Realty World Northern California & Nevada

Apple released Siri, a voice activated personal assistant, exclusively on the iPhone 4s. Siri allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Sounds too good to be true? That’s what I thought. But it really works well… and she has a sense of humor!

Here are some items that I find most useful to use:

• Send text messages
• Send emails
• Check calendar schedule
• Add calendar appointments
• Move existing appointments
• Set reminders
• Set alarms and timers
• Calling contacts
• Directions to locations
• Finding the nearest Starbucks
• Play songs or playlists
• Checking stock markets
• Finding out about the weather

comScore, Inc. reported on January 6, 2011 that based on a 3 month average ending November 2010 that Android has surpassed iPhone users in market share. RIM still leads the way with a hefty lead over both Google and Apple. However, I find the Google Android rise in popularity very interesting among smartphone users.

The Mac App Store launched this morning with over 1,000 free and paid apps. Appearance is very similar to the iOS App Store but for Mac software. In order to get acces to the Mac App Store you will need to update your Mac using the Mac Software Update. Once you do, a new icon will appear in your dock.

I am accustomed to the iOS App Store so I feel right at home going through the apps available for my Mac. However, something different right off the bat is the pricing for apps. The pricing for apps are all over the board ranging from just a couple of bucks to $199.00.

Overall, I feel that convenience is key with the Mac App Store. In a very short amount of time you can find apps and with a single click, install the app. Updates are supposed to be done through the Mac App Store for anything you purchase through the Mac App Store. A downside is thatif you have purchased an app that is available from the Mac App Store, you will see it states “Installed,” as you would have thought, however, updates are not handled within the Mac App Store and there is no current way of migrating your external software purchases into the Mac Apple Store. One final downside that I see is that there doesn’t appear to be any way to demo the apps. In some cases, desktop software can be quite pricey, especially when you aren’t sure it will do the job you want.