Every day students and parents of all ages are learning about a new professional option for their sons and daughters interested in technology – a career as a Mindovo Advisor, the missing technology professional! In this brief video meet Trevor Talbot, a 7th grader from Washburne School in Winnetka, IL, during his recent visit to the Mindovo Winnetka office for his school sponsored “Shadow Day.”

This month marks the official kick off of the Mindovo Fellowship Program organized in conjunction with Michigan Technological University. Our inaugural fellows are Eric Johnson (left) and Adam Wenneman (right). Both MTU students receive college credit for working at Mindovo during their six month fellowships.

While we have been fortunate to have top notch interns in the past (two of whom went on to attend Harvard College – Hana Bajramovic and Matt McCambridge both of New Trier High School) the Mindovo Fellowship represents a significant expansion in our work with university students. Their extended study in residence gives them a unique opportunity to explore what a career as a Mindovo Advisor might be like while retaining their full time student status.

Tony Mars, Mindovo founder and CEO, commented, “We’re thrilled to have these top students working and studying with us. Becoming a Mindovo Advisor is a completely new professional option to consider and there is nothing like real world experience to see what its all about before deciding where to head after college.”

Mindovo will be on campus at MTU this coming February 2011 for the entire week of the career fair interviewing candidates for both full time positions and co-op fellowships.

Yesterday, August 10th, Mindovo turned 11 years old! As always, we’re celebrating with freely flowing chocolate milk and birthday cake at our office in Winnetka.

Having just completed the first full year of our second decade, Mindovo is on a rapid growth trajectory as we continue to expand our team of technology experts. We’ve recently added two new advisors and are currently recruiting and training to meet client demand.

We love what we do and couldn’t be more thrilled to roar into our second decade with the fresh energy of a growing team. Thank you so much for your continued support.

If you have yet to experience the Mindovo difference please feel free to drop us a line – we’d love to chat about making all the technology in your life easier and more fun to use!

Last week we headed out to Lollapalooza 2010 to take a break from all of the world’s technology and enjoy some good music, food, and friends. But that darn technology followed us! It’s everywhere these days.

In the middle of a hot, humid, and sun baked day Sony’s dark, air conditioned tent filled with shiny gadgets was just too enticing to resist. Aside from refuge from the heat, Sony was handing out brand new Bloggie HD Camcorders for all Lolla-goers to play with during their musical revelry. So, of course, we grabbed one and took it for a spin.

Since Sony replaced the Webbie with the Bloggie it has gone through a significant amount of physical change that borrows heavily from the Flip by Cisco. Despite this hipper design sensibility the Bloggie is unfortunately more awkward to use than a single use, purpose built device should be. The controls were hard to use and the menu structure was not very clear. Moreover, videos shot with the Bloggie were very jumpy and less refined than you would expect from a camcorder that claims “HD” quality.

Unfortunately, for Sony the concerts were great but the Bloggie was not.

Following Apple’s release of the flawed iPhone 4 we took a very close look at Google’s competing Android platform by testing the new HTC EVO 4G available from Sprint.

The first thing most people say when we tell them we’ve tested the “Google Android HTC Sense EVO 4G on Sprint” is “what!?” Yes, it is a mouth full when compared to the much simpler “Apple iPhone on AT&T.” Unfortunately, the complexity of the name is an abt metaphor for our experience with the device.

Deciphering the Name

We’ll start by explaining the name. Google builds a smart phone operating system known as Android. HTC is a device manufacturer that builds smart phone hardware that runs Google’s Android operating system. We tested Android version 2.1. This is a lot like the PC industry. Microsoft builds the Windows operating system and other manufacturers like Dell and HP build the hardware.

“Sense” is a custom user interface designed by HTC that sits atop the Android operating system. Essentially, Android is a bare bones interface that appeals mostly to tech savvy users so third parties like HTC, Motorola, and Dell have built their own custom user interface to make Android more appealing for a general audience. The trouble with this approach is that every Android device works a little bit differently depending upon who manufactures the handset.

“Evo 4G” is the model name of the phone we tested and it is built by HTC. Tired yet? It gets more complicated. The “4G” stands for the “fourth generation” data network built by Sprint which gives your cell phone very high speed access to the Internet that is equivalent to what you get at home if you have a cable modem from Comcast or TimeWarner. This replaces the “3G” network and is the first phone in the United States to offer this higher speed capability. The iPhone 4, by comparison, still uses the 3G network (despite the “4″ in its name).

Call Quality

The call quality on the EVO 4G (our short hand name for the device) was respectable. It wasn’t particularly good but also not as noticeably poor as on the iPhone 4. We would like to see a lot more attention paid by device makers to the call quality of smart phones but unfortunately most of the development energy is going into the handheld computing capabilities of smart phones instead of into their function as a phone.

Data Speeds & Performance

We tested the EVO 4G’s high speed data network in Chicago – the first major American city with a 4G network (sorry New York and LA). 4G coverage in downtown Chicago and the Northwestern suburbs was excellent. However, coverage along Chicago’s North Shore including villages like Winnetka and Glencoe was either terrible or completely non-existant. Sprint says they are expanding coverage continuously but when these areas will finally receive proper coverage is anyone’s guess.

When in range of the 4G signal, data speeds were impressive both on the device and on laptops and tablets connected to it via the “hotspot” feature we’ll discuss below. Unfortunately, use of 4G inside buildings is rather poor and driving while a passenger used the EVO resulted in lots of 4G data drops and reversion to the 3G network – which is available wherever 4G is not.

Hotspot

As alluded to above, the EVO 4G can create a hotspot that provides a wireless Internet signal for computers and other WiFi capable devices wherever you are – in your car, in a hotel room, at the airport, or anywhere else. If you have a wireless network in your home or office or if you’ve ever used the Internet at a cafe you’re probably familiar with a hotspot. This feature worked flawlessly in our tests and was very easy to turn on and off. We wish the iPhone had this capability but AT&T’s stressed network most likely wouldn’t be able to handle the additional data volume generated by such a feature.

When 4G coverage extends to more college campuses across the U.S. we could definitely see this as a complete communication solution for students who live a highly mobile life. Rather than paying for cable TV and wired Internet access in an apartment an Android phone equipped with this 4G hotspot feature and a truly unlimited data plan would provide an all-in-one phone, Internet, and entertainment solution at considerable cost savings.

Internet Browser

Compared to most smart phone browsers the Android browser is excellent. However, compared to the iPhone’s browser, Android still has lots of work to do. Scrolling on the Android browser is noticeably jerky and jumpy. Zooming into text and photos is also much less smooth than on the iPhone. This may seem like a small point but it is representative of Android’s overall lack of fit and finish when compared to the iPhone.

Apps

We were surprised by the number of high quality apps in the Android Marketplace. Apps are third party software applications – “apps” for short – that add functionality to the device. Third parties like Facebook make apps that interface with their service and make the phone more powerful.

While most of the major services that have iPhone apps are now also making Android apps the Android Marketplace is not as large as that of Apple’s iTunes App Store. We also noticed in our testing that the overall quality and feature power of Android apps was generally lower than apps made by those same third parties for the iPhone. This gap is likely to close over time but it is presently a significant drawback. New apps and features are also generally introduced for the iPhone first and then for Android several months later which can be frustrating.

Widgets

Widgets are a very solid Android-only feature that has no equivalent on the iPhone or other mobile operating systems. Widgets bring the functionality of certain apps or native phone features up to the surface for faster access. A perfect example of this is the music app. Rather than tapping an iPod or MP3 Player app icon to open the music app you simply tap the “play” button within the music player widget and your playlist starts up right where you left off.

With further refinement Android widgets could be a very significant competitive advantage.

Google Voice

Google wants to be your telephone provider. All Android phones come with the Google Voice service tightly integrated in a way that Apple has not allowed on the iPhone. Google Voice allows you to have a single phone number you use to simultaneously ring all of the other numbers in your life. Voice mail messages and text messages can also be forwarded straight into your email inbox which makes managing all of life’s various inputs much simpler.

Google Navigator

For most of the “super” smart phone era the iPhone map app powered by Google Maps has reigned supreme on mobile devices. However, Google has developed an enhanced navigation app around its map data. It is available for free on Android-powered phones and vastly exceeds the capabilities of the iPhone by providing voice navigation and other interface goodies equivalent to expensive iPhone apps like TomTom.

Bottom Line

Although we were impressed with the data speeds and large gorgeous screen of the EVO 4G, HTC Sense’s user interface design, and the variety of apps available from third parties we were left with the clear impression that Android is almost there – but not quite yet. When it comes to competing with the fit and finish of the iPhone, as well as Apple’s highly integrated app and iTunes media ecosystem, Android-based smart phones simply do not offer as compelling a user experience at the same (and sometimes higher) price point.

If you are anti-Apple, anti-AT&T, or are a hard core techie who loves to fiddle with the guts of your gadgets then the Google Android is your best bet and the EVO 4G is a solid option within the Android world. However, for everyone else, the iPhone 3GS (not the iPhone 4) is still the way to go. That, however, may not be so clearly true for much longer given the soon-to-be released Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft and Google’s highly anticipated release of Android 3.0.

Yesterday, Amazon announced the upcoming August 27th release of its new Kindle 3 reading device.

The “Kindle” is one part hardware (the Kindle device) and one part cross platform software (Kindle apps). This means you can use the Kindle software running on the Kindle hardware that is made and sold by Amazon.com or you can skip the hardware and use only the Kindle apps that are made for the PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Android platforms.

Yesterday’s announcement pertains to the third generation of Amazon-built Kindle hardware which now comes in classic white or new graphite. The device is purported to be thinner, lighter, and more compact than the previous generation. It is also available for a much lower price than previous models at $139 for the WiFi model or $189 for the 3G/WiFi model.

Amazon is hoping that owners of popular tablets like the iPhone and iPad will purchase the new Kindle device for long reading sessions due to its lighter weight and e-ink display which can be read in bright light with reduced eye strain when compared to backlit screens.

A feature known as “Whispersync” allows a reader to keep the furthest read position within all of their books synced across all of their authorized devices/apps, as well as their highlights and annotations.

Alternatives to the Kindle include the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Borders Kobo reader, the Sony Reader, and Apple’s iBookstore. However, none of these competing alternatives are as fully developed or offer the extensive cross platform support of the Kindle app ecosystem.

Above: Tony Mars (right) with TEDFellow Frederick Balagadde (left) at the Grand party, TEDGlobal 2010. Oxford, UK, July 12-16, 2010. Photo Credit: Robert Leslie / TED

Earlier this month Mindovo founder and TEDxChicago curator, Tony Mars, attended the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford. He was out and about working hard to learn the ways of TED first hand in order to bring the best of TED’s unique culture and experience back to Chicago!

Consumer Reports has now joined Mindovo in declining to recommend the iPhone 4 until the widely documented “design flaw” in the antenna is fixed by Apple.

Mindovo is excited to welcome Kaari Nevanen to our fast growing team of technology advisors. Kaari was originally scheduled to start with Mindovo in late September of this year but our continued growth required her arrival a full four months early.

Kaari comes to Mindovo from Michigan Technological University where she graduated at the top of her class – first as a mechanical engineer and then as an MBA. During her time at MTU she went from a walk-on with the MTU Women’s Volleyball team to full scholarship, team captain.

Michigan Technological University is home to some of the most brilliant technology minds of our generation who are actively recruited by NASA, Toyota, GM, and the NSA among others. To successfully recruit a candidate of Kaari’s quality is an exciting moment of growth for Mindovo as we look to expand our world class team and deliver service to our clients at the highest possible level.

Kaari can be reached at kaarinevanen@mindovo.com