42 TELESALES TIPS YOU
CAN USE RIGHT NOW TO GET MORE BUSINESS AND AVOID REJECTION
By Art Sobczak
Telemarketing, telesales, cold calling ... whatever you want to call it (and I'll use the terms interchangeably), the professional use of the phone in sales is a process, not a goofy technique or gimmick.
We're going to travel through every part of the professional telesales- telemarketing call, in order, discussing proven tips that can help you right now. Let's go!
PRE-CALL PLANNING
1. Have a primary objective for every telemarketing call, defined as, "What do I want them to DO as a result of this call, and what do I want to do?"
2. Prepare questions for your telesales call using your call objective. Ask yourself, "How can I persuade them to take this action as a result of asking questions, as opposed to talking?" Remember, people believe more
of their ideas than yours.
3. Also have a secondary objective for each telephone sales call...something you'll strive to accomplish, at minimum, every time. Pick something you'll have a reasonably good chance to succeed with, such as, "Getting their
agreement they will accept my literature and place it in their 'Backup Vendor' file." This way, you can enjoy success on every call you place, and that does wonders for your attitude.
BEFORE REACHING THE DECISION MAKER
4. Treat the screener as you would the customer--this person determines whether or not you'll even have a chance to speak with the buyer.
5. Gather as much information as you can from whomever you are able, prior to speaking with your prospect; busy decision makers get bored when they have to answer your basic qualifying questions. Use the "Help" technique: "I hope you can help me. So I'm better prepared when I speak with Ms. Big, there's probably some information you could provide me..."
6. Before cold calls, think of a good reason for needing to speak with the decision maker, and be prepared to sell this to the screener. What they're thinking about you:
"Does this person have anything of interest, or of value for the boss?"
7. If leaving a message on voice mail, or with a screener, be certain it offers a hint of a benefit/result that sparks curiosity, but doesn't
talk about products/services.
INTEREST-CREATING OPENING STATEMENTS
8. The objective of your telemarketing opening is to pique curiosity and interest so that they will willingly and enthusiastically move to the questioning. You must answer, "What's in it for me?" for the listener, or they will immediately begin the getting-rid-of-you process.
9. Don't use goofy, resistance inducing phrases on your telesales call, like, "If I could show you a way to _____, you would, wouldn't you?" The only decision you're looking for in the opening is the one to continue speaking
with you.
10. When cold call prospecting, don't start the call with, "I was just calling people in your area..." People want to feel like they're the only person you're calling... not just one of the masses from a list of compiled names.
11. Use what I call "weasel words" when opening cold prospecting calls: "depending on," "might," "maybe," "perhaps," and "possibly." These are non-threatening words that intimate you might have something of value for them, but you really need to ask questions first. For example, "Depending on what you're now doing in the area of employee benefits, I might have something that could potentially increase the number of options you offer, while possibly decreasing your overall contribution. I'd like to ask you a few questions to see if this is something you'd like more information on."
12. Have something of value to say on every telemarketing call. Particularly those regular calls to existing customers. Avoid, "Just checking in with you to see if you needed anything," and, "Just calling to touch base." These are more nuisance than service. Be certain they're able to say they are better off after your call than they were before it, even if they didn't buy anything. Call with news they'll have an interest in; ideas you've heard from other customers they might be able to take advantage of; mention that you were "thinking of them" and tell them why. One of my printing salesmen called to say he "just came back from a trade show and saw something interesting, and thought I could benefit from it." It's little things like that, that cause customers to say, "She always has something good for me when she calls," as opposed to, "Every time she calls she's just looking for an order."
(For more great ideas, including word-for-word examples, and a fill-in-the-blanks template on creating your own effective opening, also see the Special Report on Developing Interest Creating Opening Statements.)
EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING
13. Get information before you give it. How could you make an effective presentation otherwise?
14. Don't use a "benefit list" to present from. Instead, use it to create questions to determine if those "benefits" truly are of value to your prospects and customers. Some "benefits" could actually be liabilities.
15. Avoid asking go-nowhere questions like, "Is everything going OK?", "What are your needs?", "Are you having any problems now?", "How's service?", and, "What are you looking for in a vendor?" These all force the person to think too much. Instead, get them emotionally involved in seeing and feeling the pain or problem that can be solved with your product/service-especially problems you know they're likely experiencing. For example, "What do you do in situations when you need
parts shipped overnight, but are unable to get them?"
16. Ask one question at a time. That's how many they'll answer at a time.
17. After asking, be quiet. Resist the urge to jump in if they don't answer immediately. Don't be intimidated by silence. They're likely thinking about what they're going to say.
18. After they've finished, count to two (silently, of course). This ensures they're done, plus they might continue with even better information.
19. Be confident in your questioning. One reason reps ramble with questions is that they're not prepared or confident. Prepare
your questions. Role play them-with yourself if necessary.
20. Always know where you'll go with answers. Regardless of the answer.
21. Follow up their answers with related questions. Too often reps work from a rigid list of questions, losing the opportunity to pick up on prospect statements which are just the tip of the iceberg of their real feelings. For example, if a prospect said, "I believe the main reason production isn't higher is a lack of motivation. The best move is to follow up with, "I see. What specific signs of poor motivation have you noticed?", or, simply, "Tell me more." (For lots of other ideas on questioning, and all parts of the call, get How to Sell More, In Less Time, With No Rejection, Using Common Sense Telephone Techniques, Volumes 1 and 2, www.BusinessByPhone.com/HSM.htm)
22. Quantify the problem whenever possible. "How often does that happen?" "How much do you think that is costing you?" "How much
time does that take?"
23. Resist the tendency to present. Some reps get so excited when they hear the slightest hint of an opportunity, that they turn on the spigot of benefits. Hold off, ask a few more questions, get better information, and you're able to craft an even harder-hitting description of benefits, tailored precisely to what they're interested in.
24. Learn more about the decision-making process. There could be many behind-the-scenes influences on the decision. Ask about actual users of your products/services, anyone else who could influence it, who
has to sign off on the ultimate decision or OK the money for it, and perhaps people who would rather not see it happen.
SALES RECOMMENDATIONS
25. You should only talk about your product/service after knowing specifically how it will solve the problem, meet their need, etc. Then you can tailor your remarks specifically and personally for the listener.
26. Get feedback during your discussion of benefits: "Do you feel that would work for you?". "How do you feel that would solve your problem?" Some trainers might tell you that gives the prospect an opportunity to tell you "no." Precisely. And that's good. Because if there's a problem, and they don't see enough value in what you've presented, now is the time to find out.
27. Avoid the question, "Anything else?" when attempting to upsell. Just like when a convenience store clerk asks the same question, the answer is usually, "No." Instead, give them a suggestion, and help them answer. For example, after they agree to buy an item, or a service, say, "Many of our customers who get _____ from us, also find that ____ is also very beneficial for them. What are you now doing/using/buying in that area?"
GETTING COMMITMENT (Closing)
28.This is not the major event in a telemarketing sales call. It's the natural, logical, validation of the professional sales process up to this point. But you still must ask. Commitment must be gained on every contact in order to move the process forward. If there is to be a follow-up contact, and information is to be sent or faxed, there must be commitment on behalf of the prospect regarding that material.
29. Ask large. Think big. Buyers will often move down from a large recommendation, but they rarely move up from a small one. Those who ask the biggest have the largest average order size. Never suggest more than is in the best interest of the customer, but not making a large enough suggestion when appropriate is actually hurting the customer.
30. When in doubt, ask. Do you have a foot-dragger in your follow-up file who is perched squarely on the fence? Ask for a decision! Get some movement. A "no" today is better than one six months and 15 additional calls from now. Move them forward, or move them out.
31. If you're going to schedule a follow up call, get a commitment of some type. Why would you call back otherwise. If they won't commit to doing anything--reviewing your literature and preparing questions, surveying their existing inventory, etc.-they likely have no interest.
ADDRESSING RESISTANCE (Objections)
32. Objections can be avoided by doing everything else correctly up to this point in the call. When they do occur, resist the tendency to attack in defense. You must back up and revisit the questioning stage of the call. The voiced objection is simply a symptom of the real problem. Start by saying, "Let's talk about that."
33. If you have an indecisive prospect, get their mind off the buying decision, and on the problem or pain. For example, "Jan, let's look at this another way. What would happen if you did nothing about the situation? Remember, we detailed the fact you're missing sales opportunities every day. What will that amount to over just the next six months?"
34. Most price objections start in the mind of the salesperson. Many sales reps aren't 100% sold on the value of their product, therefore they're apt to offer price concessions even when the prospect doesn't flat-out ask, or they present price with a shaky tone of voice. Ask the right questions, present the results of what your product/service can do, and state the price boldly. (Also see our Special Report on "How to Never Lose Sales Because of Price Objections, http://www.businessbyphone.com/pricerpt.htm)
35. Avoid Common Objections Mistakes: Using slick, prepared, objection rebuttals that only tell people they're wrong and intensifies the resistance; giving up before attempting to understand the reason behind the problem.
WRAPPING UP AND SETTING THE NEXT ACTION
36. When sending information, samples, demos, etc., know precisely how they'll evaluate the material. How will they know if they like it? What criteria will they use? This way, you'll both be clear as to what would need to happen in order for them to buy.
37. When sending material, prepare them as to what they should look for. Otherwise, they'll get a package of materials and say, "Oh, there's a package of materials," and then toss it on the mountain of other stuff in their office. But, if you tell them to look for the catalog that will be opened to the page with the product they are interested in, and you'll have the three or four models highlighted that are most appropriate for them, there would be a greater likelihood they'd look at it. (Also see Art's free article, "When to Send Literature, And When It's Just a Brush Off."
http://www.businessbyphone.com/literature.htm
38. The success of your follow-up call is directly relational to what you accomplished, and how you ended the previous one. Never say, "I'll send you out some stuff, and we'll go from there." From where? Summarize agreed-to actions by both parties, including what happened, what they're interested in, and what will happen next. And set the agenda for the next call. Makes it so much easier to prepare for the follow-up call, and helps you avoid starting calls with the useless question, "I sent you the material, didja get it?", or "Whatdidja think?" For example, "Ok Pat, I'll send the proposal detailing the quantity price breaks. What you'll do is compare that to what you're getting now, and if we're within 5%, you'll agree to a trial order on our next call, is that right?"
ATTITUDE AND SELF-MOTIVATION
39. You never have to experience rejection again. After all, what is rejection? It's not an experience-it's your definition of the experience. So, ensure that you accomplish something on each call, and you can hold your head high with a sense of achievement. Remember, a decision of any type is better than shadow-chasing someone who will waste your time with wimpy or misleading statements that cause you to believe there's a chance, when, in fact, there's not.
40. A good way to end a call where you don't accomplish your primary objection (and to never experience rejection) is to plant a seed for the future. Give them something to look for, based upon what you uncovered during the call ... something that might just cause them to call you back. For example, "Pat, it looks like we don't have a fit here, today, but I suggest that if you ever find yourself needing an emergency job finished, and don't have the staff to handle it, give us a call. We specialize in those type of projects, and would love to talk to you." Everyone has been surprised by those written-off prospects who later called to order. This is a way to proactively make it happen more often.
41. Imagine every day is the end-of- quota-period day. I've noticed that reps tend to pick up the pace and behave like tornado in a hurricane when they reach the last couple days of a quota period, doing whatever is necessary to squeeze out those last few sales. When you coast, you're going downhill Get focused on a goal, and pursue it with single-minded determination.
42. As a sales professional using the phone as your main method of communication, you perform a function that very few people in the world could do well, or would even want to try. And that's persuading someone to take action and make a decision, based almost solely on the words and ideas that come from your mouth. It's quite an awesome feat when you think about it. And do think about it. It takes a talented individual to be able to do that well. You are that person. Feel proud of what you do, and always strive to get better!
(Art Sobczak specializes in helping people say and do the right things to get more business using the phone and avoid rejection through his books, tapes, and seminars. See free back issues of his weekly TelE-Sales Hot Tips of the Week newsletter at www.businessbyphone.com/backissues.htm)
Microsoft's corporate campus is a sprawling affair, with more than 100 buildings scattered over 261 acres. To make sense of it all, you have to navigate by numbers. The Microsoft Visitor Center, for instance, is in Building 127, north campus, while the Microsoft Conference Center is in Building 33, just down the road from the company soccer and baseball fields. About 4 miles away, however, there is an unnumbered building that is decidedly "off campus." In that building, Microsoft has quietly been developing the first completely new computing platform since the PC — a project that was given the internal code name Milan. This past March, when the project was still operating on the down low, I became the first reporter invited inside these offices. My hosts politely threatened legal consequences if I blabbed about the project to anyone not directly involved in it, then escorted me down a dark hallway to a locked corner conference room. Inside that room was Microsoft's best-kept technology secret in years ... a coffee table.
The product behind the Milan project is called the Microsoft Surface, and the company's unofficial Surface showman is Jeff Gattis. He's a clean-cut fellow who is obviously the veteran of a thousand marketing seminars. He spoke in sentences peppered with "application scenarios," "operational efficiencies" and "consumer pain points" while he took me through a few demonstrations of what the Surface can do. One of Gattis's consumer pain points is the frustrating mess of cables, drivers and protocols that people must use to link their peripheral devices to their personal computers. Surface has no cables or external USB ports for plugging in peripherals. For that matter, it has no keyboard, no mouse, no trackball — no obvious point of interaction except its screen.
Gattis took out a digital camera and placed it on the Surface. Instantly, digital pictures spilled out onto the tabletop. As Gattis touched and dragged each picture, it followed his fingers around the screen. Using two fingers, he pulled the corners of a photo and stretched it to a new size. Then, Gattis put a cellphone on the surface and dragged several photos to it — just like that, the pictures uploaded to the phone. It was like a magic trick. He was dragging and dropping virtual content to physical objects. I'm not often surprised by new technology, but I can honestly say I'd never seen anything like it.
MORE TIPS & ANSWERS:
-WHERE TO DOWNLOAD SONY VEGAS-
Sony offers a free 30 day trial for Sony Vegas, so I suggest you check it out:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/prod...
-IF YOUR USING WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER-
just click "Save to computer", name your file, then click "other settings" and select "Video for Broadband (512 kbps)".
-WHERE TO DOWNLOAD FREE FULL PROGRAMS-
No good software comes for free. Even if you download it without paying for it, you have a very good chance of catching bugs, viruses, or spyware. You can find cheap editing programs at your local Bestbuy though for around $30 - $99. Check out Pinnacle Studios.
-MAC vs WINDOWS-
Mac is a great OS, but more programs are available for the PC and honestly, I have't had any problems with anything in the last 6 years. Just keep your computer clean and use it with care.
-WHERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SONY VEGAS-
See my friend DigitalSurgeon on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/digitalsu...
-BRIGHTNESS & CONTRAST ADJUSTMENTS-
The brightness and contrast doesn't apply to everyone, just the majority of the web cam users on here. Sharpening your videos shouldn't add to the file size neither, but if it does in your case... I would say do it anyway. Sharper videos means more viewers.
-WHY YOU SHOULDN'T USE 640x480-
640x480 is a good looking file when it's on your computer, but when you upload it to YouTube, it gets distorted in the resizing process. That's the main problem... YouTube's video resizing program sucks.
-WHY MY VIDEOS ARE SHARPER THAN NORMAL-
Well, part of the reason my videos are so sharp is becuase of my camera, but the majority of it is because of this method of rendering.
-HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR COMPUTERS RENDERING-
Any time you load a program into your computer (or laptop), you should always have enough space to work with. Video editing is a very demanding, so if your planning on rendering a lot of videos in the future, then look into buying some more RAM for your computer. Go to your local computer store and ask for help with RAM.
Learn how to Insert text and images, as well as change page properties and aligning your placed objects into some kind of order. Enjoy!
This is a video tutorial on creating Hyperlinks to your local site as well as sites already out on the web, Targeting those links so they open a new window or take over the window you are using, and creating email links so people can email you right from your site! Enjoy this tutorial and check out http://www.tutvid.com for more!
Stop by and check out the integrated browse portal with rich content channels and full suite of live services. Just enter http://mobile.msn.com or http://msn.mobi in your phone's browser.
This video shows how to get MSN Messenger on your mobile , Hand Held Device , PDA , BlackBerry
all java enabled and symbian phones
Replace Quick Download Code for Symbian phones(SonyEricsson P800, P900, P910, Motorola A1000, BenQ P30) ) to 3142
For others it is 2343 (Java enabled phones/smartphones)
Background Music : Sona Family - Ek Glassy
The console was conceived in 2001, as the Nintendo GameCube was first seeing release. According to an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the concept involved focusing on a new form of player interaction. "The consensus was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction."[7]
Two years later, engineers and designers were brought together to further develop the concept. By 2005, the controller interface had taken form, but a public showing at that year's E3 was withdrawn. Miyamoto stated that "we had some troubleshooting to do. So we decided not to reveal the controller and instead we displayed just the console."[7] Satoru Iwata later unveiled and demonstrated the Wii Remote at the September Tokyo Game Show.[5]
The Nintendo DS is stated to have influenced the Wii design. Designer Ken'ichiro Ashida noted "We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype." The idea was eventually rejected, with the notion that the two gaming systems would be identical. Miyamoto also expressed that "if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board
The console was known by the code name of "Revolution" until April 27, 2006, immediately prior to E3.[8] According to the Nintendo Style Guide, the name "is simply Wii, not Nintendo Wii." This means it is the first home console Nintendo has marketed outside of Japan without the company name featured in its trademark. While "Wiis" is a commonly used pluralization of the console, Nintendo has stated that the official plural form is "Wii systems" or "Wii consoles."[9] Nintendo spells "Wii" with two lower-case "i" characters meant to resemble two people standing side by side, representing players gathering together, as well as to represent the console's controllers.[10] The company has given many reasons for this choice of name since the announcement; however, the most well known is:
" Wii sounds like 'we', which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.[10] "
Despite Nintendo's justification for the name, some game developers and members of the press initially reacted negatively towards the change. They preferred "Revolution" over "Wii"[11] and expressed fear "that the name would convey a continued sense of 'kidiness'[sic] to the console."[12] The BBC reported the day after the name was announced that "a long list of puerile jokes, based on the name," had appeared on the Internet.[13] Reggie Fils-Aime acknowledged the initial reaction and further explained the change:
" Revolution as a name is not ideal; it's long, and in some cultures, it's hard to pronounce. So we wanted something that was short, to the point, easy to pronounce, and distinctive. That's how 'Wii,' as a console name, was created.[14] "
Nintendo defended its choice of "Wii" over "Revolution" and responded to critics of the name by stating: "live with it, sleep with it, eat with it, move along with it
Nintendo has used several advertising strategies and techniques for the GameCube. The earliest commercials displayed a rotating cube video, which would quickly morph into the GameCube logo. A voice whispered "GameCube". This was usually after the normal commercial for a GameCube game. Later on, Nintendo incorporated a video clip before the normal clip for the GameCube game would begin, similar to the brief PlayStation 2 logo before a commercial featuring the game. It basically rotated around what appeared to be the top of a GameCube console, with the lettering being slightly 3D. The lettering would begin as a wave, only to settle on the top of the pictured console.
Subsequent ad campaigns had Nintendo advertising with a "Who Are You" tangent, essentially marketing the wide range of games Nintendo offers. The idea behind the "Who Are You?" campaign is that "you are what you play"; the kind of game a gamer enjoys playing suggests a dominant trait in that gamer's personality. The "Who Are You" logo is similar to graffiti lettering. Most of the "Who Are You?" commercials advertised games developed or published by Nintendo, but some developers paid Nintendo to promote their games, using Nintendo's marketing and advertising resources. One example is the advertisement campaign for Square Enix's GameCube-exclusive Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.
Some unexpected marketing came from the 2004 musical single by Mike Jones entitled Still Tippin'. The system is mentioned in a line by guest artist Slim Thug: Blowing on the endo, GameCube Nintendo/Five percent tint so you can't see up in my window.
Pogue gives a quick snappy video to accompany his iPhone review. This is the world's second iPhone review on Youtube.
Here's the first one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu71wY... and yes I uploaded that one too, hehe!!
Full review transcript:
Talk about hype. In the last six months, Apple's iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the "Jesus phone." All of this before a single consumer has even touched the thing.
So how is it?
As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed. It's substance; it's style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.
Unless you've been in a sensory-deprivation tank for six months, you already know what the iPhone is: a tiny, gorgeous hand-held computer whose screen is a slab of touch-sensitive glass.
The $500 and $600 models have 4 and 8 gigabytes of storage, respectively — room for about 825 or 1,825 songs. (In each case, 700 megabytes is occupied by the phone's software.) That's a lot of money; then again, the price includes a cellphone, video iPod, e-mail terminal, Web browser, camera, alarm clock, Palm-type organizer and one heck of a status symbol.
The phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese. The glass gets smudgy — a sleeve wipes it clean — but it doesn't scratch easily. I've walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there's not a mark on it.
But the bigger achievement is the software. It's fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can't get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone's 16 functions.
You've probably seen Apple's ads, showing how things on the screen have a physics all their own. Lists scroll with a flick of your finger, CD covers flip over as you flick them, e-mail messages collapse down into a trash can. Sure, it's eye candy. But it makes the phone fun to use, which is not something you can say about most cellphones.
Apple has chosen AT&T (formerly Cingular) to be the iPhone's exclusive carrier for the next few years, in part because the company gave Apple carte blanche to revise everything people hate about cellphones.
For example, once the phone goes on sale this Friday, you won't sign up for service in a phone store, under pressure from the sales staff. You will be able to peruse and choose a plan at your leisure, in the iTunes software on your computer.
Better yet, unlimited Internet service adds only $20 a month to AT&T's voice-plan prices, about half what BlackBerry and Treo owners pay. For example, $60 gets you 450 talk minutes, 200 text messages and unlimited Internet; $80 doubles that talk time. The iPhone requires one of these voice-and-Internet plans and a two-year commitment.
On the iPhone, you don't check your voice mail; it checks you. One button press reveals your waiting messages, listed like e-mail. There's no dialing in, no password — and no sleepy robot intoning, "You...have...twenty...one...messages."
To answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up. (When you're listening to music, that pinch pauses the song. A double-pinch advances to the next song.)
Making a call, though, can take as many as six steps: wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name. Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal.
E-mail is fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.
The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler. This isn't some stripped-down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.
Finally, you can enlarge a Web page — or an e-mail message, or a photo — by spreading your thumb and forefinger on the glass. The image grows as though it's on a sheet of latex.
The iPhone is also an iPod. When in its U.S.B. charging cradle, the iPhone slurps in music, videos and photos from your Mac or Windows PC. Photos, movies and even YouTube videos look spectacular on the bright 3.5-inch very-high-resolution screen.
The Google Maps module lets you view street maps or aerial photos for any address. It can provide driving directions, too. It's not real G.P.S. — the iPhone doesn't actually know where you are — so you tap the screen when you're ready for the next driving instruction.
But how's this for a consolation prize? Free live traffic reporting, indicated by color-coded roads on the map.
Apple says one battery charge is enough for 8 hours of calls, 7 hours of video or 24 hours of audio. My results weren't quite as impressive: I got 5 hours of video and 23 hours of audio, probably because I didn't turn off the phone, Wi-Fi and other features, as Apple did in its tests. In practice, you'll probably wind up recharging about every other day.
So yes, the iPhone is amazing. But no, it's not perfect.
There's no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can't install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser can't handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos.
The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted . But it can't capture video. And you can't send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.
Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges. Eventually, you'll have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement, much as you do now with an iPod, for a fee.
Then there's the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.
Two things make the job tolerable. First, some very smart software offers to complete words for you, and, when you tap the wrong letter, figures out what word you intended. In both cases, tapping the Space bar accepts its suggestion.
Second, the instructional leaflet encourages you to "trust" the keyboard (or, as a product manager jokingly put it, to "use the Force"). It sounds like new-age baloney, but it works; once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably.
Even so, text entry is not the iPhone's strong suit. The BlackBerry won't be going away anytime soon.
The bigger problem is the AT&T network. In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T's signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizon's slogan is, "Can you hear me now?" AT&T's should be, "I'm losing you."
Then there's the Internet problem. When you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot, going online is fast and satisfying.
But otherwise, you have to use AT&T's ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times's home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.
These drawbacks may be deal-killers for some people. On the other hand, both the iPhone and its network will improve. Apple points out that unlike other cellphones, this one can and will be enhanced with free software updates. That's good, because I encountered a couple of tiny bugs and one freeze. (There's also a tantalizing empty space for a row of new icons on the Home screen.) A future iPhone model will be able to exploit AT&T's newer, much faster data network, which is now available in 160 cities.
But even in version 1.0, the iPhone is still the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles.
In other words, maybe all the iPhone hype isn't hype at all. As the ball player Dizzy Dean once said, "It ain't bragging if you done it."
Linux.com short training video, This video shows you how to download GNU/Linux OS. An easy guide to Linux Ubuntu (the same steps apply for Fedora and Linspire etc). Training Video by Robin Miller.
Here you can learn how to take a better photograph with a digital camera. The main components which can improve your photography are ISO, Aperture and Shutter. Watch this video and learn how to use digital camera properly.
Audacity is a free sound recorder and editor for linux and windows. check out this video tutorial for more information. You can do podacasting also. Its a very usefull tool for AudioPodcasting. Even you can dub your voice too.
The entire keynote is up at apple.com but if you want the cliff notes version, I trimmed together what I thought were the highlights and the most amazing points about this insane new iPod/phone/camera/internet/video player and more.
