Tag Archives: apple

iPhone 5 Hails and Fails for Real Estate Professionals

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The countdown is over and the iPhone 5 has surfaced. Have you made the purchase?  Or are you thinking about it?  Apple sold over five million of these amazing pieces of machinery in just three days! Woah! Did you know that analysts were expecting between $6 – 10 million in sales?.

The iPhone 5 is a major hardware upgrade while the 4S was only a software upgrade.  Not to mention it looks pretty snazzy. The 5 is slimmer and taller with a bigger screen for better viewing. Get ready, it’s the first iPhone to be compatible with 4G, so it’s much faster too!

With all the hype, there are some negatives that real estate agents should be aware of.  Homes.com asked around and did some research including input from our friends at Inman News, and have compiled a list of ” iPhone 5 Hails and Fails”:

HAILS:

  1. Faster: thanks to “Long-Term Evolution” (LTE) network speed and the quickness of in-phone functionality.  This has prompted agents to cut down on iPad use. The larger screen requires users to zoom in less than on the iPhone 4S, which is really convenient for agents to review and prepare contracts.
  2. Camera: the iPhone 5 camera’s speed is also pretty competitive, which makes for some impressive listing photos for your marketing materials.
  3. Powerful: equipped with an A6 processor, this tiny machine is not only faster but also provides TWICE the computing power!  Wowser!

FAILS:

  1. Maps:  Apple put their own maps in the new system versus Google Maps.  Despite the sophisticated look of Apple’s maps, they are not as accurate as others (and even apologized for it!). What do you think?
  2. Small Data Port:  the iPhone 5’s charger is different, so you will need to purchase another adapter.
  3. Battery Life: the battery life doesn’t seem to be much better than the iPhone 4S and several apps and browsers haven’t yet been upgraded to fit the new screen, which is a half-inch longer than the iPhone 4S. Other articles have mentioned that the battery life can be better with the 5 – so in theory, this could depend on your app use and with each owner.
It looks like all of these recent versions, whether you have the iPhone 4, 4S, or now the newest most powerful iPhone, the 5,  you will still get Apple quality and great service. It’s up to you whether you want to upgrade or drop the extra dough on certain utilities, or possibly risk losing some of the stronger benefits with its predecessors.What’s most important to you? Are these hails and fails enough to keep you with your current device? Or perhaps moving on up to the iPhone 5?

 

 

Hottest Smartphones on the Market for Professionals in Real Estate

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Which smartphone is for you?As a professional especially in real estate, you know how important your phone is in your everyday tasks. It’s your lifeblood and without it, you’d feel helpless. Am I right?

We are getting into Corporate Convention season (Keller Williams, Realogy, ReMax), and many real estate professionals, agents and Realtors will be networking with colleagues. They will be asking them what they enjoy and dislike about their smartphones. There will certainly be seminars on this too! I just returned from the Keller Williams Family Reunion in Orlando and this was one of the most popular topics of discussion.

Which is the best phone to have? There are actually a couple of great phones, so let’s take a look at the smartphones more real estate professionals, agents, Realtors are depending on based on sales numbers from International Data Corporation.

The Data Revealed: Continue reading →

Realtor’s Check with your Wireless Provider about Data Usage – Siri Eats it Up!

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Real Estate Pros check your phone bill
Apple released the iPhone 4 S in April 2011 featuring a new search activated by the phone user’s voice and speaking functions. Apple has really impressed their users with this new function, but Siri uses quite a bit of data.

According to Bloomberg News the iPhone 4 S can use up to 2 times as much data as the model before and 3 times as much as the iPhone 3G. Siri may be to blame for all of this data usage because of how it works and needs to work appropriately. For instance, a user speaks to Siri requesting where the closest bank is located, the voice is bounced back from Siri to the Apple’s iCloud and then transmitted back to your phone when Siri announces her response. What an awesome feature! Just be sure that you have the best phone plan!

More applications that need or use iCloud to function are sucking up a lot of date too!  Don’t blame Siri for all of it. Many service providers aren’t offering unlimited data usage to new customers anymore and that’s when a user’s phone bill could see a significant increase. Keep in mind, some service providers may offer a  ”grandfather” option for current customers in that have already been paying for unlimited data. Continue reading →