May 2010

Written by Bayle Emlein

PC Community Main Meeting
7:30 - 10 pm Friday May 7, 2010
Calvary Baptist Church 28924 Ruus Road, Hayward California

The meeting was called to order at 7:38 PM by President Chuck Horner.

SIG Announcements:

The Windows 7 SIG will meet tomorrow at 1:00 PM at Bud Gallagher's. He will try an installation of XP mode on a non-virtualized computer. They may also look at one or more short instructional videos.

The Mobile SIG meets in the same place as the Main Meeting, 3rd Monday of the month.

The Hardware SIG will not meet tomorrow at the Smiths'.

Other Announcements:

The Clubhouse will be open tomorrow. There will is be a cookout.

Problem-Solving Session:

Chuck has a dead laptop. The experts present suggested several solutions.

Presentation:

David Graham spoke about mobile computing. On the desktop side, we're used to 2 platforms, Microsoft and Apple. On the mobile side of computing, there are no standards.

David has installed several plant-wide communication installations. They've been connected by mobile devices. He reviewed kinds and brands of mobile devices and reasons for avoiding new technology. He suggested that the carrier is the most important feature so that you are covered where you go. Be sure you have coverage over 90% of the area where you normally travel. Both Sprint and Verizon have a femocell, a device that boosts signals in dead locations.

Price is another consideration; it was the first among the membership present. Annual costs run between $800 and $3,000. Costs for high-end phones include internet. Currently Sprint offers unlimited data. One can add productivity apps, social apps, games, utilities. Operating systems don't matter because the goal is to run applications. Applications and data live in cloud. Blackberry makes backing up easy.

David offered many tips, such as:

• Don't buy a phone that doesn't have persistent memory. It's too easy for your data to disappear in the cloud where it should live.
• If you're traveling to Europe, buy a SIM card for your phone when you arrive; you'll avoid some tremendous roaming charges.

Thanks to George Kornbluth for taking care of refreshments.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 PM.

The next meeting will take place at the same location on June 4, 2010.

Respectfully submitted,

Bayle Emlein, Secretary