Weekend Fly

New post up at 'On the Fly' 

Back by no one's demand...Ferguson

Ferguson's back for another year of NCAA March Madness

Yeah, the caption pretty much sums it up. Go here to join the bracket on Facebook. Teams are released Sunday night, and you can fill out your brackets then.

How Not to Launch a Phone

The HTC Thunderbolt has seen many speculative release dates come and go

You could consider this post somewhat cathartic. You could also consider this post a lesson: how not to launch a phone.

The news of Verizon's first 4G LTE handset, the HTC Thunderbolt, released in January has garnered much excitement. Once Best Buy began taking pre-orders that excitement was doubled over with anticipation. Ever since then, sources have offered rumored release dates from February until the end of the summer.

It's not difficult to see why so many consumers, myself included, are growing weary waiting for this device to launch.  Sources including Best Buy and Verizon employees have offered much conflicting information. The message from Verizon's corporate offices: it will be arriving soon. Thanks.

Verizon has been advertising the Thunderbolt since mid-February through television commercials, and Best Buy promo flyers have been advertising the device as well. Needless to say, evidence is mounting that Verizon has officially screwed the pooch with the HTC Thunderbolt's launch.

Verizon keeps reminding consumers that no official launch has been announced; however, anyone who has followed this device for longer than a week has picked up that this is more than consumer speculation run rampant. Why would Best Buy take pre-orders for a device that won't launch for over a month? Also, why would the Thunderbolt appear in numerous ads so far from its launch, including a recent release from Big Red claiming the device was already available - opps? Anyone that has sat through 5 minutes of an intro to marketing class could tell you that the timing would do nothing but lose consumer interest.

It would be easy to go back-and-forth on when the release will/should be, but I believe this marketing blunder raises a more interesting point: Will HTC ever trust Verizon to launch another flagship device of this significance? I am a long-time satisfied Verizon consumer, but the handling of this launch has me wondering if they're capable of handling the release of technology's next evolutionary developments.

Some more 'On the Fly' Stuff

The site still isn't finished, mostly because I still have no idea what to do with it. Also, it'd help if I could actually get back out on the water and provide some content. Between weddings and the flu, there's not an awful lot of time to go wet a hook. 

I'm getting antsy though, since things are warming up, and I've spoken with some that have had luck pulling in stripes with imitation minnows. You can go check out what's up now, and please offer suggestions and thoughts on how to make it better.

On the Fly

I've got a small mock site built. Click here for a look that's definitely still under construction. Please offer thoughts and ideas to help make this project more complete.

What's this?

I'm toying with the idea of creating a site or blog dedicated to my fly fishing adventures. I created this logo so that pretty much means something is going to happen. I'm just not sure what I want it to be quite yet.

Some thoughts on tablet computers

Tablet PCs are devices that have existed for quite sometime. I can remember working at a doctor's office in high school back in the early 2000s where all records were kept on Dell tablets which were transfered from room to room in order to take down and update patient records. Let's not forget about the convertible laptops that are still around.

All of these previous attempts at developing tablet computers have been easily forgettable due to the marketing success of Apple's iPad. Until the iPad revolutionized the idea of a tablet computer, computer companies had given up on the idea that tablet computers could gain successful share of the market. Now we're seeing the likes of Samsung, Motorola, Acer, etc. rushing to develop similar concepts.

Motorola's Xoom could be the iPads biggest rival, but the price tag may be what keeps it from becoming a mainstream device

You have to give props to Apple. Not only did they have the guts to try and develop a commercially successful tablet computer, but Apple foresaw that tablet computing could change the shape of the devices we use daily.

I know that's a bold statement, but by observing the habits of casual computer users it becomes obvious that focusing attention on web functionality is key. Most computer users spend their time on the internet, which doesn't require 120 GB hard drives or accelerated graphics cards. Netbook developers saw that potential by offering smaller and cheaper alternatives for Internet access. Unfortunately, the netbook may have only been a brief step in the evolution of efficient web-accessible machines. Google has been developing an operating system through the Chromium project (Chrome OS in particular) that is focused on cutting out most hardware in order to develop a machine dedicated to internet usage. Enter cloud-storage and we're looking at the death of the laptops and netbooks all-together.

Google's Chromium project opens up the possibility of devices solely dedicated to internet browsing.

I'm aware that this idea is nothing new, and honestly, I don't believe the death of computers are eminent; however, the need for PCs will diminish, and as more tablets are introduced, many people who were in the market for a new laptop or macbook will suddenly be in the market for a new tablet computer. What will be interesting is how companies like Apple, Google, Motorola, et al will evolve their devices to remain ahead of each other, and how that effects the ever-growing dependence on mobile carriers with 3G and 4G technology that will keep these devices connected.