tabby-Puddy Tat, but was a waste when I loaded up the MS version).

So Opera, like any good underdog following on the heels of more innovative companies, has taken to picking the company with the most money and which, until recently, has been acting like a victim, and doing the very American act of suing them.

Why is Microsoft acting like a victim?  That’s a long story, I’ll just say that jumping through every hoop that Google tries to put up for them – else Google will threaten to sue (look at rumored upcoming changes in Vista that are supposed to hinder search functions, presumably to encourage users to download Google’s desktop search function).  Or Google’s attempt to get involved in the Microsoft-Dept. of Justice lawsuit from several years ago, a case that even the judge pointed out Google had no cause to be involved in, has given Microsoft a little bit of a complex when facing off against the new technology giant.

And Opera filed their American-style lawsuit in the EU, which, being the EU, is still upset that Bill Gates is giving his billions to poor third world children instead of poor French children whose parents can only afford one bottle of wine at a time and is more likely to find in favor of the Norwegian-based Opera. (And this is from a fan of the EU)

However, Microsoft’s collective balls descended from the body cavity and they essentially said “forget it.”  Opera claims that people are “locked into using Internet Explorer” because Microsoft bundles it with the Windows Operating System.  I guess they have false faith in the idea that people will flock over to Opera instead of IE7 if only they weren’t cruelly forced to use IE7 (And speaking of Flock, that’s a good browser as well!).  No one has taken the time to tell them they are wrong, people use IE7 because it’s convenient (and I use Firefox because I like it better).  And some web designers have to use IE7 to at least check their sites because the vast majority of people surfing the web use IE6 or 7 and designers need to make sure their sites come up fine in that browser.

Someone really needs to tell those chaps at Opera that there is an easier way to get funding to keep their staff employed: either try to position Opera as the browser for OSX (not likely) or Linux (more likely), try to convince Sony to bundle it with PS3, or continue their work in the mobile device market.  Maybe Opera should look at teaming up with a computer maker, getting Opera bundled into the computers as the default browser.

Or I could try and convince someone in Texas (are you paying attention Dad?) to take Opera to court.  In a Texas court, where they don’t like them “Euro-countries” very much.  What do you say guys?  This is America, there has to be something we can sue for…

(that’s so sad because it’s true…)

For the five people who read this blog on a semi-regularly basis (Hi Mom, Dad, bro, and the other two or so!  I love you all! )  I have a couple of tech tips for you to check out!

For those who are voracious blog readers (like me) there is great news from Newsgator, makers of the Feed Demon news reader (for Windows) and the NetNewsWire (Close to the name of this blog, eh eh, great minds think alike and all that) reader for Mac.  They have dropped the price of their news reader software to zero, zip, nada.  I had downloaded their trial software previously and really liked it, not enough to buy it when there are other cool readers out there like Awasu or even Mozilla’s Thunderbird email app.

One of the things I appreciated about Feed Demon is that it synced with Newsgator’s free online news reader (so after the free trial ended I was able to use the online service to keep up with the vast variety of blogs I read (probably around 40 or so now) without jumping from site to site.  So when the Feed Demon price dropped, I jumped all over it.  And I give it 5 stars, and highly recommend it to everyone who is interested in keeping up on their latest reads in ease and style!

But I have another tech tip for y’all as well. 

Read more…

Just found out I’ll be presenting at the same conference on Social Media and PR that Richard Edelman will be keynoting.

Richard Edelman, the mac daddy of social media and public relations.  A crown that no one has been able to wrest away from him yet.

And I’ll be speaking at one of the breakout sessions after his keynote.

No pressure…

Now where did I put the Tums?