Wireless Banking Still Has A Way To Go…

After reading this article this afternoon  (http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2007-03-27T105757Z_01_N27407931_RTRUKOC_0_US-CINGULAR-BANKING.xml), I felt compelled to chime in with my two cents.  My take on this?  Boring!  Snooze-City!

While I realize that this is only a step (a baby step), I think Cingular isn’t even heading in the right direction.  Pay my bills from my phone?  I don’t think so – certainly not unless I’ve already got the vendor set up in the system and just need to tell it how much to pay.  Check my balance?  That’s not a bad idea, but why can’t I just send a text message and get it back, like I can get the weather forecast?

 For me, the real opportunity is for the cell phone to replace the credit card and ATM card. Let me wave my phone over a reader, maybe even use my phone as the keypad to enter a PIN to authorize the purchase and even better – have it make a record of the purchase in a personal finance package that can sych up with a program on my PC!  Other countries have this capability and its time it made its way here to the US!

UPDATE: Now THIS (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9015140&source=rss_topic15) is what I’m talking about!  Cell phone manufacturers need to get on the stick and get these devices out and the application developers need to develop the application for ALL cell phone OSs – especially the smartphone operating systems from Nokia, RIM and Microsoft!

Will Large Companies Hurt Microsoft

So there is this article (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/intel-and-department-of-transportation-avoid-vista-like-the-plague-242107.php) talking about Intel and several government agencies’ reluctance to upgrade to Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 and wondering how that will impact their bottom line.

I think it’ll have only negligible effect.  You need to understand how Microsoft license their software to government and big business – large businesses and agencies use Enterprise Agreements and Software Assurance. The important fact to take away from this article is that these groups are NOT talking about NOT upgrading at all.  Its a matter of timing.  I work with a large organization that is “waiting” to deploy Vista. Does this impact Microsoft?  Nope.  Not in the least.  By the time this company’s Microsoft license comes due, they’ll get around to upgrading to Vista and it’ll all be a wash.

The problem for Microsoft come from the individual – will YOU upgrade your PERSONAL machine?  If I were you, I’d wait.  Stay tuned over the next few days for the first of what I’m sure will be many rants over Vista and driver issues.

Watch your time! (with Outlook)

Usually, when someone makes this comment, its usually because you’ve got something else coming up on your calendar and your running close. But not today.

I’m giving you the heads-up on the change to Daylight Savings Time and the corresponding patches being put out by our technology “partners”.  Microsoft has put out patches for their operating systems and applications, but it appears that they might have missed something.  First, if you’re not aware, applying the patch just to XP won’t be enough if you’re running Outlook.  You need to apply a patch to Outlook as well.  Here is where the problem comes in.  The patch is suppose to make adjustments to the database file that Outlook is based on, as Outlook stores timezone information in each appointment.  But from my observations, it is moving some appointments out an hour, but leaving some alone.  This can cause you to be an hour late for some appointments, but be on time for others.

It appears that this “problem” only manifests itself for appointments in what I’m calling the “adjustment period” between the new Daylight Savings Time start date and the old.  But Outlook is the key – if you use a wireless device like a Smartphone, a Blackberry or a Treo (Windows Mobile or Palm-based), your appointments could be affected.  And remember, this is AFTER I applied the necessary patches… 

So beware.  Have your users check their appointments to make sure they’re set for the right times.