Blog - Souza Realty - California Lots & Land, Custom Construction

How To Set Up Google Sync To "Push" Gmail On Your iPhone - Instant E-Mail Notification For Mobile Phones

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:00:47 -0600

How To Set Up Google Sync To "Push" Gmail On Your iPhone - Instant E-Mail Notification For Mobile Phones

I just used Google Sync to set up my Gmail account for "push" messaging (instant e-mail notification for mobile phones) on my iPhone. Now, every time I get an e-mail, my iPhone alerts me. This saves me from having to check e-mails manually and it keeps me current on all communications. It's pretty AWESOME!

This is a great (free!) alternative for iPhone users who subscribe to Apple's MobileMe service for $99 per year...check out my blog post:

iPhone - Are You Paying For Apple's MobileMe? Try Google Sync And Push For FREE!

Here is the very helpful tutorial from Google mobile:

Requirements and Upload

1. Google Sync is only supported on iPhone OS versions 3.0 and above. You can check your current version by going to Settings > General > About > Version. To upgrade, follow the instructions at http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. Please upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 before setting up Google Sync.
2. Perform a sync with iTunes to ensure that Contacts and Calendars from your iPhone are backed up to your computer.

Getting Started

1. Open the Settings application on your device's home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account....
4. Select Microsoft Exchange.

Enter Account Info

5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an "Unable to verify certificate" warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Accept if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. A new Server field will appear. Enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

12. Select the Google services you want to sync.

13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.

If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the "All Contacts" group instead.

You've set up Google Sync for your iPhone. Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your phone. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

Here is a useful link:

Google Sync For Mobile - Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

How Much Is Your Website Worth?

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:37:00 -0600

How Much Is Your Website Worth?

Have you ever wondered how much your website is worth, based on a valuation service that looks at page views, estimated ads revenue, traffic rank, page rank and backlinks? You can input your URL at WebsiteOutlook.com and find out, as long as it's hosted on a regular server (e.g. Active Rain outside blogs and Blogger websites are not eligible.)

According to WebsiteOutlook.com, ActiveRain.com:

Is worth $557,595.50
Has 253,865 daily page views
Has $763.83 in daily ads revenue
Has a traffic rank of 4333
Has a page rank of 5
Has 91,921 backlinks

Source: http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.activerain.com

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Jauregui - An Architectural Inspiration

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:35:31 -0600

Jauregui - An Architectural Inspiration

One of my architectural inspiration websites is JaureguiArchitect.com (I actually found the link to their website when looking at Cantera Doors, a manufacturer of iron entry doors.) Pronounced "HOW-reg-ghee" they are a Texas design/build firm with locations in Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

I love their "signature" of tiled groin vault ceilings and their use of Roman and eyebrow arches in both exterior and interior details. Take a peek at their portfolio by clicking on the pic above...it's definitely my version of eye candy! :)

*****************************************

"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Tropical Breezes

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:29:27 -0600

Via Steve Hoffacker - Real Estate Sales & Marketing Consulting and Strategies (Hoffacker Associates LLC):

───

For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Photography displayed is original composition and artistic expression of Steve Hoffacker, and as such is copyrighted. Photos are in their original digital image state and have not been cropped, edited, or enhanced in anyway.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Monitoring your Online Presence

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:19:08 -0600

Via Amy Chorew (TheTechByte):

Right now I am writing an online course on Internet Risk. One of the topics focuses on how to monitor your online reputation. They are lots of tools out there, free and for a fee. Let's explore some of them.If you did nothing else with social media, monitoring what people are saying about you, your company, your brand, your neighborhood, and your industry is very important.

Sales associates who are in our monthly coaching program constantly speak about wanting to know what people in their community are thinking – they create polls, do interviews, study their website analytics, where all the time there are other simple tools to help them in this task.

Google or Yahoo Alerts are a great place to start. Set up alerts based on your companies name, principals names, community, town, etc. These alerts will send you an email every time one of your search words is found by the search engines.

http://www.google.com/alerts

http://alerts.yahoo.com/

The phenomen of Twitter allows us to search any topic and find out who is chatting about it. Open up a web browser and find Twitter Search at http://search.twitter.com. This is great place to find people to follow as well.

One of the keys to managing your reputation is to know where your name appears and what people are saying about you. Some great sites to help you monitor more of your social media reputation are:

SocialMention.com

Addictomatic.com

Spezify.com

Steprep.com

Also check out the Zoom Info site located at http://www.zoominfo.com. this is site that helps you find specific people in an organization a little easier than using LinkedIn or a Google Search. Search for yourself and make sure you set up a up to date profile.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

An Offering for Your Real Estate Marketing Toolkit: 45 Blog Directories

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:52:40 -0600

Via Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant (Real Skillz-Clear Marketing for Your Real Estate Vision):

An Offering For Your Real Estate Marketing Toolkit:

45 Blog Directories

blogarama.com

blogaz

blogcatalog.com

blogexplosion.com

blogfinds.com

blogflux.com

bloghop.com

blogio.net

blogged.com

bloggeries.com

bloggernity.com

bloggerschoiceawards.com

bloggingfusion.com

bloghub.com

blogion.com

bloglisting.net

blogs.botw.org

blogsbywomen

blogs2c.com

blogscanada

blogsearch

blog-search.com

blogsearchengine.com

blogtoplist.com

dmoz.org

EatonWeb Blog Directory

feedburner.com

getblogs.com

geoblogdirectory.com

iblogbusiness.com

icerocket.com

joeant.com

mkeonline.com

myblog2u.com

nycbloggers.com

poddop.com

real-estate-blogs.com

realtyfeedsearch.com

regator.com

search4blogs.com

spillbean.com

technorati.com

us.loadedweb.com

thevital.net

yahoo.com Directory

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:49:18 -0600

Via Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray):

This past week I visited several blogs that were talking about some of the cool symbols that you can insert into your blog posts or comments if you know their secret codes.

Back in the pre-Windows days of DOS, these were called ASCII characters (probably still are), and since I owned a word processing business, I needed to use these special characters to make my work look professional. I needed to know how to create an n with a tilde (ñ), or an e with an acute (é), or one-quarter (¼), half (½), and three-quarter (¾) symbols for equations.

When I started my word processing business, I applied for work with Leon Jaworski's Houston law firm. Jaworski was the 1974 Watergate Special Prosecutor. I got the job because my sample legal work used legal symbols (§, ¶, ™, ©, ®) rather than writing them in as my competition did. Sometimes the little things can win you the big things.

Herewith, then, are the ASCII codes for lots of symbols. Just hold your ALT key down and type the code on your numeric keypad at the right side of your keyboard. Using the number keys at the top of your keyboard DOES NOT work. I've used the standard three-digit code here, but if it doesn't work on your computer, try adding a zero in front of the three-digit code to make it a four-digit code. That often works.

On Apple computers, I believe you use the Option key instead of the ALT key, but I haven't used an Apple computer in 16 years and haven't owned one in 30 years, so I'll let the Apple crowd weigh in if they would care to. As far as I'm concerned, only The Beatles have the right to use Apple for their company logo -- LOL.

A future post today or tomorrow will introduce you to an easy method to get the secret code for just about any special character you can dream up.

127 - ⌂
128 - Ç
129 - ü
130 - é
131 - â
132 - ä
133 - à
134 - å
135 - ç
136 - ê
137 - ë
138 - è
139 - ï
140 - î
141 - ì
142 - Ä
143 - Å
144 - É
145 - æ
146 - Æ
147 - ô
148 - ö
149 - ò
150 - û
151 - ù
152 - ÿ
153 - Ö
154 - Ü
155 - ¢
156 - £
157 - ¥
158 - ₧
159 - ƒ
160 - á
161 - í
162 - ó
163 - ú
164 - ñ
165 - Ñ
166 - ª
167 - º
168 - ¿
171 - ½
172 - ¼
173 - ¡
174 - «
175 - »
176 - ░
177 - ▒
178 - ▓
179 through 218 were used for making different types of boxes.
219 - █
220 - ▄
221 - ▌
222 - ▐
223 - ▀
224 - α
225 - ß
226 - Γ
227 - π
228 - Σ
229 - σ
230 - µ
231 - τ
232 - Φ
233 - Θ
234 - Ω
235 - δ
236 - ∞
237 - φ
238 - ε
239 - ∩
240 - ≡
241 - ±
242 - ≥
243 - ≤
244 - ⌠
245 - ⌡
246 - ÷
247 - ≈
248 - °
249 and 250 - ∙
251 - √
252 - ⁿ
253 - ²
254 - ■
255 - blank space
256 - not used
257 - ☺
258 - ☻
259 - ♥
260 - ♦
261 - ♣
262 - ♠
263 - •
264 - ◘
265 - ○
266 - ◙
267 - ♂
268 - ♀
269 - ♪
270 - ♫
271 - ☼
272 - ►
273 - ◄
274 and 279 - ↕
275 - ‼
276 - ¶
277 - §
278 - ▬
280 - ↑
281 - ↓
282 - →
283 - ←
284 - ∟
285 - ↔
286 - ▲
287 - ▼

You can keep on going but most of the remaining numbers give you duplicates of what I've given you above. However, you might find a couple of interesting symbols here and there, and adding a leading zero to make it a four-digit code could give you some interesting symbols on your computer or in your software. The codes I've given you above are pretty much universal regardless of what software you are using or what type of computer you have.

So have a ♥ and ☺!

We are ActiveRain!

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Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton

Start planning for tomorrow, today!

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Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None

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Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?

Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?

Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry

Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....

Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child

Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na

Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?

You don't have to be a victim....

Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein

What color is your milk?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story

Free help for Active Rain newbies

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How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog

How do you get people to comment on your blog?

Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners

Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)

Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading

How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

*****************************************

"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

The SECRET To Managing Social Media - Enough Excuses!

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:25:19 -0600

Via Steve Schwartz, Charlotte's Premier Real Estate Videographer and Photographer (AmazingVideoTours.com):

I see it again, and again, and AGAIN! Agents confused by social media and confused by how to manage the time necessary for social media.  They have every excuse in the book NOT to do social media and they want a magic silver bullet to do it for them.

First, WHY Social Media?

If you have any doubts about WHY you should be on Social Networks as a Realtor, consider this. NAR says that baby boomers have (on average) one home buying cycle left. Generation X has (on average) 6 buying cycles left. Generation Y has (on average) 7 buying cycles left.

Now consider the fact that Gen Y'rs spend more than 3 hours per day online on social networks. Hello? Did you see that?   The demographic that will buy the most homes in the future live on these networks! If you plan on being in Real Estate for the foreseeable future, you need to be reaching out to this generation using their media - and by doing it on their terms!

Q: What does that mean, "on their terms"?

A: They DO NOT want to be SOLD to, they want to be ENGAGED!

Second - How to get started?

You want the SECRET? Here it is. Pick 1 or 2 social media platforms. I recommend Twitter and Facebook (in that order). Don't auto post. Don't AUTO POST. Did you see that, don't auto post. That's a short cut - it's a cop out. It's called SOCIAL Networking, not AUTO Networking! It is annoying and your Gen X and Gen Y-rs will see right through it. You can't engage if you are not there! If you want a short cut, here it is .......... don't do it at all.

What are you going to do if someone actually responds to your auto post? You'll never see their inquiry and they'll know it's a bot - and poof, UNfollow you! You will end up alienating the exact audience that you are trying to connect with in the first place. Remember the SOCIAL in social media. It is not something you can do half way. If you auto post your ActiveRain to Twitter, make sure you make these a small fraction of your total tweets.

Third - What to Say?

Social networking is a cocktail party. You wouldn't walk into a cocktail party and spout off your listings or your production for the year, don't do it on Social networking sites. Get in there, be friendly, Listen first, then ENGAGE others!  Sooner or later the conversation (yes, conversation) will turn to what you do for a living. Gently remind them you are a Realtor. Make less then 10% of your updates be about your business. Generally in social networks, no one cares about what you have to say until they know you care about them! When it comes time to call a Realtor, they WILL remember you (the person) not the bot.

Lastly - THE SECRET for managing the time?

Ok, here it is. Get a laptop (or even better, Blackberry or iPhone) and do a lot of your social networking while your watching mindless reality shows. The average American spends over 4 hours per day in front of the TV, but yet everyone's excuse is "not enough time". There is a disconnect there somewhere. Just do it. No excuses! Good Luck!

Oh by the way, when you put in the time and start to build a network, it's just like chatting with old friends. It will not feel like work.

Still think social media is stupid? Read Twitter is Stupid - I don't have time for Twitter

Want help getting started the easy way? Watch the video series, Twitter Made Easy for Business

------------- ©2009 - AmazingVideoTours.com - All Rights Reserved. Amazing Video Tours is Charlotte's Premier Real Estate Videography Provider for Realtors, and other individuals with property to sell, lease, or rent. A departure from the old fashion 360 Virtual Tour, Amazing Video Tours takes online property marketing to the next level.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

UFC 108 - Evans vs. Silva (Light Heavyweight)

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:55:10 -0600

UFC 108 - Evans vs. Silva (Light Heavyweight)

The Evans vs. Silva UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) 108 fight will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, CA on Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 10pm EST / 7pm PST and will be broadcast simultaneously on Pay-Per-View.

Main Card

* Light heavyweight bout: Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva
* Heavyweight bout: Junior dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel
* Lightweight bout: Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig
* Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
* Catchweight bout: Dustin Hazelett vs. Paul Daley

Non-free media use rationale for UFC 108
Description: UFC promotional poster
Source: MMAmania.com
Article: UFC 108
Portion used: Whole
Low resolution? Yes
Purpose of use: To illustrate the event in question
Fair use in UFC 108:
Though this image is subject to copyright, its use is covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:

The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic.
It is a low resolution image, and thus not suitable for production of counterfeit goods.
The poster is not used in such a way that a reader would be confused into believing that the article is written or authorized by the promoter of the event.
It is no replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image of comparable educational value.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Battle of the Cameras Winner: Samsung HMX-U10 HD Ultra Compact Camcorder

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:05:59 -0600

Battle of the Cameras Winner: Samsung HMX-U10 HD Ultra Compact Camcorder

Yesterday, I posted three photos taken with three different cameras and asked viewers to vote on picture quality:

Poll - Rank These 3 Photos From Best To Worst (Battle of the Cameras)

Based on a majority vote, this is the order of cameras from best to worst:

Photo C - Samsung HMX-U10 HD Ultra Compact Camcorder (pictured above)
Photo A - Apple iPhone 3G
Photo B - Casio Exilim EX-S880

Even though I'm in my 90-day trial period with the Samsung (purchased from Costco.com), I think it's a keeper based not only on its photo quality, but also its video quality and portability.

Samsung HMX-U10 HD Camcorder: 1st Review, Photos, Videos

Here is the winning photo it took:

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Poll - Rank These 3 Photos From Best To Worst (Battle of the Cameras)

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:39:44 -0600

Poll - Rank These 3 Photos From Best To Worst (Battle of the Cameras)

I took the same picture with these 3 cameras (photo was taken inside at night, no zoom, no flash):

Casio Exilim EX-S880 Digital Camera
Samsung HMX-U10 HD Camcorder
Apple iPhone 3G Camera

I will identify which camera took which photo later and let you know the winner of the "Battle of the Cameras" in a new blog post.

Here are the photos in random order...please rank them from best (#1) to worst (#3) and leave me a comment!

Photo A

Photo B

Photo C

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Stockton, CA - Oak Park Ice Arena, $5 Ice Skating (Winter Wonderland)

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:38:17 -0600

Stockton, CA - Oak Park Ice Arena, $5 Ice Skating (Winter Wonderland)

Today through Wednesday (December 21-22-23, 2009), Stockton's Oak Park Ice Arena is offering public ice skating sessions for $5, including skate rental.

Here are the details from OakParkIceArena.com:

Winter Wonderland - Public Ice Skating

Dec 21, 2009 (Mon) 1:00 PM

Stockton Arena

Public Ice Skating
1:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Sessions are 50 minutes long and start on the hour with limited space available. Skate sizes are limited and are distributed on a first come first serve basis.

Session 1 - 1:00pm to 1:50pm
Session 2 - 2:00pm to 2:50pm
Session 4 - 4:00pm to 4:50pm
Session 6 - 6:00pm to 6:50pm
Session 7 - 7:00pm to 7:50pm
Session 8 - 8:00pm to 9:00pm (FINAL SESSION)

Tickets

$5.00 - Available at the door.

-$5.00 per person including skate rental.
-$1.00 for children 2 and under and non-skater admission.*
-Groups of 10 or more $3.00 per person including skate rental.*
-Bring a can of non perishable food or a gently used or new coat and receive $2.00 off admission including skate rental!
*The $2 off discount does not apply to the group or non skater pricing.

Additional Information

Sponsored by:
Emergency Food Bank -Stockton/San Joaquin

Oak Park Ice Arena

3545 Alvarado Avenue

Stockton, CA 95204-3504

(209) 937-7432

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Actress Brittany Murphy Dies At Age 32

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:57:12 -0600

Actress Brittany Murphy Dies At Age 32

Here are some fast facts about Brittany Murphy:

Born in Atlanta, Georgia (11/10/1977)
Died in Los Angeles, California (12/20/2009)
Actress, singer, voice artist
Started acting in Hollywood at age 14
Voice of Luanne on King of the Hill in 1997
Dated Ashton Kuchter in 2002
Spokesmodel for Jordache jeans in 2005
Voice of Gloria in Happy Feet in 2006
Married Simon Monjack in 2007
Set to appear in Sylvester Stallone's film The Expendables in 2010

I loved her character Luanne on King of the Hill...especially how she said, "Uncle Hank..." May she rest in peace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Wikipedia:

Brittany Murphy (November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Girl, Interrupted, 8 Mile, Sin City and Riding in Cars with Boys, and performed vocals on a range of films and with dance musician Paul Oakenfold, together garnering a number one dance music hit in the United States in 2006.

At 8:00 a.m. (PST) on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to "a medical request" at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She apparently collapsed in a bathroom. Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene, and she was subsequently transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 a.m. after going into cardiac arrest. Cause of death is yet to be determined, but Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the Associated Press: "It appears to be natural." Full results will not be known until an autopsy is performed, and experts have looked into her medical records and toxicology reports.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Samsung HMX-U10 HD Camcorder: 1st Review, Photos, Videos

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:41:55 -0600

Samsung HMX-U10 HD Camcorder: 1st Review, Photos, Videos

I recently purchased an ultra compact HD camcorder by Samsung from Costco.com and Loreena Yeo left a comment for me, asking if I had made any videos using it yet...so I'd like to thank her for being the inspiration of this blog post!

LIKES:

Size - It's the perfect size for a handheld camcorder (2.2" W x 4.06" H x 0.61" D).
Weight - At 3.4 ounces, it's so much lighter than my digital camera!
Color - I love red! This one's best described as a matte metallic jewel-tone ruby red.
Video Quality - Wow...after taking digital camera quality videos, this is a HUGE improvement!!! If you'd like to compare the quality, just visit my YouTube Channel and watch my previous (non-HD) videos. Ugh! :)

DISLIKES:

No flash - I still haven't tested the video in low light conditions (camcorders typically don't come with flash anyway), but the low light photos came out better than I expected!
No zoom - When you take HD video in the highest resolution/setting, there is no zoom available. I haven't tried the lower settings yet.

TBD:

Photo quality - Although the photos seem to be better quality than my iPhone photos, I don't think they're as good as those I take with my digital camera. In all fairness, I should take the same photo with all three devices before I make a decision! Here are a couple I took on a cloudy day almost at sundown:

Here are a couple videos I took as well in the same conditions and highest settings with no zoom, unedited:

Since Costco has a 90-day return policy on their electronics, I will continue to use this Samsung HD camcorder and see if it's something I want to keep. I probably will, based on the fact that it's extremely portable, takes clear videos (the slight choppiness I noticed may be videographer error?) and for the low $100's I think it's just worth keeping for being able to take short video clips and share them on YouTube.

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"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC

Remote Little Valley Village

Souza Realty - California (Lots & Land, Custom Construction) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:31:30 -0600

Via Richard T Dolbeare (RA), ABR, CRS, RSPS, BS/MS - Engineering Hawaii Dreams Today (Keller Williams Realty):

[If picture does not show, hit your browser refresh button]

Nearly Inaccessible Kahakuloa Village on Maui's coastline. Population ~ 100.

Aloha!

Search Kauai/Big Island | Search Maui | Email | About Me | Visit Website | Phone/Text (808) 651-4550

Engineering Hawaii Dreams Today--Helping Buyers Find Dream Homes & Sellers Find Buyers

Visit www.KauaiRocks.comfor Hawaii real estate information

*****************************************

"We Dream. We Design. We Build."

Bob Souza & Leilani Souza, CRS, e-PRO, TRC