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It is impossible to keep up will all the new innovations and high tech products that seem to come out everyday.  Many of them can make our life simplier and many can just be frustrating.   If we are talking about software, the question is always, “should I upgrade to the newer version.”  If it is hardware, do we just want it because it is new or do we “need it.”  I will share an evaluation that was recently written by the president of the Computer Club in Ocean Hills Country Club.

• iPhone 5: Yes, I’m an iPhone user, having the “old” 3GS model. Turns out my daughter and her husband both bought an iPhone 5 the day they came out. The new phone is much thinner and lighter than mine. Almost too thin to hold comfortably. It is undoubtedly more competent, but I tried “Siri”, the voice interface, and it was useless. 30 seconds after asking a question I got the answer to a completely different question. So I turned to my children. “Should I upgrade to an iPhone 5?” After only 2 seconds the answer was “No.” I think I maybe might agree.

What you just read was the evaluation by the president of the computer club.  Now, I would like to totally disagree with his evaluation of the iphone 5.

If you have an iphone 3gs or earlier model, you should definitely upgrade to an iphone 5 when your elgible for an upgrade.  If you have an iphone 4, you can choose to upgrade or not.  The iphone 5 is lighter and has a brighter, with a clearer screen.  It also has a fantastic camera.  The camera is so good you will just put your old digital camera in a drawer. (Most of the photos on my websites are taken with my iphone.)  Starting with the iphone 4 you also have the voice interface  “Siri.”  Unlike the review above, I have found Siri very useful.  Also, as you use the voice activated system, she seems to learn your voice and make far fewer mistakes.  I use Siri to put my appoints in my phone’s calendar, to remind me of all kind of things, to play me songs I like, to give me sports scores of my favorite teams, and to set and turn off alarms.  Siri can save you all kinds of time.  You just have to spend a little time with it.

The evaluation continues with these other high tech products.

• Windows 8: Should you upgrade? Everything I’ve read says no. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not better. And it does offer some advantages over Windows 7 such as a faster boot up. If you buy a new PC this is most likely the operating system you’ll get. Don’t shy away from it. I just wouldn’t pay to upgrade my existing Windows operating system.
• iPad 4 and iPad-mini: Pretty self-descriptive. The iPad keeps getting better and better, and experts agree that the iPad 4 is indeed an improvement over iPad 3. Faster, thinner, and better graphics. It is a (relative) beast to carry, however, heavier than it looks, and so we now have the smaller and lighter iPad-mini. It’s a smaller version of the iPad 3, though, so not as competent as the iPad 4. Again, I wouldn’t buy one of these if I already had an iPad, but these new products keep iPads at the top of the tablets. Their top-of-the-line rating does come with top-of-the-line pricing, and less capable but still competent tablets are available for less money.
• Microsoft Surface: That’s the name of the new tablet from Microsoft. It looks intriguing to me, offering the advantages of both a laptop and a tablet. It runs Windows 8, but right now all that’s available is the tablet part of the Win8 operating system. You’ll need to wait a few months to get the full Windows 8 operating system capable of running the Microsoft Office applications Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

If you like high tech products and move to Ocean Hills, you should join the Computer Club.    They have a lot of great ideas and are willing to share.  Ocean Hills also has a great computer room in the clubhouse.

For more information on Ocean Hills homes, see Gary’s main website www.HomeInfoSanDiego.com.

Contact Gary Harmon today.

All original content by Gary Harmon.