I finally picked up an iPad the other day and I was weighing my options on how to protect it. I ended up picking up the Griffin iPad Screen Care Kit for about $20 at Walmart. I’ve used screen protectors before on my iPhone so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Before you read the rest of this post, the bottom line can be summed up in a few words – “do not buy this product”.

The package came with a blue cleaning cloth and the screen protector film in a separate bag. I started off by cleaning the iPad screen as thoroughly as possible. I used the included blue cleaning cloth as well as a photo lens cloth and an air duster. The process to apply the screen protector film was removing the film’s backing and carefully applying it to one side of the screen. Then I worked my way to the other side of the screen applying pressure to the film to evenly place it onto the iPad.

To my dismay the result was less than stellar. There were a ton of air bubbles stuck underneath the film and despite my best efforts I could not rub them out or push them out the edges. My next best alternative was to reapply the film…this was a fatal mistake. As I pulled up the film, some additional dust and floating air particles got onto the screen and film. Once anything gets onto the film, you can’t get it off. I tried using the air duster, papers, and finally my fingers. Each successive attempt to remove the dust proved to make it worse.

In the end, the product was unusable and had to be thrown in the trash. $20 wasted and motivation to let the world know to avoid this product.

Packing up my suitcase and getting ready to head up to SF for the SES conference. I’m looking forward to several of the sessions and getting immersed in some new concepts. It’s going to be a nice break from the day-to-day challenges of work and feel more like b-school again. I’m curious to hear more about about the future of search, social, and how they’ll overlap in the future. If you’re heading to the conference, drop me a line or comment….

Cyber Monday, albeit with conflicting statistics, seems to have outperformed 2007.  comScore has stated that sales were 15% better. Nielson claims that shopping sites within its retail index saw 10% increased traffic from last year. It did say that top 500 retail sites were down 1% of traffic though. Among the winners seems to have been Amazon, which saw a 21% year over year growth in traffic, and according to Hitwise had 10.77% off all US traffic on Cyber Monday.

So is the 2008 Holiday retail sales doomed as predicted or has Cyber Monday shown a silver lining? I don’t envision death to retail but then again I also don’t see a Holiday season of anything better than flat growth. According to comScore, the Holiday Shopping is down by 2% overall including Cyber Monday.  As consumers become more Internet savvy, I’m really not surprised that overall internet traffic has picked up.  But I think most of this traffic growth is due to media’s influence of reporting huge deals by struggling retailers and consumers willingness to scour for deals and coupons.

Most of the deals this Holiday season seem to be 20% or 25% off with free shipping for Internet retailers. There seems to be a proliferation of these deals that are being remarketed as something new every week.  Not a bad option for those new 2009 clothing lines, sporting goods, or small electronics.  However, if you are in the market for anything larger, like the flat screen TV that I’m waiting for, I would be holding tight and waiting for the January clearance.

Well it’s sure been a long hiatus since my last blog post – a lot of things have happened.

In May, I completed my MBA education at USC Marshall School of Business, having graduated with Beta Gamma Sigma honors.

In July, I married my girlfriend of five years and got to honeymoon in Belize.  I also started my current job as Internet Marketing Manager at LAMPS PLUS.

In August & September, I got accustomed to post-MBA and newly-married life.   I’ve learned that the flexibility of school hours really is something special.  I’ve also learned that being flexible in marriage is also special.

In  October & November, most weekends were busy with attending other weddings and weekend trips (Joshua Tree, San Francisco, New York). All fun but time-consuming.

Now, that I’ve gotten settled back into the swing of things restarting my blog postings was on the top of my list.  Now with this posting, I can officially cross that task off my list.

Stay tuned for more commentary and thoughts on Marketing, the Internet, and more.

Uploaded a few new and more recent pieces of artwork to my online gallery.  Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to throw up some more while finishing up my MBA.  Enjoy!