This weekend a pretty interesting article came out, stating that Apple is “done” (according to teenagers). Stating that their parents get the best Apple products and dish the older and less attractive Apple products to their teens. So what do teenagers do? Resort to colorful Windows products or for an Android tablet. At least that’s what the research shows.

CNET apparently believes that what is cool actually matters. I know quite a few teenagers who own Apple products that are actually joining some of the adults and building the technology world, not just playing with it. The site lists teenagers as “future adults”, hinting that Apple’s future is at stake because these people will continue to play the way they are. I used a PC when I was a teenager too, LOL. I happen to be an adult now, and decided to upgrade over the years

All this article does for me is reassures me that it’s true, there are technology nurseries and sandboxes out there where people who aren’t mature enough to build something with more than legos are still sucking on their pacifiers and building castles in the sand.

Wake up, CNET (and Microsoft). When life actually happens, people rely on Apple to accomplish things that move us forward. That pay the bills. Just because something is cool, doesn’t mean it’s attractive. When you have clients, want to put your creativity to use, or decide to graduate out of elementary, I guarantee Apple will be there waiting for you. Have fun drooling all over your bib, LOL.

P.S. This coming from an avid MacBook Air user who happens to have switched from iPhone to the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S3. It’s just “as cool” as the iPhone, believe me.

I had a client today that wanted to move their email list, of maybe 1,000 addresses, over from Aweber to Constant Contact (sign up for a FREE 60 day trial). The process was pretty simple. Aweber allows you to export your list as a CSV file, and Constant Contact allows you to import the list very easily. The only problem? Aweber stored each subscriber’s name as one Full Name instead of separating the name into First Name and Last Name, the method Constant Contact uses.

I don’t use Apple’s Numbers software (their much better alternative to Microsoft Excel – available for just $20 in the Mac App Store), but I knew a little bit of time was going to be spent in there today. It took me a while to figure out how to take the opened CSV file and break the Full Name column into both First Name and Last Name. In the end, the steps to make that happen were so simple that I was kind of shocked more people had shared the process online.

Before you do anything, I recommend making a copy of the original CSV file and editing your copy. Just in case!

Assuming your combined Full Name is in Column A:
TO EXTRACT FIRST NAME FROM FULL NAME COLUMN A, the formula you would use is:
=IF(NOT(ISBLANK(A)), IFERROR(LEFT(A,FIND(” “,A)), A), “”)

TO EXTRACT LAST NAME FROM FULL NAME COLUMN A, the formula you would use is:
=IF(NOT(ISBLANK(A)), IFERROR(RIGHT(A,LEN(A)-FIND(” “,A)), “”),”")

INSTRUCTIONS:
You would want to create a new column for the first name, click on the first cell (in the new column, to the right of the full name in column A) and paste the formula for First Name above. Like me, you’ll then be confused about how to apply that formula to the entire column (the rest of the 999 names that aren’t yet separated). You’ll see a small circle on the bottom right of the box when you select the first name that gets created after entering the formula. Click and drag that small circle down the rest of the new column, and you will see every first name from column A separate and move over. Repeat this same process for Last Name in another name column, using the second formula listed above.

Hope this saves you a good 45 minutes, after I wasted them today trying to figure this out, LOL.

I would include Google+ in this tutorial, but as usual, Google made it easy from day one (unlike Twitter and Facebook) by asking you to easily organize people into groups (circles). I’ve found that a good amount of people are confused with how to filter out the chaos and build relationships online using Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully this tutorial is helpful if you’ve ever felt that way!

Social media, when I think it is used best, is social. You would think that would be obvious, but we all have “those friends” online that never join in on our conversations. I prefer to label them “Captain Me Planet” or “Me Monsters” (thanks to Brian Regan’s comedy piece below).

So, how do you not miss updates from those friends who actually do care what you have to say? Here’s how I have started to narrow that gap, and have built better friendships online. It doesn’t take lots of time, and might seem almost too simple, but give it a shot and let me know if it works just as well for you?

LISTENING BETTER USING FACEBOOK

Create an Interest List. I labeled mine “I am a fan of these people”. Obviously, you’ll have to be friends with the person first. To add them to your interest list, just click their name when you see a status update (go to their wall), and click the gear / drop-down arrow to the right of the Friends and Message buttons and select “Add to Interest List”.

What I’ve done is bookmarked that page in my browser, and I typically visit it more than I visit the general Facebook Wall. If you’re ready to hear even more from the person, roll over the Friends button on their page and add them to a list Facebook has created for all of us – called “Close Friends”. You’ll start receiving alerts whenever they post.

LISTENING BETTER USING TWITTER

Create a list on Twitter (step-by-step instructions may be read here). Like I did above with Facebook, I’ve labeled mine “I am a fan of these people”. Unlike Facbeook, you may add people to this list even if you don’t follow them. When you see a tweet of theirs and decide to add them to the list, click their name (will popup a window with their profile and a few recent tweets) and then click the person icon to the right of the follow button to add them to the list. You may see your set of lists by clicking the person icon at the top-right of your Twitter page.

And again, like I did with Facebook, I’ve bookmarked this list and also visit it more frequently than I do  Twitter’s homepage (tweets from everyone).

Enjoy! Don’t feel pressured to add me to your lists, but here are my Facebook and Twitter profiles if you do

After using Google+ (connect with me here) for a little while, and with invites to the social network now being available, it will be interesting seeing the network grow over the next few weeks. Facebook didn’t have growing pains like Google is having to deal with back in their first weeks of launching in 2004. That should say something of the future success of the network. I thought I’d just state a few VERY simple and obvious reasons that I think Google+ will succeed without a doubt. They might be helpful, they might be annoyingly simple. But I believe they are why Facebook will most likely be left behind.

Reason #1 – SEARCH
The world searches using Google. The word search is often replaced by the word Google, that’s how much the service is used. Content-heavy websites (CNN for example) utilize Google Search on their own websites, allowing you to search the site for specific keywords or phrases. There just is no other search engine that competes.

Reason #2 – EMAIL
Most of the world uses Google’s Gmail services to send and receive email messages, and the majority of those people have the important info (phone, address, email, URL, etc.) stored as a Gmail Contact…….it’s their 21st century Rolodex.

Reason #3 – MAPS
When people need directions these days, or want to find a business, they’ll pull up Google Maps on their computer or smartphone. We’ve seen Facebook do a nice job with organizations – I know my employer counts on its Facebook page for communication as much or more than our website. Imagine if Facebook would have started off out of the blocks with Maps and business listings already stored like Google has. I think there’s a bright future for businesses that are listed on Google, and I’m sure we’ll see parts of that rolled out in the coming weeks.

It’s just this simple……Google is where the internet lives for the three necessities listed above, not on Facebook. If you’re using other services for any of these necessities, you should probably think about switching. So why wouldn’t you want to interact with your friends on a network that is tied to the same services they’re using for the necessities? From how it’s looking, it’s much easier for a social network to get going when they have a foundation and respect like Google does. It might seem impossible, but I don’t think it will take them 7 years to get to 750 million users (Facebook stat from last week) when they’ll likely top 10 million already this weekend.

If you’re not on the network yet, feel free to contact me using the email address you’d like to receive the invite with. You’ll be glad you did.

Were these reasons too simple? Do they make sense? Are there other Google services you think are solid enough for people to consider using?

If you don’t own a smartphone, this post might not interest you. If you do, you should head over to Square and pick up one of their free smartphone credit card readers for free. Or if you’re an Apple fan and are in one of their stores, you can now pick one up for $9.95. Sounds like a scam, right? Lots of people are confused / upset with Apple over this, but they didn’t take the time to read further on the product page and realize that you actually get a $10 credit with the purchase of the reader (you earn a nickel by making the purchase).

I was able to finally put my reader to use this past week, selling crafts with my wife and kids – raising money to return to Cambodia (and take our 3 girls). The transaction went through without a hitch. I read further (after being curious about how it worked) and it appears that the microphone picks up the audio, sends it through the processors and then is routed to Square’s software application on the device (encrypted and no data is stored locally).

So, here’s my question. Is your church going to be the first to get rid of their tithing baskets and start accepting gifts via smartphones (with Square reader attached)? Dave Ramsey might not think this is a great idea, but the number of families who don’t carry cash are growing almost as fast as the families cancelling their cable / satellite and going with web-based or over-the-air digital television.

Maybe churches could have a few of the devices available in their lobby for accepting tithing before or after the service. Would this kind of tithing work for you / your church?

EDIT: After reading through the comments, I am now curious if Square will find a way for the reader to work with apps of NPO’s or other charities? Wouldn’t it be great to open up the site / app of an organization you’d like to make a donation and donate using the reader?