outSmart Your Smartphone

<p> Over the weekend my friend and nationally known educator (and well not enough room to tell you everything about) Mike Barnett contacted me about his Droid. He was complaining to me about the size of the font on his Droid. In all fairness Mike&#39;s AARP is well worn so age might have something to do with his problem. I checked online to see if it was a big, sorry small problem and it turns out many are talking about it online. I suggested a cure which involved going to Spare Parts App or downloading for free to change font size. problem it does not change the font on all programs much like our good old Palms and Windows did. </p> <p> Let&#39;s get something straight here I like the Droid and know many who love it. BUT if you can&#39;t see half your stuff it not going to work. So here we go let&#39;s talk about the Droid and any of you that have found work around please share and let&#39;s make this thread anything Droid. </p> <p> Side note when I travel I many times have members of this group tell me how much they love this group. It&#39;s not about me it&#39;s about you and many of you step up quickly to share your advice. I love agent to agent sharing and this forum provides just that. </p> <p> Dick </p>

<p> it&#39;s time we all pull together and start looking at apps that truely help REALTORS with their career and life. Recently NAR hired me to speak at AE meeting in Quebec City and they requested I come up with Top 10 things you can do with your smartphone &quot;Outside the Box&quot;. The presentation was fun showing things we never think about our phone doing. I took that theme to my new class &quot;Warp Speed Warrior- arming REALTORS with Mobile Cloud Technology&quot; which I have presented a few times lately. The most exciting part of the class is showing kick butt real estate apps. </p> <p> With all that said today we are adding apps at a rate of thousands a day. iPhone has over 200,000 Droid is way over 50,000 and Pre and the rest of them are adding apps. How about we as a group start sharing apps we find that help us in our life. Even though I don&#39;t have a life, I do not have time to review thousands of apps a day BUT thanks to the power of many we can help each other. </p> <p> You don&#39;t need to write a book but tells us what you found, how it helps, and the rest of us can look at it and give input. I will be sharing as many as I can and please if you think the app sucks (did I say that) tell us why and what you found better. </p> <p> Please tell your geeky friends about this thread and let&#39;s rock and roll! </p> <p> Dick Betts </p>

<p style="text-align: left"> Have I mentioned I am getting a headache with all the phones rolling out the first quarter of 2010? Verizon released the new improved Palm and Pixi Plus the end of January and I am already getting emails from folks asking what the difference is. Not much but just like all the other Palm releases they use us for quality control and build in some changes. Remember when we jumped quickly from the M500 to the M515 better yet how about the 700W and just weeks later the 700WX. Anyway here we go with what you Sprint Pre owners are missing; </p> <p style="text-align: left"> Double the Ram the Pre has 8 GB Plus 16 GB </p> <p> Battery slightly improved </p> <p> Pre 5 hours talk time 300 hours standby </p> <p> Pre Plus 5.5 hours talk time 350 hours standby (ya right!) </p> <p> Palm Pre if you want to use the Touchstone charging system need to replace back Plus comes standard. The Plus does feel better with new back feels less plastic and adds just a little weigh adding to the good feeling. </p> <p> Pre Plus has a redesigned Qwerty keyboard which comparing to the Pre is much nicer and feels better. Oh they removed the little button in the middle bottom of the swipe area. </p> <p> Coolest feature change is the Plus can switch into Wi-Fi router functionality for up to five devices using Palm mobile hotspot. The $40 a month price tag makes it not that cool. </p> <p> Now if that&#39;s not enough we have a new release of WebOS 1.4 software coming the middle of February. Biggest thing is video recording and editing but a few other upgrades are phonebook transfer, calendar and messaging enhancements. </p> <p> Had enough yet? How about the Pre and Pixi coming to AT&amp;T in May but you didn&#39;t hear that from me. </p> <p> Dick Betts </p> <p> National Real Estate Speaker </p> <p> <a href="http://www.dickbettsseminars.com/"><font color="#1E77B9">www.DickBettsSeminars.com</font></a> </p>

<p> For the past three months I have been telling folks to wait until after the first of the year if they need a new Smartphone. Well it&#39;s the first of the year and things are starting to become clear. The industry wants us to start using a new phrase to define the new breed of Smartphones they want us to call them &quot;Super Phones&quot;. Not sure if that will stick but until I finish this article that is what I will call them. </p> <p> So after visiting all my favorite geek sites that cover Smartphones this is what I have put together. There are four phones that fall into the Super Phone category IPhone 3G, Palm Pre, Nexus One and the Droid. If you&#39;re current phone doesn&#39;t make the list remember this is just a research article based on reading geek sites NOT the opinion of the writer. </p> <p> So which one of these is best? None of them are best for everyone only you can decide which one provides you the tools you need. I also want to get past something here the price. If you are a true Smartphone user taking advantage of 50 to 75% of the phone&#39;s features there is no other electronic device that affects your life more then your phone. So forget price and look at how this device can improve your life, increase your productivity, keep you organized and for many provide a source of relaxation with music, games, web surfing and reading. </p> <p> For many of you the first question is does it open my lockboxes currently no heard rumors but nothing at this time. Does my contact management system work on the new phones for anybody using Outlook you will be fine if using something else could be problem. There is a great program coming out for Customer Relationship Management that will work with Outlook and all web enabled phones but can&#39;t talk about it yet. </p> <p> Okay let&#39;s get into the phones start with the IPhone if you have AT&amp;T and live in one of their 3G areas it wins! Being able to talk and surf the web get emails while having a conversation makes this phone the best tool out there. Having 127,600 applications doesn&#39;t really impress me because we normally use 5 or 10 to run our business and life. I do not see the IPhone on any other networks in the near future. Is it worth switching from your carrier, no? </p> <p> The Palm Pre and Pixi currently with Sprint but announced yesterday coming to Verizon on January 25^th and AT&amp;T has said according to geek sites they will be offering 2 Palm products shortly wonder which two? Anyway nice device love the keyboard the biggest feature it has the IPhone doesn&#39;t have is multitasking which means having many apps open at the same time. Smallest of the Super Phones if that&#39;s important to you. </p> <p> The Droid which operates on Verizon&#39;s network is a probably not happy today. More about that later anyway love the keyboard lacks multi touch screen so not the best tool to show people a picture or information from a website. Multitasking on the Droid does work which gives it a thumbs up. Of the 4 Super phones the best screen! Now how Google has thrown the Droid under the bus, the new Google phone has 2.1 operating system making some needed changes to the software that the Droid has because it&#39;s running the 2.0 system. Gee a phone released a mere 2 months ago already outdated. </p> <p> The Nexus One (Google Phone) seen as the IPhone killer the jury is still out on that statement. I have not had one in my hands yet so based on people in the business that I trust &quot;they like it&quot;. Now that statement alone speaks volumes big difference between like and love. The Nexus does multitask which in case you haven&#39;t figured out I think is on the very top of the list of features. It is more customizable then other Super phones but not sure the average user cares. I could fill pages of benefits and features for all these phones but this one might have a slight edge. Currently Nexus One is only on the T-Mobile network and expected to be available in the spring on Verizon. You can purchase an unlocked unit and work on AT&amp;T because of the sim card. </p> <p> So here we go again the same question I get thousands of times all over North America what is the best phone? There isn&#39;t one! Just like there is not a best carrier because of where you live and work. We all need to look at how we do business run our life and select a device that benefits us. Don&#39;t get caught up on yours is better then mine it doesn&#39;t matter. Here&#39;s a link for a great comparison chart that spells out some very basic questions about the 4 Super Phones; </p> <p> <a href="http://www.billshrink.com/blog/nexus-one-vs-iphone-droid-palm-pre-total-cost-of-ownership/"><font color="#1E77B9">http://www.billshrink.com/blog/nexus-one-vs-iphone-droid-palm-pre-total-cost-of-ownership/</font></a> </p> <p> In closing don&#39;t let your lockboxes or contact management program make you buy a dumber phone. Buy a phone that helps you in your business and personal life the most. If you feel the most important feature on your phone is opening lockboxes and operating an antiquated contact management system then go to eBay where they have brand new Palm Treos that work with all carriers. </p> <p> Dick Betts </p> <p> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal"> Any of you that have ever attended one of my sessions know I am very big on contact management. In my days before becoming a speaker I worked in Corporate America where at a very young age the importance of contact management was pounded into my head. I remember the rolodex on my desk and the book of business cards. I remember the stack of 3 x 5 cards in either a wood or plastic box. Starting in 1995 I used Outlook to manage my contacts and one of the reasons I purchased my first Palm devices is because it talked to Outlook. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> I have fought Outlook overlays and third party contact management system because either I didn&#39;t feel the product was worth the money or didn&#39;t like the way they played with Outlook. I didn&#39;t like the way some companies punish you when you leave their service. Lately what has bothered me the most is having your contact management system tell you buy a dumb Smartphone because we can&#39;t handle the smartest phone available. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Well today I am announcing a major change in my business and life. In November after months of actively searching for a product to help one of my clients a company found me. Dan Berry with Howard &amp; Friends contacted me about Agents 1st Choice looking for my help and opinion on his system. Dan wanted to improve his product so we picked a very busy REALTOR with a very experienced assistant as a trial. This agent is just 6 miles from my home so I could go to her office and work with her and the assistant. The three of us worked with the system asked for adjustments and changes and Dan quickly made the changes. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> I recognized this product meets all my requirements, works on all internet phones, talks to Outlook, not punished if you decide to leave the service and a fair price. My problem with other customer relationship management tools if you leave them you have a tough time getting your contacts back into Outlook. This product wants you to hit one button everyday and put everything in Outlook. This means if you want to quit no problem your information is yours. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> So here&#39;s the big announcement May 1st I am launching Dick Betts CRM which combines Agents 1st Choice with a training program designed to help agents learn the system. Another problem I have with &quot;the other guys&quot; they just want to sell you a product and many agents do not ever use or use just 10 or 20% of the program. We started a new division and I am very proud and excited to announce Amanda Tester will head the division. For over 16 years Amanda has dedicated her management career to REALTORS, supporting them through education, Real Estate marketing and Real Estate technology. Her experience in REALTOR web-sites, Real Estate publishing, and multiple listing technology provides Dick Betts CRM full system support for agents who need guidance with establishing effective &quot;no-worry&quot; Customer Relationship Management.<br /> Amanda is always interested in looking around the corner to see what&#39;s coming next in Real Estate technology and helping agents remain in the forefront of every Real Estate transaction. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> If you are interested in learning more about our partnership with Agents 1st Choice please contact Amanda at <a href="mailto:Amanda@DickBetts.com">Amanda@DickBetts.com</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Dick Betts </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> National Real Estate Speaker </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.dickbetts.com/">www.DickBetts.com</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://www.dickbettsseminars.com/">www.DickBettsSeminars.com</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="mailto:Dick@DickBetts.com">Dick@DickBetts.com</a> </p>

<p> I received an email from my friend Mike Barnett of RealTown fame yesterday asking for a Blackberry section. So here it is, we will run this discussion thread for Blackberry users. I do not have a Blackberry but do have one coming to add to my collection so the members of this group who use the BB I need your help! </p> <p> I hope to learn from you about Blackberry so we all can benefit from this addition to our group! </p> <p> Thanks, </p> <p> Dick </p>

<p> I would like to make this the go to place for information about the Palm Pre Smartphone. Together we can speed up the learning process by sharing what we have learned. I am spending as much time as possible learning the device but I am sure some of you have started someplace different. </p> <p> So let&#39;s start sharing plus having REALTORS add what they are liking or disliking about the phone will help some decide. </p> <p> First thing I have noticed which currently no other Smartphone has is to be able to run many apps (programs) at the same time. Instead of closing an app just hit the &quot;Center Button&quot; which reduces the program to about a quarter of the size. Open all you want and they look like a deck of cards using your finger just flick them side to side then tap to open to full screen. Just to test I opened 15 apps with no problem. </p> <p> Dick </p>

<p> <strong>Welcome! </strong> Our purpose in developing this discussion group is to provide a reliable resource of information about mobile technology. The Smartphone is such a wonderful Real Estate Management Tool! We could go on for pages about all the reasons <i>Why</i> a REALTOR should use a Smartphone, but you already understand the need or you wouldn&#39;t be here reading this! </p> <div> We recognize that getting questions answered and finding help about Smartphones can be an overwhelming task! We get hundreds of emails each month from agents looking for direction, seeking answers, confused about options and some even desperate for technical help. It has been our mission to provide agents with a down-to-earth approach on a subject matter usually thought of as complicated and frustrating. We have been offering practical ideas that are easily applied to daily practices for the past seven years and have been a part of the evolution of the Smartphone. Our main web site, <a href="http://www.dickbetts.com/">www.DickBetts.com</a>, offers a lot of information about Smartphones - helpful tips, tricks to adjusting settings to make the devices a bit more user-friendly, cool third-party software and gadgets to check out a much more. But this forum discussion takes what we have been offering to a whole new level. We are excited to be working with RealTown to provide this helpful resource to you! </div> <div> </div> <div> Our information is geared towards the needs of today&#39;s Real Estate Professional. By educating yourself about the different varieties of Smartphones and the main features of each one, you can better decide which device is going to be best to suit <i>your</i> individual needs. That truly is the key to selecting a Smartphone - discovering which device will best meet <i>your</i>needs. <b class="c1">One-size does not fit all!</b> </div> <div> </div> <div> A good question to start with is <i>Why</i> you want a Smartphone. What was it that drew your interest to mobile technology? The internet access no matter where you are? The ability to send/receive email when you are out of the office. Or maybe you are tired of carrying all of your working files in your backseat! For some, the interest is sparked by a third-party software program they just can&#39;t live without. <i>Your</i> answer is the best place to start when deciding on which brand/ model of Smartphone to purchase. </div> <div> </div> <div> You see, to truly benefit from having a Smartphone you need to do more than just purchase a device and learn how to put in Contacts and make phone calls. To get the most out of a Smartphone you must learn how to best apply the available features to <i>your</i> real estate career. Reading thru the Manual will teach you how to use the different Applications, but it will not show you how to best apply the function to your real estate career. Putting a real estate twist on each feature should be your goal. Where do you go to learn that? </div> <div> </div> <div> Right here! This is where we step in. <em>This</em> is what this discussion group is all about - using your Smartphone like a true Real Estate Professional to get the most out of your purchase and reap the rewards of a better flow to your business. </div> <div> </div> <div> So, let&#39;s hear from you - </div> <div> </div> <div> What do you need or want to know about Smartphones. Give us your questions. </div> <div> </div> <div> Been using a device for a long time and know it all? Then share your advice or tips. </div> <div> </div> <div> We look forward to hearing from you. </div> <div> Dick Betts </div> <div> Shelby Betts </div> <div> Mobile Technology Trainers </div> <div> <a href="http://www.DickBetts.com">www.DickBetts.com</a> </div> <div> </div>