4G in France on my iPad

Being on Bouygues Telecom’s prepaid means real 4G/LTE with my iPad Air 2. The experience is quick and responsive. Running the Gmail application, the Chrome browser or Safari yields rapid page loading. Services like Spotify sound great, and having 4G on the iPad sure comes in handy when hotel broadband slows down. I’ve even tethered … Read more

Decouvertes Vins Rhone My Thoughts on What to Buy

Having spent the last few days here in the Rhone Valley, tasting wines at Decouvertes du Rhone an the many "Offs" events, I have a few observations to help those not here on their buying strategy. The 2014 Rose wines are stunning. Chene Bleu's just bottled Rose is a killer, so are the usual suspects from Domaine La … Read more

Music Junkies Have Our Fix

I've been a music junkie in need of a fix since I was in 3rd grade. It was 1969 and I joined the Record Club of America and voila, the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers, Led Zeppelin III, Jesus Christ Superstar arrived and my world was never the same. As time went on my vinyl collection … Read more

Decouvertes Vins Rhone Here I Come

Every two years I travel to France to attend a key wine industry event, Decouvertes Vins Rhone. It's an event I have been attending as far back as my days as the Del Mar Time's Wine Critic, as it provided an advance look at what the recent vintages in the Rhone would be delivering well before … Read more

Say Goodbye To Credit Card Declines

Let’s face it, we’ve all had credit card transactions declined even though we were nowhere near our limits. Usually it has to do with location, as that’s one of the factors that the credit card issuing companies and banks love to use to detect fraud. But, when you’re actually the person who is the cardholder … Read more

At Marriott Hotels Broadband is a Myth

I'm in West Palm Beach at one of Marriott's Courtyard by Marriott properties. Years ago their saying when they first introduced this mid priced, business person's oriented property line which transformed the hotel industry was "Designed by Business Travelers, For Business Travelers" because Marriott actually spent time asking the business traveler, who up until then … Read more

Are Hotels The Same As ISPs?

Marriott, which is still backpedaling from their $600,000 fine from the FCC for blocking users of Mi-Fi's at their Nashville area Gaylord Resort and Conference Center, is now in the process of introducing content from providers like Netflix, Hulu and Pandora right to guest room tv's. For a fee. This begs the question, are retailers, … Read more

Will AliBaba Do With DingTalk What eBay Didn’t With Skype?

AliBaba, the Chinese eCommerce giant has launched a social business communications service called DingTalk in Beta (Translation required) bringing back memories of what eBay hoped to and failed to do with Skype.  The dream back when Skype was acquired by the online marketplace pioneer was to connect the business to business ecosystem that powered it … Read more