Here's another App that is better but not great

As you know, I write a lot. I mean, a lot. I have many blogs all with very specific topic focuses. This one is about Social Networking strategies to promote my book (which is doing very well). And it also looks at software scams (andf other scams like that Flex Seal garbage that they sell on those very effective infomericlas). It also looks at iPad and Android Apps that you should try or, more likely, stay away from.

As a writer, I am always looking for a good iPad App for writing.

I've found a couple of good ones, but like all programs designed by computer tech nerds, they always come up a little short. That's because -- here I am on my soap box -- computer nerds know how to program. But they don't know the realities of the services their programs are trying to address. They have no commonsense and they lack the experience of being a real end-user. So their programs do great things that oftentimes are not worth doing.

However, that said, I like iAWriter, which is an App that allows you to write on your iPad efficiently and with a keyboard that has more options. The iPad keyboard is very limiting and cumbersome. It's not very useful at all unless all you do is type letters without any meaning, of course. These Apps don't come with many instructions but you can figure most of them out, if the programmer is halfway human, that is. It's made by Information Architects Inc. I had to pay for it but I don't recall the price -- since once it is downloaded they quickly eliminate that information.) But it is the BEST that is out there. And I have tried and deleted many.

Another App that comes close to being great is called Blogger + or BloggerPlus!. The developer is very concerned about the users which is a good thing and he has his web site there and he WANTS you to contact him for ideas to make it better. That's a good thing and says that the programmer who designed the App does care about the enduser and not just the moolah.

The web site for Blogger+ is http://bloggerplus.xmpp.kr.

The App allows you to manage your blogs and to actually post on the ones that Apple and Steve Jobs vengefully tried to keep out of their system. (Jobs didn't like Flash so he made sure it would not work on his products. Selfish ass! May he rest in peace, though.) And Blogger.com doesn't work on any of the web explorers that iPad allows you to use. (You can't use Google Chrome which is the best, just the Steve Jobs products. Crap!!!)

But BloggerPlus! allows you to manage your Blogger.com blogs and all your other blogs from other systems including WordPress. You can use Drupal (never heard of it but I might if BloggerPlus! thinks it is worth listing. And Tumblr.com and Tistory.com and Naver.com and Egloos.com and Joomla and BloggerPlus!'s own default type blog.

The only draw back if you have many blogs at one of those (I have about 15 or so -- but who's counting when you write like a banshee?) You can't just link them all automatically. So I have to link them to BloggerPlus! one at a time repeating the same process of username and password for each one (Blogger.com uses one system for each blog so it is repetitive.)

The other draw back, though it is minor, is that it doesn't add the posting scripts that you can embed in Blogger. I have a Share button at the top of each posting that is automatically embedded in my blogs and also on some my PodoMatic Podcasting script (which is very cool -- someone knew how to really design for the user with that one.)

I definitely recommend buying BloggerPlus! for iPad and iPad2 (I have both, though I let my son use and abuse the iPad while I am working with the new one.)

Again, I recommend not getting fixContacts, the App that alleges it will help you manage your contacts but is a bug waiting to happen, sadly. And that costs like $7.95. What a waste. But better I waste the money than you, my contribution to the betterment of our society.

-- Ray Hanania
http://RayHanania.wordpress.com

iPad Apps that just don't work -- Fix Contacts App for iPad -- it stinks

One of the big problems with the iPad is the system of Apps. Not all of them work. They are designed by people intent more on making a buck than an application that really does address someone else's need, like a user.

So I will review Apps for both the iPad and iPad2 that I am using.

The iPad comes with a worthless "Contact" app that is unmanageable. For all the things they are saying about Apple and the late Steve Jobs, they ignore the shortcomings. It seems Apple and Jobs sped so fast to do things, they didn't care if what they were doing was sufficient, or inadequate. The "Contacts" App that comes with the iPad is horrible and not very user friendly, which means you'll need to download an App to deal with the shortcomings.

It's tragic that you pay $1,027 for a new iPad or iPad2 with 3G and the 3G only works sometimes, the system crashes often and it has so many shortcomings. It's a great idea that lacks completion, and it is certainly far short of its vision.

My first choice was to mistakenly believe that price reflects quality. Many Apps are "free," but they are intended as advertising platforms that are annoying, and the developers who don't care about you at all, believe that you will eventually purchase the premium app for money so they can become the next Steve Jobs billionaire.

One of those is "Fix Contacts" by Giacomo Balli. It csts $7.95. It's horrible. It's supposed to help you manage your contacts. Being a journalist and writer and media consultant, I have 800 contacts on an active list, and even more on a backup list I won't put on the iPad because the iPad can't manage large lists. (Another shortcoming the Jobs cheerleaders won't discuss, of course.)

The software layout is pathetic and not user friendly at all. It gives you a list of things you can do to filter your contacts. You can identify the contacts that do not have an email address or a telephone number, and then slowly and tediously -- one at a time -- highlight, then delete and then confirm delete. What a laborious waste of time process.

It brags that it is the App to clean your address book. But instead of using a bucket and scrubber, you are using a toothbrush with no soap. It takes forever. And it is limiting, too. You can't really manage your contacts.

Worse, you know how the Apps always allow you to enter a review? Well, this one offers it but like the software app, the review app doesn't work, so you can't warn anyone about how it is a waste of time.

I think some of the App developers need to hire users with commonsense to help them make their ideas worthwhile. Instead, greed drives a lot of the Apps development, by people who know how to program but have no life experience to understand the reality of what their programs need to do.

-- Ray Hanania
http://rayhanania.wordpress.com

Android EVO Sprint: Low on Space warning hassle

One of the biggest problems with the Android EVO cell phone is that it has a space issue. After you download a few aps -- a few, not a lot -- it runs out of "space" on the cell phone quickly. All of the Applications are automatically downloaded to the Cell Phone memory instead of to the SD Card which has humongous room for storage but is rarely used by the cell phone.

Spring, where I bought mine, has the worst technology assistance program -- it's mindless. The economy is so bad they are taking advantage of ti by hiring unqualified people with no experience at low wages, to save money, of course. So you can't get answers from their tech support people. You can't go online either. They are hopeless. Their only solution is "Send it to us and we will check it and send it back."

Sure, why don't I take a VACATION FROM LIFE! Morons!

There is no solution to it. The Android Forums that "support" the EVO are equally worthless. They are managed by Evo and Spring employees so they insure that any real answers that expose their worthless products are deleted from the forums.

So much for free speech in America.

The only solution to the Android "Low on Space" warning is to purchase another phone from another manufacturer. The iPhone is probably your best bet. Buying the Android because you don't like Apple is a mistake.

A PS: The same day I wrote this I received a letter int he mail notifying that my "Premier" benefits were ending. I didn't know I had premier benefits of any kind. No one ever told us. And when you review the Premier Benefits that are ending, you realize they are worthless anyway. (Click here to read them.) So, nothing lost. I had to go to three Sprint stores, by the way, to get help with my phone and finally did get help from a Tech Store in Mokena.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Getting ripped off with FlexSeal "rubber spray paint."

It is rubber spray paint and I purchased it to give it a try. The TV commercials showed someone promising that FlexSeal will help seal any cracks, breaks or anything especially in rain gutters to prevent water leakage.

I purchased two cans. Click here to read my story.  But I learned that for $39.98, thw two cans are a rip-off. Don't buy Flex Seal.

Why?

It's not that the product doesn't work. It does work. But, the manufacturers are greedy. It's about money, not service. They give you a large spray can but it is only filled with 10 ounces of spray. I'm not even sure if it is really 10 ounces. It's probably less. Each can will barely cover 12 inches of a standard rain gutter before it runs out of spray.

Seriously. Flex Seal is that cheap. I sprayed the seal on one gutter bend where I had a small drip leak. Inside and on the corner. The can emptied out in seconds. Seconds! For $19 a can.

It's a serious rip-off. Don't buy it.

They offer you two cans, but you have to pay the handling and processing fee for the second can which they say is Free. But the cost of the processing and handling is equal to the cost of one, useless can of Flex Seal.

Then, they call you and try to sign you up for $100 in coupons that are worthless, which requires a subscription cost of $39 a month. You can say NO but they will sign you up anyway.

It's a scam. Don't waste your money. I waste my money to help you save yours.

These people are serious scammers. The product is not worth it. They don't lie, but they mislead.

Click here to view their web site.

The spray works. But they don't give you enough to do a good job. To fix a rain gutter with lots of problems, you would have to buy $3,990 worth of the Flex Seal. For that price, get yourself new rain gutters.

-- Ray Hanania

Sprint lg optimus has major calendar bug

The spring lg phone has a major bug. When daylight savings time automatically kicked in, my cell updated on it's own. And then, it changed every calendar listing to, moving every appointment up one hour.

But sprint prevents users from posting on the chat boards without their permission so we can't discuss this glitch or software bug publicly. It-'s a major bug that needs to be fixed but they won't deal ith it.

Eery calndar entry has to be manually re-set back one hour to correct the problem, which means in the Fall when the time changes, you'll have to do it again.

That's pathetic technology.

I removed MaxMySpeed.com software from my laptop -- and it runs faster

I wrote recently about the trials and tribulations I was having with that highly publicized software by MaxMySpeed.com. Supposedly they promised to speed up your computer. They invited you to have your competer checked by their software for free -- and many people, I bet, thought that the free analysis would result in a faster computer.

It doesn't.

Here is what I wrote about my poor experience with this company. Click here to read the story.

The software cost me a total of $44. It included a second software I did not order but that was billed to me anyway. When I complained -- and DID NOT download the software -- the company promised to reimburse me the $14. They never did.

Here's the company's response to my column. Click here to read the response.

The scan they ran claimed I had 90 registry errors. Wow. My virus software told me that. Still, once it told me about the errors, and then said I had to buy the software to fix the problem, I decided to test the software.

It doesn't work. It really stinks.

The first thing it does is take care of itself. It inserts it in your startup file so that the software automatically runs in your memory when you start up your computer. That slows the system down, of course.

Even when I removed it from my startup file, it kept reinserting itself.

I ran the software several times and first cleared up the errors the "free" run claimed were slowing my system down.

Sure enough the registry problems RETURNED. More than 80 registry errors within two days. I ran it again. Presumably cleaned up the errors. And sure enough, they returned.

So what exactly does the software do?

It didn't speed my computer up.

Don't buy it. In my opinion, it doesn't work.

MaxMySpeed.com responds to my criticism of their terrible software. Don't Buy It recommendation!

HERE IS THE RESPONSE FROM CYBER DEFENDER SUPPORT FOR MY COLUMN criticizing MaxMySpeed.com, which I think STINKS! They tried to post it as a COMMENT but comments are limited tounder 4,200 or so characters including spaces. So I will post their comment here, even though my recommendation is to NOT subscribe to their service. They misled me into believing the service was free and THEN I could purchase it. They scanned my system and then insisted I purchase to repair. When I did that, I discovered that they system had me purchase a SECOND Software which I did not want and I DID NOT DOWNLOAD. And that billing was promised to be reversed and it never was.


AND WORSE. when I downloaded and ran the SCAN AGAIN, after I ran it through their web site, my system did NOT run faster despite the software identify many registry errors and correcting them.

-- Ray Hanania
(Here is their email to me in response):

Dear Customer, You recently requested assistance from our Support Center. Below is a summary of your original request, as well as our response.

If this resolution is not to your satisfaction, you may reply to this email within the next 7 days to reopen the case.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you. Regards, CyberDefender Support

Dear Mr. Hanania, we attempted to post this message as a reply to your recent blog, however it would appear our responses continue to be deleted. We are therefore opting to reply via email until a public response is posted.

On behalf of CyberDefender Corporation, we’d like to thank you for your personal appraisal of our company and brands. We always appreciate hearing feedback from real individuals like you, and not necessarily from those who might have a degree in a computer technology-related field, or something of the like. It is a refreshing change of pace to engage in discourse with an experienced professional like yourself, and a comedian and satirist no less.

However, we can see from what you posted that you have either been misinformed, or are simply confused as to the nature of our company, products, and services, and perhaps the industry altogether as a whole. It’s our sincere hope that we might enlighten you with facts, if only to prevent similar occurrences from arising in the future. Unfortunately, several of your points must be contested, as they have basis neither in truth nor reality, and the content ultimately demonstrates an article of guesswork and hypothesis.

You begin by stating that “like all sleazy sales people,” CyberDefender has employed a “catch” to our Registry Cleaner’s free scan. This leads us to believe that you are under the impression that our offering a free, limited trial version of the software is deceptive, or “sleazy” in some fashion. Never in our advertisements do we state that the service is free. We establish quite clearly that the initial diagnoses are free. That is why we state therein “…get your free diagnosis,” and not “…get your free software.” This is the nature of the majority of free, limited trial versions of computer software. One need only browse a website like Cnet’s Download.com to understand that an overwhelming amount of the products they offer consumers for download are only “free to try,” yet ultimately cost money to unlock the full capabilities of a given program. A popularized term for such software is “demo,” meaning the software is only a demonstrative version, and not a fully operational version.

You also state that visiting MaxMySpeed.com prompts a “sleazy sales pitch” at potential customers, and declare that a site which utilizes automatically playing media such as audio and video “means there is trouble a brewing.” This statement struck us as most bizarre, not due to the increasing presence of “sleaze” in your article, but since it is not at all peculiar for websites in this day and age to feature media which plays automatically, especially when it comes to advertising. Several extremely popular, high-traffic websites such as Youtube.com and MySpace.com have each likewise employed the same method, but the list of entities which feature automatically-playing media numbers in the thousands to tens-of-thousands, and perhaps even beyond.

It must be noted that as we were writing this message, we downloaded and installed a fresh copy our Registry Cleaner software in hopes of mimicking your own tests. The initial scan of which took about a minute. Now, based on your claim that the “’free’ scan takes a long time,” it would seem that your PC may be an ideal candidate for optimization services. But regardless, a more valid concern than what you have expressed would be if the registry cleaning software performed its scans in an extraordinarily short period of time. Windows registries are dynamic, sir, and will be different from person-to-person. This depends not only on the registry size, status and condition, but the various hardware components of an individuals’ computer, both factoring into each person who running a scan more than likely experiencing one either shorter in length or longer in length than the next.

You mention that “registry errors do not necessarily slow your system down.” With this, we whole-heartily agree. However, for the sake of your argument, it might have been best to try and research some absolutes instead of indefinites, since your pertinent statements thereafter can only be partially true - certainly something a respected journalist would desire to steer clear of, that realm of publishing half-truths without genuinely researching that which he desires to advocate against.

We are a bit surprised with your distaste of CyberDefender products, and perceived preference of Norton-Symantec. The perceived preference comes from your admission of using Norton software on your computer. The surprise comes from the fact that CyberDefender’s own Senior Vice President of Product Development Sarah Hicks and Vice President of Engineering and Threat Research Brian Yoder are both executive alumni of Norton-Symantec. Sarah Hicks is the former Vice President of Product Management for Symantec, where she spent over 11 years contributing to and leading the teams responsible for developing Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, Norton Internet Security, and N360, and Brian Yoder functioned as Senior Software Designer for Norton/Symantec, serving on the development team responsible for Norton Utilities, Norton Commander, and Norton Desktop. Moreover, he was the Director of Product Development and Architect at Earthlink, Inc., working with the vastly popular ISP for four years prior to joining CyberDefender. These, as well as the rest of our executive board, all have an extensively proven track-record in the industry, and have worked extremely hard to make that so. If this were not the case, CyberDefender would not have brought them on board. If they did not see CyberDefender as a legitimate, serious player in the world of PC-optimization, they would not have come aboard. These are literally the very same minds which brought you the very anti-virus and PC optimization software you are using today.


We are a bit surprised with your distaste of CyberDefender products, and perceived preference of Norton-Symantec. The perceived preference comes from your admission of using Norton software on your computer. The surprise comes from the fact that CyberDefender’s own Senior Vice President of Product Development Sarah Hicks and Vice President of Engineering and Threat Research Brian Yoder are both executive alumni of Norton-Symantec. Sarah Hicks is the former Vice President of Product Management for Symantec, where she spent over 11 years contributing to and leading the teams responsible for developing Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, Norton Internet Security, and N360, and Brian Yoder functioned as Senior Software Designer for Norton/Symantec, serving on the development team responsible for Norton Utilities, Norton Commander, and Norton Desktop. Moreover, he was the Director of Product Development and Architect at Earthlink, Inc., working with the vastly popular ISP for four years prior to joining CyberDefender. These, as well as the rest of our executive board, all have an extensively proven track-record in the industry, and have worked extremely hard to make that so. If this were not the case, CyberDefender would not have brought them on board. If they did not see CyberDefender as a legitimate, serious player in the world of PC-optimization, they would not have come aboard. These are literally the very same minds which brought you the very anti-virus and PC optimization software you are using today.

As per your claims of padding the billing charge, it would seem you are referring to our website’s checkout page. When a customer is interested in purchasing products or services directly through our online medium, we do display a purchase price which reflects the total cost of the desired item, plus that of complementary software we feel would benefit the consumer has desired to purchase. No consumer is forced to purchase these suggested items, and all it takes is a simple un-checking of a checkbox to opt out. Furthermore, we only ever recommend one software product in this fashion and a backup CD copy of their desired software, meaning there are only two checkboxes involved in these projected totals. This, like aforementioned concepts, is nothing new, nor is it anything that CyberDefender alone employs. All that is demonstrated by your inclusion of encouraged marketing and its transparently implied maliciousness/unethical behavior is a lack of well-rounded experience in online ordering, and perhaps a touch of worldly naïveté. Another testament to this is your claim that CyberDefender wants “to sell you their own virus scan” upon checkout. This is an outright fabrication, as CyberDefender has provided our anti-virus services absolutely free of charge ever since the advent of CyberDefenderFREE 2.0 in 2007.

Should an individual accidentally purchase extra items at checkout, we will fully refund the cost of those extra items.

Your closing statements include some final points. First, that “In the end, my laptop ran just as fast and slow as it always does.” If that is the case, and you honestly see no improvement in your PC within 30 days from purchase, we are more than happy to supply you with a full refund in accordance with our satisfaction guarantee. This guarantee is included on the checkout page of every software purchase on our site.

Secondly, you state that “The registry scan didn't do anything.” We certainly hope you weren’t under the impression that simply scanning your registry would enhance the performance of your computer, as that is not how the product, or any registry cleaner, is designed to work. Or that even cleaning your registry once for the purpose of testing bring about immediate and everlasting flawlessness in your PC. It is the active and regular maintenance of Windows Registry which warrants to most beneficial, noticeable, and lasting results. This is reflected throughout our site, most pertinently on our Registry Cleaner’s product page and CyberDefender.com’s Frequently Asked Questions Knowledge Base. It is also common knowledge in the world of registry cleaning.

Thirdly, you postulate that “All those testimonials from the happy girl and happy guy voices on the commercials are paid, and don't represent real consumers.” All of our customer testimonials, whether in television advertising, or online consumer websites, represent real consumers in absolute. We implore any interested in truth to visit our profile at the Better Business Bureau’s Consumer Protection website Trustlink.com (http://trustlink.org/Reviews/CyberDefender-205958423), whence they may read legitimate reviews from legitimate CyberDefender users. Accusations attempting to implicate otherwise are baseless and serve only to provide libel in defamation attempts.

Mr. Hanania, we maintain upwards of 8-million active subscribers, up 3-million from the previous year. We understand it might be difficult for someone of your stature to relate to such numbers, but it should be no surprise that some of these nigh 8-million individuals have decided to post positive feedback of a product and service they use and appreciate. If one still cannot fully grasp this, we suspect a dose of humility will help clear the mind.

You close by stating “If you promise a free scan give people the free service.” We apologize, but that simply is not an economical or sensible business practice. We offer a free computer diagnosis; we provide a free computer diagnosis. We offer a service; we sell a service. This shouldn’t be alarming in the least, as it has been acceptable business practice for well over 100 years in this country (providing/selling what is offered as is offered). America wasn’t built on businesses doling out free products, but on a functional business-to-consumer relationship, providing the general public with products or services they wish to purchase under their own accord.

Thank you,
CyberDefender