OK, this was one tablet that I actually was looking forward to.
Michael Arrington has posted that the Crunchpad is dead.
The plan was to debut the CrunchPad on stage at the Real-Time Crunchup event on November 20. 1,000 of the devices would be available pre-sale and they would start taking orders immediately. Larger scale production would begin early in 2010.
Arrington then goes on to tell a bizarre tale of getting an email from Chandra Rathakrishnan, their partner on the project, telling them that based on pressure from his shareholders he had decided to move forward and sell the device directly through Fusion Garage, without our involvement.
“We still acknowledge that Arrington and TechCrunch bring some value to your business endeavor…If he agrees to our terms, we would have Arrington assume the role of visionary/evangelist/marketing head and Fusion Garage would acquire the rights to use the Crunchpad brand and name. Personally, I don’t think the name is all that important but you seem to be somewhat attached to the name.”
Arrington compares it to Foxconn, who build the iPhone, notifiying Apple a couple of days before launch that they’d be moving ahead and selling the iPhone directly without any involvement from Apple.
But was it ever real?
I guess we may never know.
WebStudio Website Builder From Netidnow.com allows a user to create a website or to build an online store by just using a internet browser, allowing you to choose between a host of professionally designed templates. While most of the standard templates have that standard ‘template’ look (well so do 75% Word Press sites) the ease of set up and affordable pricing should tempt a small to mid-sized business.
In my experience, you can never replace good web development and web smarts with an off the shelf software, but often a tool like this can speed up design and development and replace a lot of actions that are repeated with every website.
The offer a free trial, a shopping cart, and hosting is included with the package.
The online cart supports many payment methods and gateways, including Authorize.net, Network Merchants, PayPal Payments Pro and Standard, Verisign Payflow Pro, Virtual Merchant, and more. They help with the merchant account as well through Total Merchant Services.
Prices start at $19.95 per month for their Basic and go up to $99.95 per month with their Platinum Professional Store. All plans have no set up fee and POP email accounts and webmail.
If you are looking for a quick off the shelf full package website or online store service, check out WebStudio Website Builder From Netidnow.com
The “Swiss Army Knife” of Disk Connectivity…Turns Any Bare Drive Into An External Storage Solution!!
I just ordered one of these for only $30. I have a small army of older hard drives that probably have stuff on them I’ll want, this seemed like a good way to access the data.
It allows any 2.5″, 3.5″, or 5.25″ hard drive or optical drive* with any standard IDE/ATA/ATAPI 40 pin or SATA interface to be connected via USB to any USB equipped computer for file transfer, backing-up and storing file archives, and accessing data on stored backup drives with Plug & Play ease.
SWEET!
Since I suggested it to someone on Yahoo Answers, I should probably own one.
AdvancePro Inventory Management Software
AdvanceWare Technologies’ inventory management software offers an impressive inventory management system that is both flexible and scaleable to meet small to medium business needs. With over 3000 total users and 8 years of experience, they would be an excellent choice for a small to medium sized distributors, wholesalers, resellers, and web retailers who need to automate their supply chain transactions, improve workflow and maximize their profits. Their Technology Partners include Intuit, Microsoft (Net ‘Gold Certified’ and AdvancePro uses Microsoft’s SQL database), Crystal Reports (Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET), Thawte (128-bit browser independent encryption), Authorizenet and VeriSign (for automated payment processing).
With a free trial and a 30 day money back guarantee, they seem willing to bet you will like their product.
The pricing is scaled depending on the number of users, starting with their AdvancePro Lite product with one user for $499. With the AdvancePro, you can add modules ala carte for $499 per module with a single user price of $999 scaling up to $17,999.00 for 25 users. The AdvancePro all Inclusive option starts at $1,749.00 and includes unlimited add-ons (with several exceptions). Features such as warehouse management software, order management, and the Quickbooks integration are all built in with additional modules including UPS/FedEx/USPS Integration, Order matrix for items with multiple sizes, colors or other options and other features. They also provide two levels of support, payable by an annual fee. Email support as well as live telephone support, from 9am EST- 5:00pm EST US (weekdays). All the product descriptions and support details are covered on their websites product page. It is also possible to upgrade between products and product levels seamlessly.
AdvanceWare Technologies also provides One to One Demonstration on request.
Even with all these features and affordable pricing, is AdvancePro the right choice for your business? Pam Newman, columnist for Entrepreneur.com, outlines Tips for choosing an accounting software. Using Newman’s suggestions for qualifying accounting and inventory management systems, check if AdvanceWare Technologies’ AdvancePro fits your business needs. Their website should have answers to any questions and if you need more information, their customer service can help.
Honestly, don’t waste you time with the free WP e-Commerce plugin. I documented my pains in a previous post.
For $25, go buy this, WP E-store.
I had an install problem that ended up being from another plugin I had installed. I got an email back from support and they helped me trouble shoot it and set it up fine.
Works great, price is right, good documentation. I gladly give my $25 for a working product.
For a recent job, I started working on a download store. Basically, the customer wanted to be able to sell collections of MP3s, but they could be downloadable books or PDFs or what ever.
I had previously seen that the free WP e-Commerce plugin for Word Press has a downloadable product option, so I grabbed the plugin and checked it out.
Few quick things:
- The Upload tool for the files only goes up to 8mb. Upload larger files straight to your server at /wp-content/uploads/wpsc/downloadable then they will be an option from the individual product page, near the bottom
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- If using PayPal, you need to fiddle with the Instant Payment Notification settings a touch to get the payment info back from Paypal. Honestly, I am still help up on this step and it might be enough that I can’t use WP e-Commerce if its not resolved.
Here are the basic steps for setting up Paypal with WP e-Commerce download store.
WP e-Commerce
In your Word Press Admin
Go to WordPress/ e-Commerce/ settings… “Payment”
Payment Gateway: Paypal (not express)
PayPal Username: paypal account you wish to send the money to
PayPal Url: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
PayPal IPN: Yes
On Your PayPal Admin
Select Account -> Profile -> Instant Payment Notification preferences (Under Selling preferences)
IPN: ON
IPN-URL: http://your_domain.com/?ipn_request=true
Under Select Account -> Profile -> Website Payment Preferences (Under Hosted payment settings)
Auto Return: ON
Return URL: copy-paste your “Transaction URL” from e-Commerce/ settings
Payment Data Transfer: ON
As I write this, I have gotten hung up because the Order status come back from PayPal as ‘Order received’ and need to be ‘Payment Accepted’ in order to create the link to download the item
detailed here
If I can’t get this working today, I’ll scrap using WP e-Commerce and look for another cart.
Bummer, I will have wasted a lot of time on WP e-Commerce
We recently switched our phone and internet service from Qwest to Comcast and honestly, its working out better.
Now in all fairness, our phone lines sucked. This may not be the fault of Qwest, but it didn’t help their cause. We often had static on the phone line and occasional internet outages.
Now we have a nice juicy thick black coaixal cable feeding us phone, cable, and broadband. Up and down speeds seem to have increased. While the ‘modem’ they give you is pretty basic, our N-draft wireless router has everything I need.
I’ve left Palm for something else.
My Treo 650 served me well, but the lack of Wi-Fi was a major draw back and the fact that their most recent OS update didn’t do 1/2 of what they claimed it would was a big red flag.
I had seen my cousins G1 (he works for T-Mobile) and was impressed. A little online research and I was wanting one.
Problem. My cell service is thru AT&T and I’m not in a position to change it. A little surfing and I was able to find instruction to ‘unlock’ a G1 to work with AT&T. True, the 3G wouldn’t work as T-Mobile and AT&T’s 3G works on different frequencies, but I can live with Edge… Seriously, I know that makes me sound like a troglodyte in today’s world of 3G Iphones and the promise of 4G on the horizon, but its my choice so chill out.
I started searching Craigslist for a G1. I was in no hurry, so I could be picky. It took almost a month, but I found a local kid trying to unload a G1 in a hurry. His parents had bought it for him, he wanted a IPhone, I wanted a G1, we made a deal.
I was impressed by the feel of the phone. Solid and sleek. Compared to my Treo 650, this thing was a work of art. The slide out qwerty keyboard felt good, I wish the buttons stuck out a little further, but I’ve gotten used to it.
Next, to unlock it.
Dell continues to run specials on its Mini 9.
This offer end 3/25 at 6am.
Here is the latest offering, good for today only.
Inspiron Mini 9n
Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM
Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1
MEMORY
512MB2 DDR2 at 533MHz
Hard Drive
8GB Solid State DriveBattery
32WHr Battery (4 cell)
System Color Option
Alpine White (bummer)
The 8 Gig harddrive would be enough to load up OSX, giving you a tasty little MobileMiniMac.
For only $177 I could have a refurbished Dell Mini 9 netbook, by using coupon code $C$TXXP1CT3BLC.
Sure it the 1.6GHz Atom, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB SSD Ubuntu one (I’m going to have to get XP when I finally get a netbook), but its tempting.
These are probably returns and left overs from the Dell Studio Desktop with Free Mini 9 offer from December.
