ForbesOnTech

Using Twitter For Call to Action marketing-- Way to Go Lenovo!

 

Finally, a sign that some portable computer makers realize that social media can be used to drive sales.  Just this morning, I jumped on twitter to answer a direct tweet for something I wanted to post on cloud computing here and there was a tweet from Dave Churbuck, Lenovo’s social media and web marketing guru with a call to action and a discount click this puppy on two specific Lenovo labeled Ideapad Y430 notebooks.

My reaction is simple: it’s about time.

Much more than YouTube—the home of numerous corporate-sponsored b-roll marketing videos, Twitter may be the perfect social media outlet to proof marketing campaigns.

At the moment Twitter is good method for monitoring brand and corporate program awareness or attitudes.  But, on the outbound side, it’s much more suited for shotgun, than it is precision marketing.

Looking at Twitter today through the eyes of a former Demo event producer, I’d love to use it in a closed setting such as the Demo to give presenters instant feedback on their value propositions, products or pitches. In this use it could become a mortar that binds attendees to the show and its selected companies.

Social media is an evolving experiment. There are A-listers who scream “platforms must remain open to all” and there are implementers who want to use it precisely,  choking out background non-contributors who have little or nothing to add to a conversation.

Until recently there’s been very little call to action marketing on Twitter. I hope other companies jump in when they realize applications like Twitter can help extend tightly budgeted marketing programs in dour times.—Jim Forbes—02/13/2009

Attention Netbook Manufacturers,Your Products Need to be Marketed and Differentiated!

Over the last two weeks I’ve looked at a lot of netbooks, but left stores and websites with unanswered questions, not products.

I have yet to have a manufacturer or salesman satisfactorily answer what fundamentally is the most important question gating netbook acceptance: “Why do I need to give up an optical drive or valuable screen real estate that’s easy on my aging eyes, and retreat to 10-year old hard disks technology?” And most of all, why do I want a netbook with a short battery life?

At the center of the problem is a simple fact: portable computer manufacturers have become too lazy and relied too long on feature matrix (aka “spec box”) marketing. The result has been that many product managers have developed a style of marketing that’s more suited for Dickensonian IT purchasing agents than 21^st Century technologists.

To break free of the current marketing rut before it leads product lines and perhaps even entire companies into oblivion, marketing managers need to actively sell netbooks as new technology, and not just  “me too” renditions aimed at brand or processor family loyalists. How bad is netbooks marketing? I looked at the six netbooks recently and not one was accompanied by any “call to action” Material or campaigns.

A handful of salespeople showing products understood netbooks worked best when paired with persistent wireless, but none offered a bundle that included such connectivity or even personal recommendations.

Without persistent connectivity as well as reliable, cloud-based apps –which includes secure drive-in-the-sky storage and synchronization software that’s good enough to earn “industry standard” spurs--netbooks may just be a slight bump up from cell-phone, WAP browser- based solutions of  the last century.

But wait there’s more: After early adopters make their purchases it’s going to take a lot more than traditional speeds and feeds product launches tied to Intel processor or new core logic to gain lasting ownership positions in the netbook market.

Unfortunately some of the current netbook leaders mistakenly equate market availability presence with dominance. For example one of the top two net book suppliers positioned a new machine largely around the fact that it used “the most recent” (and speediest) Intel processor.

The above illustrates one of the biggest continuing flaws in portable computing marketing; over reliance on Intel co marketing programs and close ties to launches of new (poorly differentiated) hardware tied to microprocessor manufacturers’ products.

Sadly, that may be the only marketing model many of today’s portable computer makers may know. But, the seeds of their downfall and that of their products as well as companies could well be tied to such actions.

But I don’t really believe its all doom and gloom for netbook and portable computer makers. A handful have come alive over the last 18 months and are beginning to break out speeds an feeds as well as feature matrix marketing models and beginning to use call to action marketing to draw customers and the attention of markets to new innovative products.  Apple, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo have all made heavy investments outside of staid portable computer marketing channels.

And, the current economy has created remarkable opportunities for companies outside of Silicon Valley; notably cellular chipset giant Qualcomm here in San Diego, which in addition to having a netbook architecture that has built-in feature like support for instant-on and persistent connectivity, also has the wherewithal to pair netbook manufacturers with cellular networks.

Netbook makers should not assume that the advantages of a new architecture that’s designed expressly for persistently connected netbooks will be clearly understood by business and general consumers. Actively marketing such new technologies and offering the market clear call to actions will mark the difference between winners and the also-rans in the 2009 netbook race.—Jim Forbes  02/09/2009

Why Lab-Based Reviews Hurt Notebook Marketing -- Part II

Looking critically at the coverage of Intel’s Centrino 2 announcements this week leaves me solidly convinced that the PC Press is stuck in a rut racing head first over a cliff.

            Let me ‘splain: Beyond a certain point increases in the speed of a processor are as fractionally important as the actual speed improvement. Based on about 20 years of testing notebooks, I never once encountered a new processor that was 15 or 20 percent faster than a previous family member deliver the same level of increased usability of system throughput.

            I know this and magazine tech editors know it too, yet they continue to parrot Intel and other manufacturer’s claims that a bump up in speed is equivalent to the Second Coming.

            What’s important today isn’t processor speed, it’s the new capabilities included in core logic that accompanies many new processor launches. And it’s this last set of capabilities that get the shortest shrift from computer magazine editors.

            What I find really annoying are editor’s spending three of four paragraphs to statistically quantify increases in processor speed as demonstrated by the performance results of obscure software benchmarks or battery run down loop tests.

            The real news in most processor manufacturer announcements is the new features made possible by the addition of new capabilities in core logic or related chipsets.  And it’s this part of the computer trade press’ coverage of Intel’s Centrino2 announcement that demonstrates how stuck the press is in it’s old lab-based methodology.

            Let’s consider for a minute that Intel claims its new core logic improves graphics performance and enhances Bluetooth connectivity. Both of these features help to enhance the user experience—a critical component in the “What makes a good notebook” success equation.

            In the lab-based quantification model used by most computer magazines, they may chart graphics performance but most often leave out specific examples of what that number means to a user.

            I’ve become an NCO in the Bluetooth Borg Army and I’m extremely interested in whether or not Centrino 2-based systems improve my Bluetooth experience. Again, lab-based magazine benchmarks omit any quantification of this feature, or of improvements made to 802.11 components in new notebooks based on Intel’s recently announced products.

            The use of Power Point decks by product marketing managers to highlight features may actually hinder product launches. As someone who sat through more than a thousand such pitches I always found hands on demonstrations by product designers to be a much more effective demonstration mechanism. A couple of examples: two of the pros who fueled my interest in notebook technology were IBM Think Pad Brand Manager Kevin Clark (now with Lenovo) and Gary Elsasser then with Toshiba (now a VP with Gateway/Acer). Both of these professionals knew their products inside and out and related the benefits of those features to the user experience. Those two professionals weren’t the only ones whose work on product introductions turned dry marketing matrix entries into important points in the user experience. 

            Two other people who deserve mentioning are: Guy Kawasaki --A member of Apple’s second-generation evangelist staff-- and Dave Winer --founder of Living Videotext (now the voice of blog site Scripting.com). Both were the kings of positioning a product based on suitability or usability without ever dipping into the bag of dry as dust performance metric results.

            The lab-based mentality that permeates most of today’s computer magazines may have suborned, marketing efforts that emphasize the user experience over performance metrics. Most of today’s notebook marketing is done using presentation graphics software, which does absolutely nothing to illustrate how a set of features binds a user to a brand or particular machine.

            And that’s my take on notebook marketing.

            Damn the metrics! Now sit down in front of a notebook and see why you like the experience. Now  vote with your pocketbook, not a year’s subscription to a product based on dead trees and testing methodology from the last century.—Jim Forbes on 07/18/2008

 

           

Why is Today's Portable Computing Marketing Stiill Stuck in the last Century's Model?

 

Portable computer technology is at a seminal point in history, yet most portable computing marketing is still mired in 1990’s marketing that’s little more than a feature checklist that’s been stuffed into a spread sheet and then turned over to a graphic artist before it’s posted on the web. And all of this flies in the face of tha availability of flash-based animation or video technology that can be used to highlight great portables.

Nothing makes this more apparent than this week’s rollout of Intel’s new chipset and Centrino II brand. My overwhelming reaction to the is a yawn and a direct phrase words: “Get out of the 1990’sm marketing model and break new ground!”

Faster processor speed for me is a yawner.  I’ve come to expect them from Intel. What are important today are the increased and new capabilities of chipsets. Better WiFi range, or integrated support of WiMax are very important, but unless you see or experience their tangible benefits, they’re just words in a self-serving marketing presentation.

I’m not ashamed that I spent a portion of my professional life as a PR person. I learned a lot working the opposite side of the table from editors. And foremost among the things I understood was whenever it was possible I should show the direct benefits of something, rather than merely gabbing about it.

If I were working in PR today for Intel or one of its portable computer marketing partners, I would have set up tables with new notebooks that incorporate the new technology in a parking lot or field. Each of the tables would also have an older notebook with legacy wireless networking chipsets.  And each of the tables would set in front of as range marker listing the distance between it and the WiFi router.

The very visible point of the demonstration is that the new chipsets free notebook users from being close to a WiFi access point.

Now let’s think a minute about Intel’s WiMax WAN technology. Want a fun way to demonstrate it?  Set up a test network along Amtrak’s Oakland, CA to Sacramento right of way. Now load up 15 reporters, editors or industry luminaries in several of the cars on a train’s consist ( the term used to describe an engine and cars expressed as a single unit). Let them experience true persistent mobile connectivity, sit back and wait an hour or so for the rave reviews to appear.

Mobile persistent connectivity is a transformational experience for most users.

I’m an occasional user of Verizon’s Edge network when I ride the train between San Diego and eastern Los Angeles County. It turns my commute from a passive to an extremely productive experience. Great wireless, and most of all persistent wireless connectivity is something that’s so transformational you often wonder why it’s not more pervasive.

To restate my original premise: It’s time for notebook marketing to catch up with the times.  Notebook product managers shouldn’t being showing big PowerPoint decks, they should have their audience out in field 150 (or more) yards away from an access point, doing what I’m doing right now, writing a blog post underneath a fruited peach tree in my front yard.

It beats sitting in a conference room looking at a Presentation graphics marketing deck with a product manager or PR person who refuses to go off message for even one second.—Jim Forbes 07/15/2008.

 

 

 

MacBook Air and A Rising Tide-- Waiting for a Flood of New Features

Reports last week of higher than expected demand for Apple’s MacBook Air thin and light portable here could be great news for all notebook makers with products based on similar form factors.

            The reports, which originated in a New York regional business magazine, indicate that Apple retailers are struggling to stay abreast of the demand curve (which has also had an impact on systems purchased through Apple.com,, which now carry a waittime of up to seven days).

            So far there’s been no break down in sales figures detailing which configurations are Apple’s top sellers.

            Apple’s success with the MacBook Air could become a tale of a rising tide raising all boats in the remerging thin and light notebook market. Thus far, only two other mainstream notebook makers—Toshiba and Lenovo, have joined Apple, but most of the major players in the portable market will launch “competitive” products by year’s end, I believe.

            Thin and light notebook makers won’t be the only companies benefiting by sales of this class of machine. Some of the other technologies that will be boosted by the MacBook Air include:

The 802.11 n wireless specification. The MacBook Air’s use and reliance of the “n” specification is likely to make it “official” in less time than its taken the IEEE standards committee to sanctify it.

Wireless router makers haven’t wasted much time in getting 802.11 n products  to market and there are enough on the shelves now to make 802.11 n technology price sensitive. 

Keyboard and screen back lighting two of the technologies in the MacBook Air technologies I like a lot and which go a long ways to make any portable computer more useable in low light situations like conference rooms and classrooms. Portable computing component technologies have come a long way since the first thin and light notebooks were introduced about ten years ago. Plagued by short battery life, backlighting doesn’t significantly take away from the amount of time a notebook can be used on its batteries.

But one of the greatest technologies found in the MacBook Air is it’s use of gesture-based controls. Apple isn’t the only company to support gestures,  HP also supports rudimentary gesture based computing does it on its IQ755 Touch Screen all in one desktop. Palm Inc. is another company with a long history of using gestures as part of its interface technologies and there’s no reason not to believe that it isn’t enhancing its technologies for release with a new version of its operating system, which is expected this Fall. The 900-pound lurking gorilla of this technological segment is Microsoft, which has privately shown advances it has made in gesture-based technologies such as facial recognition, since the late 1990’s.

            Whether or not Microsoft will release gesture-based enhancements to forthcoming versions of its Windows operating systems isn’t clear.

            If Notebook makers hope to stay in synch with Post MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X800 they’ll need to lengthen their mooring lines to stay afloat in a portable market where the tide of features and user expectations are neck and neck on a flooding tide.—Jim Forbes 03/10/2008

The SweepStakes Winner at MacWorld?-- 802.11 n Wireless!

The real win at MacWorld this week wasn’t Apple’s super thin new MacBook Air.  Rather, the sweepstakes winner is the 802.11 pre (n) wireless specification, which is the basis for Apple’s wireless backup, remote software installation and other data transmission schemes used on Apple’s new products.

            Apple gets major points in my technology ledger for its adoption and endorsement of 802.11 n. Right off the top, 802.11n provides Apple or any other computer maker more than mere bandwidth, the technology also has greater signal saturation and range than existing 802.11 technologies. Apple is the first computer maker to do more than just incorporate 802.11 n into its portables. It has made a wholesale adoption of the technology to improve its consumer computing experience.

            Using the new wireless standard to overcome the major shortcomings imposed by the MacBook Air’s form factor is the type of engineering that’s at once unusual for Apple but also the type of elegant workaround that marked Apple and its third-party developer community in the early days of the Macintosh. Apple correctly assumes that users of the MacBook Air are likely to also have older Macintoshes with integrated CD drives. By allowing users of the new MacBook Air to remotely install applications and back up data using wireless technology softens some of the edges associated with acquiring bleeding edge technology. The catch with this approach however is this: while 802.11 n is downwardly compatible with the older a and g spec, if users want or need n’s extended range and greater bandwidth, the computer loading the application should also be equipped with an 802.11 n compatible wireless transceiver.

            In daily use, it’s unlikely many users of the MacBook Air will benefit from the 802.11 n standard’s increased bandwidth or range, since few corporations of hot spots have upgraded their access points yet. But around the home or on the road where 802.11 n is available, it makes cloud-based computing enjoyable and worthwhile.

            And although Apple doesn’t own and didn’t invent the new wireless standard it’s adoption of 802.11 n is, I believe, a very important milestone. Now the world needs to catch up. —Jim Forbes 01/18/2008

            

I Can Live Easily with 802.11 pre n technology--So Can my Neighbor

I guess PCMag doesn’t much care for the idea of 802.11 draft n routers in the home:here

So unless you're using your draft-n router in the middle of a

Kansas

cornfield, there's almost no chance you're actually going to see true draft-n performance at 2.4 GHz. The throughput numbers I gathered below are all best-case. In real life, all of these routers (with the exception of our Editors' Choice, properly configured) will most likely get you only between 75 and 95 Mbps. Maybe.

Based on practical experience, I have to agree with PCMag’s take on the realistic state of 802.11 N today. Right after the holidays—thinking I was willing to take a chance and ride the curl of an incoming technology wave-- I combined a bunch of gift certificates and got an 802.11 Pre n router and a matching dongle for some of my older machines.

Expecting that the base leg of the new network (the router to the one machine in which I had an 802.11 Pre n card installed would help me fine wireless Nirvana (which I herewith declare to be persistent connectivity and acceptable signal saturation while slurping tangerine juice from my fingers as I sit under a neighbor’s citrus tree some 350 feet from the router which sits very high in my attic). I logged on to YouTube as a field test.

Pop! Bang, Zow! The connection was faster than anything I had ever experienced.  And I was connected to Rancho Bizarro N farther away than I’ve ever traveled from my home network before.

Then my contractors added their 802.11 g portables to the network and the throughput dropped, even after I stopped shouting “No Porn on my home network, guys!” After about 10 days of use I still think 802.11 pre N is an important technology. And not just because it’s wicked fast. For me, its increased range and excellent signal saturation at the outer limits of the network continue to make it a no-brainer addition to my home network. At the moment spending $80 to $100 for each of the cards I’d need to bring all of the equipment I own up on the network precludes a wholesale adoption of the technology.

But, my neighbor—who lives just beyond the crest of the mountaintop I live on, innocently asked me two days ago if he could “try-out the new card on his laptop?”

Hell, I raid his plum and Reed avocado trees so I thought: “It’s only fair” then 10 minutes later I watched the network throughput drop as he successfully leached bandwidth for the first time in four years. I dialed his cell phone “Hey no porn or Baja 1000 racing videos on my network, neighbor!”

He innocently asked “where’s the cheapest place to buy an 802.11 pre n card?” Looking out my kitchen window, I could see the faint glow of a screen in his upstairs den.

My dish washer started. I chuckled “I guess he’s on the network forever now.”

I don’t live in a

Kansas

wheat field, but I do live in an area of rural northern

San Diego

County

where avocados and navel oranges out number people. Besides, I really don’t mind sharing when I have bandwidth to spare. Moreover, my neighbor has some great air tools and I still have to replace the bearings in my boat trailer and add “bearing buddies” to protect them against the saltwater corrosion of launching my boat in the forth coming yellowtail season.

As if my neighbor’s satisfaction of being able to get a strong wireless connection from his side of the avocado trees wasn’t enough, the contractors working on the MaForbes addition here seem to like it too.  Every couple of minutes, during their lunch or breaks I repeatedly hear “Holy Makita! You ain’t going to believe this You Tube Clip!” And then the bandwidth drops. Eventually I again can’t hear myself think over the sound of nail guns and jack hammers”

New technology isn’t cheap. But it often makes life easier, especially if you live at the confluence of wild lands and Nirvana. Pre n 802.11 works for me--Jim Forbes, 01/10/2008.

Finding an Exploitable Niche with Many Potential Partners-- A Winning Strategy

As the days until Demo 08 --which kicks of late next month—roll down, I think a lot about new products and how they can prosper in today’s hyper connected environment.

            There’s one product in particular I’m watching that won’t be at Demo. I wish it was ready for launch, but it’s developer told me he doesn’t want to show it until it’s user interface is completed. I promised the developer I wouldn’t preannounce his product and I won’t.

            But I do want to write about this particular developer’s approach to product development. Some history: this developer has one of the most diverse backgrounds I’ve ever seen in any technologist. He’s an ex-reporter, a former publishing exec, and has a first-rate pedigree in consumer and technology marketing. He’s passionate about software and has an innate ability to find and exploit niches.

            What’s remarkable is this developer’s ability to find market opportunities that coincide with the rapid acceptance of new peripherals. The only comparison I’ve seen over the years was Symantec’s Turner Hall subsidiary, which created a profitable niche in the late 1980’s by publishing add-ons for Lotus 1-2-3 that let you add features such as word publishing and elegant printing solutions to Lotus spreadsheets.

            This developer has already had one moderate success by adding a new capability to a popular peripheral. That first product was used by people who needed a one-click solution for printing data in a variety of formats.

            Casing around for a new product, this developer looked no farther than some of the new laptops that were being used by family members and peripheral that he uses on calls to his family in the Pacific Northwest. What he noticed is that the laptops had a feature that was underused, but loaded with untapped potential.

            The developer is also known for his market due diligence skills. He discovered that the particular peripheral that caught his attention is sold in 100,000 unit volumes but noted that the peripheral’s potential is seldom exploited.

            I’m trying very hard not to tip the developer’s hand.

            But what he’s ready to provide users is an elegant piece of software that will let you customize a very personal data type in a way that’s not been easily done before.  But more important to me is that the developer’s technology reduces to a few clicks a process that use to require mastery of a very complex application.

            More importantly, consumer goods and services companies will want to license versions of this application to provide fun links between their companies, product, services or events and the consumer.

            It’s been a long time—since I produced Demo events—that I met with a developer whose product and business pitch made me itemize the proposed product’s potential. What struck me about this veteran entrepreneur’s idea was the vast licensing pool and the technology’s ability to create highly personalized and amusing content.

            Sorry to be mysterious, but I didn’t want to tip the developer’s hand. Keep your eyes open for more on this product, as it gets ready to launch.  You’ll want it, honest! Jim Forbes, 12/31/2007.

Palm-Still Able to Come Back With Combination Punches

The deep thudding sounds veteran technology watchers are now hearing as they zoom past Sunnyvale, CA, is the sound of everyone piling on Palm Inc.

With flat revenues, a recent 10 percent lay off and the withdrawal of its new Folio platform, Valley insiders have quickly decided that the once bright and shiny enterprise called Palm Computing is winking out.

            Contrarian, that I am, I think Palm can survive. To make my point, let’s take a quick look at Palm’s considerable pluses:

            Palm has always been a somewhat lean organization and has done its best when it brings it considerable talents to bear on its core business.

            Palm continues to attract great technologists who understand that a product can be made or broken by pioneering and delivering a first-rate user experience.

            Palm’s core business has changed over the years and this company has expanded almost very technological beachhead it’s established. The Palm 600 and 700 Smart phone families have entrenched user bases that are intellectually invested in the products (which makes the Palm installed base very similar to that of Apple Inc’s).

            Palm’s new Centro smart phone is selling well through one of the largest national carriers, Sprint, and is likely to appear on other networks later next year. Centro is one of the best examples of how Palm excels by giving users access to core tasks in quickly and simply. Furthermore, Centro is rugged enough to stand up to hard use, which is a core feature for cellular carriers like Sprint who has large numbers of entities with field operations.

            Palm’s technologies set industry standards by which other products are compared. Moreover, Palm has remained nimble enough to respond to changing user requirements with stable technology. At its core, Palm is also a design leader and as the company pulls more talent from companies like Apple, its industrial designs could become industry standards.

            Elevation Partners investment in Palm may be one of the best things that ever happened to this pioneering company. New managers are more likely to focus on what the company does best and less likely to go flying after untried niches. Palm has had a succession of owners over the years and its best performance has been in periods when the company is hunkered down and focused on core businesses.

           The downside for Palm is that it’s very late in delivering a new version of the Palm OS, no matter what form it may take. The Palm OS can make or break this company and marketing this architecture is a task where Palm excels.

            I think it’s a huge mistake for anyone to think Palm is going down for a short count. Of all the technology companies I have covered, Palm is the one entity I’ve drop to a knee, grab a breath and come up swinging with powerful combination punches.

            One year from now I look for Palm to be back as a contender with products that sell through their channels and which have become industry standards, again.  Jim Forbes 12/20/2007.

{Mandatory disclosure: I was a member of Palm’s advisory council for a number of years in the last century.}

Biometric Security; It's Not Limited to Finger Print Readers on Corporate Notebooks

I try to be honest about technology that I use intentionally, or which I am forced to accept because of its integration in hardware.

            So let’s talk about biometric security devices.  Some years ago I was involved in a series of twice-a-year discussions about whether so-called “corporate notebooks” would have to include biometric security to qualify for adoption by volume buyers. The atmosphere for those discussions was better than any graduate class I’ve ever taken. Members of the discussion group were free to explore, take and defend positions.

            At that time, I had ambivalent feelings about biometrics:

1                    I did not like anything that increased the amount of time it takes me to get going on a portable computer and biometrics then added about 15 to 30 seconds to the startup time.

2                    I could clearly see that some large organizations, federal agencies or large sales organizations were correct in doing everything they could to safe guard tactically and strategically critical information stored on something as easily pilfered as a portable computer.

3                    Biometrics security devices would increase the bill-of-materials costs of portable computers.

4                    At the time, the market for portable computers was beginning to become cost sensitive.

5                    I was unconvinced that biometrics of the then day couldn’t be defeated. I wasn’t alone in this either. At a Mobile Council Meeting in 2000, I had to stop laughing when the only analyst I regard as a legitimate “futurist” (MR) then at Dataquest pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out what at first I thought was a medical finger cot. The analyst snapped the cot on his finger, said “watch this” and defeated the biometric device in a single swipe of his sheathed finger.

My feelings about biometric security have changed radically over the last five years. Today, I can’t imagine not using a portable computer that doesn’t include this feature. My reason isn’t that I’m toting super secret information on my laptop. It’s that I rely on my notebook too much to risk losing the data files I use as the basis of my taxes and investing decisions, or the data associated with an all-consuming remodel/addition project that’s underway here at my house.

            And looking back in time, I think I should have been a stronger advocate for this technology in the late Nineties and into this century.

            I still don’t like it that biometrics add to my boot time. However, I suspect that hard disk technology is about to make that argument moot. Like a lot of people who watch portable computing, it’s become very hard for me not to imagine new notebooks rolling out with hybrid disk drives that use flash memory to support rapid boot up.

            And more than any other technology, hybrid drives will reduce start up and come-on from Hibernation boot times, as well as help tame Vista; all of which are good things.

            But biometrics security hardware isn’t limited to finger printed readers.  A couple of far thinking notebook designers have realized that the integrated cameras mounted on display bezels can be used just as effectively as finger print readers.  And in the immediate future you’ll begin to see biometric facial recognition become a standard feature, not just on corporate notebooks, but on consumer portables sold by the thousands to home office and academic computer users.

            Like I said earlier, sometimes a really important technology slips into my life because it’s a minor part of a technology that I rely on. Biometrics falls into this category and I’ve changed from a doubting Thomas to a True Believer. Now I just wish someone would come up with a one-click solution that lets me use my notebook’s integrated camera to create video greeting cards.

            But that’s something I’ll write about later this week. Jim Forbes. 11/25/2007.