Buzzer Beaters

These are new products from companies that have waited till all their major competitors have launched their products and done their marketing to open up new markets or that have leaked or released the specs and secrets of their products to then quickly modify their product. Then they come out hoping to steal everyone’s thunder by one-upping the leaders. We call companies who use this strategy as a key tactic “buzzer beaters”.

Some leading Asian companies use this as a means of entering promising markets without risking coming out too early with a new product or being out developed or designed.

 

 

Bits & Bytes 4/8/13

There are a few wrinkles creating waves of change in the world of technology.

Bits and Bytes:

  • Facebook Home generates excitement and overpricing complaints
  • Samsung to unleash a new 8″ HD Galaxy Tablet soon.
  • Chinese company to sue Apple over SIRI
  • Excitement builds over Sony Experia A
  • Google working extra hard to Make Google Glass “COOL”
  • T-Mobile is trying to change the traditional carrier business.
  • Apple iPhone demand increases and pushes it back to the top spot.
  • Law suits again on the rize internationally.
  • Samsung talks up Galaxy Note 8.0 to cover all bases
  • Facebook spends ad money on Facebook Home promotion

Tired of all the Smartwatch Rumors

Everyday some company or other leaks that they MAY produce a Smart watch. The latest comes out of Motorola. Last week we heard grumblings from Apple, Samsung, and Google.
Much of this grows out of the high expectations set for People that have yet to be fully realized although last we heard of manufacturing and shipping estimates.

It would not be foolish to think that there are smart watch skunk works projects being carried out in the labs of every aggressive computer company.

If they take the watch as a platform approach and inspire developers to design and build upon it it can happen, big time.

It will be a new when a high quality product actually makes it onto our wrists. Many bet that Apple will soon move to dominate this new space as soon they shoehorn iOS into an innovative smart watch form factor. In the meantime some analysts are certain that unless Apple move quickly or Pepple proves to be dominate others will soon beat them to the party and eat their lunch.

 

Bits and Bytes: Feb. 25, 2013

We are on the very verge of yet another major mobility industry trade show promising to change everything and introduce totally new devices.

Bits and Bytes:

  • The Mobile World Conference rampup is on
  • HTC One: an exceptional if not superior new smartphone
  • Apple iPhone rises back to the top of the heap
  • International Hack attacks are running rampant
  • Google Glass expected to get real in 2013
  • Market seriously hesitant on  and wary of
  • Samsung targets ipad mini with new Note 8.0 tablet nun
  • Windows offerings, its so yesterday

More to come..

The Informed Consumer

We are in the age and era of the highly-connected and well-informed consumer.

This is a time when markets gravitate to the best available products and push to the curb others that do not manage to innovate or elevate themselves. As newly emerging trends demand ever more new devices and apps the opportunity for brilliance is greater than ever before. There are so many ways and roads to a hit that the level of pure genius now available should be channeled in new ways towards efforts that raise the bar and move the needle.

Kickstarter is one new and more popular and  important ways to get raw innovation out there.

The other component of our modern ecosystem is the well-connected consumer. He/she has more options and alternatives than ever before. They can easily and quickly hunt price, capability, and sources in one fell swoop.

Yahoo: Rebirth of the Personalizd Portal

Yahoo has finally bravely launched its redesigned homepage. The new page turns out to be a little more familiar than some had hoped for. It actally harkens back to where things left off for Yahoo, Alta Vista and other former leaders that followed the Portal path off into the weeds of obscurity.

Yahoo’s redesigned page includes mobile versions, At first glance one might conclude that this new look is not such a major overhaul or departure. Those of us with a longer jaded perspective see an updated personalized portal approach with content continually updated and refreshed. If Yahoo’s goal is to gives users all the information they want or need, they have done some of that. Although that ultimate goal is near unattainable.

It is not very disruptive nor innovative and does little that you cannot find on olternative sevices. Noticeable new features include infinite scrolling. Also included are new user controls allowing Yahoo users to remove news items they don’t like and features that learn one’s reading habits and interests. There is also a set of utilities/gadgets (weather, finance, sports info, featured videos and Flickr photos).

Pundits and journalists see this new-look Yahoo homepage as dynamic. Yahoo might now have instant appeal to “Newbie” users. However, the real question for the industry is whether this redesign is actually enough to attract new users or draw web viewers back to Yahoo!

I found it amusing that one journalist called it a paint job, another called it a snow job. I think what it is rhymes with snow job. But hey what do I know?

Time will tell.

HTC tosses a Hail Mary Touchdown

THE AGE OF COMEBACKS?

The Smartphone arena just got a little more interesting thanks to HTC’s new HTC One smartphone.

It is almost impossible to believe that HTC may have successfully thrown a fourth-quarter “hail Mary” touchdown in the form of their new HTC One. Reviewers are tripping all over themselves piling up praise over it. Some are saying it tops both the iPhone and best of Samsung all in one fell swoop. If true then the fate of HTC is renewed. Things were looking bleek and fortunes were fading and back they come. This is a hint to other companies having issues that what they need to do to get back or stay in the game is to ramp up and innovate and offer superior designed products.
We knew Apple did’nt have a monopoly on brains but some acted as if such was the case. Now we are shown differently.

Congratulations to HTC,
WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST

Half-assed Apps

What I have noticed is that this whole mobility ecosystem is plagued through and through with a multitude of half-assed incomplete and often non functional apps that in no way deliver on their promise nor accomplish what they claim to do. We waste countless hours trying to reign them in and make them do what we need.
Try as we might they do not nor cannot satisfy our ever increasing need for robust apps that actually work.
Even the simplest apps are insufficient to do even the most mundane of functions. I am almost tempted to declare that quality programming is a lost art.

Slowing Smartphone Adoption

I am of the firm opinion that the reason we are seeing a drastic slow up in the publics adoption of Smart phones is the recent surge in small powerful tablets. Folks may opt for bigger Smartphones but many are aware that a 4, 7, or 10 inch tablet is a much better web experience than surfing on a phone anyway. Besides other than calls from friends and family most calls are marketing crap anyway. Tablets can do much more and you don’t pay highly inflated prices to mercenary carriers that clearly don’t have your best interests in mind. Sure you need broadband, but that is essential anyway so why pay more for spotty cellular phone access.
When VOIP becomes universally available to tablets phones can go away and disappear into the background as a separate device.
I am waiting for Microsoft to pull out their Skype big stick to justify their phone/tablet offerings.

Get Out in Front of Problems

Some run from problems trying to avoid them altogether. The latest thinking is that one should get out in front of problems to contain, react, or respond to challenges.

Some see problems as opportunities. A chance to improve your process to work around or through something that threatens to stall your progress. In every problem there lies lessons. The keen observer can see through to new ways and alternate paths to even higher goals. It is a fact that many if not most of the greatest innovations result from accident. This does not mean screwing up on purpose, rather it means that you shouldn’t let the hiccup slow you down nor stop you. Be agile enough to “stick and move”.

MacWorld 2013

mwiw-logo-hp

What is this MacWorld in February crap? It was not so very long ago that attending MacWorld in early January MacWorld was the destination of my yearly pilgramage to San Francisco. Even when I lived far away in West Africa or when l limped around on a cane from a stroke I made it a point to stop in at MacWorld back to be bathed in the flow of things Mac.

In the last 5 or 6 years this once-hearalded tradeshow was the very best of the bunch and for us Mac fanatics almost approaching a religious experiece like a Hajj to Mecca. Now it has faded into the background in importance and impact to the technology industry. It has almost become an afterthought of an event which I almost forgot about which is sad.

I am also confused by the renaming of MacWorld as “iWorld:The Ultimate iFan Event”. Who thought tat up?

MacWorld’s decline actually started back when when Apple pulled out as a corporate sponsor. The facilitators valiently have managed to keep it going but each year it has been more and more evident that things are not the same nor will they ever be. CES which was getting upstaged annually by MacWorld has subsequently stepped into the void and after their own decline has arisen to greater importance and promanance. the rest is history.

Well its all over now and MacWorld 2013 is a wrap. MacWorld 2013 offered up a few answers and clues to Apple’s development pipeline.

MacWorld 2013  featured hundreds of Apple product and accessory manufacturers and solution developers that showed their wares to thousands of new and longtime Apple users and loyal fans and ollowers. It wasn’t quite the event it used to be but it is more than adequate for a changing time and industry very much in flux.

Digital Snake Oil

snake-oil-bottle-cropped-label

The new frontier for scammers has been uncovered!

Healthcare especially the alternative variety has quickly become the territory of conmen and crooks that don’t care how much damage they inflict on others even the sick and feeble. They have figured out ways to lure in unsuspecting victims into wild schemes and useless remedies for every type of malady known to man or beast.

It may have found its zenieth most recently when magnets were pushed as be all- cure alls promising miracle healing properties that seemed to far fetched to believe. But believe them we did and we snatched up braclets, insoles, and clothing embedded with magnets aplenty.

Now technology may indeed have the potential to help us get and stay healthy. Healt aids were even a hot topic at CES 2013.

We should tread very carefully into technology for healh. The potential for dssaster is enormous and the effects could cause harm. Planting false hope in bogus cures and bullshit remedies is the new Digital Snake Oil. The practioneers don’t ride around in covered wagons. Folks that reach so low are doomed to the circles of Hell. They reach out online targeting the weak, desparate and challenged. These slime masters infest our social networks overload our email accounts with spam and place misleading info on sites trying to help. There is no longer form of life

Microsoft Office 2013: Application as a Service!

When things charge and a solution almost becomes outdated and obsolete rather than develop and offer a much better product and upgrade path to existing users, to draw in new users and revenue Microsoft has chosen to find yet another way to charge them by building in yet another obscene source of revenue. “Milk that cow”

Microsoft Office 2013 might have the ultimate effect of  throughly pissing-off long time Microsoft Office users who have over the years paid dearly to stick by the once market-leading solution that was somewhat an indispensable office suite even throughout the many wild twists and turns that have ultimately cost users serious money and lost productivity just in trying to keep up.

With this move Microsoft has taken a bold shot at “reinventing” Microsoft Office anew as an online subscription service (with touch controls). Actually truth be told it is a “remodeled” version of Office.

In releasing this new version of  Office Microsoft will operate differently and sell  or rent it differently. The popular Microsoft Office suite of (1) word processor, (2) spreadsheet and (3) email programs now includes touch-based controls and consumers that desire it can obtain it as an online subscription service.

Users who expect to have their favorite applications at their command when connected to the web are the actual market for Office 2013. Think of it as “Office in the Cloud”.

In essense what you are doing is actually renting Office rather than buying and owning it. Microsoft is boldly charging as much as $100 annually for an online subscription to provide access to Office on up to five Windows devices or Mac computers. The price to install Office on a single machine starts at $140. “Ouch”

Samsung wants it all!

If Apple thinks that Samsung is just another smartphone competitor they are grossly mistakened. Samsung is pursueing a “Scortched Earth” policy. They are not content to own a piece of the pie. They want to own the whole damn kitchen and to bake all of the pies, cakes and cookies.

They are actually making this happen. Their “anything and everything, flood the market strategies” are seeing most of their poducts findimeetingg enormous success with discerning buyers world-wide.

Companies like Apple and others are having a very hard time keeping up to the warp speed of development of Samsung.

What are major players like Microsoft to think about and learn from Samsung? They are seeing how by example they really blew the future when they were leaders by spoon feeding customers. Samsung in contrast believes in force feeding consumers and they have their whole nation behind them to keep the pipeline full and flourishing.

Pebble Watch is Finally shipping!

They sending out the first batch to the very first backers now.

They state that “there are still some kinks and issues that they need to work out.”

Mass production has started at the factory. 800-1,000 Pebbles are coming out per day with There is a 5-7 day lag between a Pebble coming off the assembly line, and arriving in a fulfillment center for shipping

According to their Note…

  • Pebble iOS App is not yet available in the App Store.
  • Android app will go live on Google Play on Thursday Jan 24
  • We weren’t able to get as many units to our fulfillment centre as we expected (held up by documentation at the airport). Less than 500 units are going out today, with more expected to ship soon.
  • We accidentally more Address Confirmations emails than available Pebbles. So some people who received address confirmation emails will not get a tracking number for a few days until their Pebble ships out.

Proof of production

Finished product, all boxed up and ready to be placed in shipping cartons.

Production Notes:

  • As of today, the factory is manufacturing roughly 800-1,000 Pebbles per day. We’re working hard to get this up to our full capacity (2.4k per day)
  • We are shipping master cartons of Pebbles by air freight across the Pacific to our US distribution center 1-2 times per week, and 1-2 times per week to our Hong Kong distribution center which fulfills shipments to any country that isn’t the US. There is a 5-7 day lag between a Pebble coming off the assembly line, and it arriving in a fulfillment center for shipping.
  • Right now, we’re manufacturing in large batches of 1 colour at a time. Since black was by far the most popular colour, we started with a run of black Pebbles. I realize that this is different than what I said before…while we would have liked to be able to ship out all the colours at the exact same time, it’s proven to be impossible. We’re doing our best to match production of other colors as soon as possible.

They clearly also state that their job is  not finished, and have lots of improvements to make, and tens of thousands of Pebbles to ship out. They will continue biweekly updates, and as software updates with new features for Pebble every 2-3 weeks.

The Winds of Change

changes-ahead

Change is constant and unyielding. One cannot expect that things will remain the same for very long. Change is not easy and circumstances will prevail.

Resisting change is dangerous. Refusing to understand transitions can lead you down errant paths.

Where it begins is difficult to determine. Where it is headed is hard to know. Where it ends is often unknowable.

Often we don’t recognize the aspects or implications of change until it’s too late.

Don’t fear change nor should you be surprised by it. Change is bound to occur to everything at some point or another.

Everything is in flux. Shifts are to be expected and even when possible embraced.

  • Seasons change
  • Situations change
  • Trends change
  • Opinions change
  • Rules change
  • Reasons change
  • Goals and missions change

Flowing with change is key to thriving and surviving. Not allow yourself to get tossed or blown away by change is a major challenge in life, business and society.

Routines and rituals can lock you into outdated or unrealistic methods that may cause you to fail to respond to the nature of change.

You can diligently follow all prevailing trends and patterns and still meet with unexpected change.

Learn to let go of unreasonable or preconceived notions. Things that you can fall captive to lead to obsessions that hard hard to escape from or overcome.

None of this is more true than in this world of technology. Just ask Apple. They have caused more change than any other company but are now falling victim to the same forces that they set in motion.

Firefox: New SmartPhone Platform?

As if we really need yet another smartphone platform to muddy the waters here comes Mozilla Firefox with their bid to become a desired Smartphone platform destination for the future.

As a developer I would be very cautious and exacting before committing to FirefoxOS because they Firefox once held sway over the browser market and then lost it big time.

Maybe they can bring something new to the mobility game that Google’s Android may have missed or overlooked. It will be very interesting in the months to come to see exactly how app developers and leading device manufacturers take to it.

There certainly is room for something better than iOS or Android but Mozilla will have to go some to get back in this game. As I said there is room and a serious profitable opportunity for Firefox to score a hit that works.

We shall see!

Sprout Social: Social Media Dashboard

Sprout Social

I have long needed and sought an effective means, method or way of organizing and managing my Social Media activities, profiles and promotions. It is way too much work to indivually develop a self-styled and successful process that can reduce the sheer amount of work necessary for us staff-straped entities to get it anywhere near right.

Sprout Social is a well developed social media management tool well worth a look. So far I have been very pleased although I do not yet have a firm grasp or handle on mastering it. I do not even  remember how I found out about Sprout Social, but tI am glad I did, it has helped..

I am only at the early stages of research in this area but I will make a point to report back here on my findings in case others are faced with similar issues and challenges. As I uncover the power and features and functions of these type of solutions you will hear about them. In the meantime you might also take a look at Sprout Social. Please let me know if there are other similar or complimentary alternative solutions out there in the emerging social space that I need to look at.

Update: A reader just informed me that even with Sprout being such a formidable offering there are other alternatives to consider. One of these is Hootsuite. They have a free trial but you can’t casually enable it or utilize without entering your credit card info. I had a time trying to discontinue a training service they automatically started billing me for. However there were steps to cancel this built right into the Hootsuite service and the company was responsive. It was just a hastle!


Hootsuite seems to have  a bit of a “first-mover” advantage but Sprout Social is starting to gain quickly and in my opinion is more advanced. Others readers are also recommending Seesmic and Tweetdeck (Twitter) as Social Media dashboards or management solutions to consider. In the Nonprofit realm socialbrite might be an option.

Socialbrite

Addenda:

Our thanks to Dan Ciotu (@danciotu) for making us aware of  UberVu of which he is a co-founder ,, a powerful Social Media Analysis Platform. As in the case of Sprout Social The Coolness Factor will take some time in the next few days to review and report back to you on this innovative app.

UberVU

Please take a moment to let us know what you think about UberVU and your experience with it.

GroSocial is yet another player in a growing field of players in this game. GroSocial helps users manage Social Profiles among a list of other important things. Check out AppSumo’s deal for a 1-year subscription to GroSocial or see GroSocial’s web site for a free trial.

 



Once a Leader

It must be very difficult for companies that once held the fate of an industry or segment in their hands to realize that they are no longer the standard by which all things are judged.

This is the fate of companies as big as Microsoft, Dell and RIM and seems to now be the direction that companies as innovative and powerful as Apple and RIM are leaning.

Sometimes this shift is the prodiuct of the force of change and disruption or the impact of competition. Often it can also result from simple complacency. Some companies simply fall asleep at the helm and allow other companies the time and opportunity to catch up during their lull.

It seems Apple is falling victim of these forces combined in addition to the loss of its leader. Samsung has stolen Apple’s thunder and is now the technology leader for now and into the forseeable future. That could change. It would be premature to count Apple out as has been done countless times before only to see Apple rebound and land on their feet even stronger than before.

It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out. In fact it could be the most compelling story of our times. The result could hold the future for whole nations as well as industries.

Facebook’s Graph Search

Facebook has finally unleashed Graph Search, a new internal smart search engine tool that allows Facebook members to sort through personal data on Facebook.

Unlike Web Search designed to make an open-ended query and return links, Graph Search seems to make a more precise query and returns answers, not links. Currently Graph Searchis focused on: people, photos, Facebook Places, and interests.

Layered on top of Facebook’s Social Graph Graph Search is a search tool enabling members to ask questions using natural language.

Graph Search also allows people to find new services through more trused recommendations of the people they’re connected to.

Strategically this is a strong factor for local businesses still not sure about using Facebook Places.

Graph Search is now live, complete with demo videos. You can find more infor about how it works and its level of privacy on that page. It is currently being rolled out as a limited beta and will certainly become more widely available as more information is indexed.

It Could Happen To You!

Everyday you read about common users being scammed, hacked and sometimes robbed of their hard-earned cherished devices.
We sometimes develop a “It’ll never happen to me” mentality, and then BOOM, its your turn. The following are a few hints and reminders to help keep you safe and secure. No level of diligence is unnecessary. Take the to do whatever you possibly can to protect yourself from the many scams, snares and traps that are out there waiting for you. Hopefully one day all of this won’t be necessary.

  • Safety First!
  • Watch your own back (online and offl)
  • Be careful what you do and what you post about yourself
  • Never submit too much personal info or to many pictures
  • Use extreme care and caution before downloading anything
  • Free isn’t always free there is always a cost or price to pay
  • Trust no one without exercising reasonable diligence
  • Keep your disks and systems clean, secure and protected
  • Keep a secure journal of all your passwords, serials and logins

2012: The Home Stretch

Well here we are at the final month of the year and on the way to 2013, a year that starts with C.E.S. in Las Vegas and a flood of new products to mistify, confuse and entice us deeper into digital lifestyles.

This is also the time for year-end wrap ups and new year predictions. There are still some huge serious questions that need to be answered for us to get a handle on things.

QUESTIONS:

  1. What’s Next?
  2. Where will the new trends come from?
  3. Will Social Media mature or fade away?
  4. Can Apple continue to thrive without Steve Jobs?
  5. Where will all the lawsuits take the industry?
  6. Can patent law be improved?
  7. Will American tech rise or will International markets outpace us?
  8. Who will win the Smart Phone device war Samsung or Apple?
  9. Can Microsoft seriously get back strong in the game?
  10. Will newspapers and magazines survive our move to new media?

 

Cyber Monday Gone Berzerk!

I thought that corporate retail’s self-declared November 26th Black Friday cyber sale day was an idea gone completely mad had gotten just about as bad as it could possibly get, that was up until I opened up my general email this morning only to be totally bombared by hordes of unsolicited product sale promotions from just about every tech-related company in the business with something to sell and that was able to buy up an email list. to spam.

Even non-tech companies tried to get in on it. What does Tandy Leather have to with cyber anything?

Cyber Monday is a perfect example of exactly what uncontrolled and unmonitored Social Media regulation has in store for us consumers in our near and rapidly approaching future.

Many of these so-called “social” services we innocently sign up for will eventually come back to haunt us in intrusive ways we cannot at this moment even imagine. Once agile overly-aggressive companies link up, vector and cross reference all of the information at their disposal we should be aware of and prepare for the B.S. to come.

Greedy marketers will dig in to mine and harvest all that available info and proceed to push designs and schemes of every type and sort using our personal info to target us based on our previously posted and expressed interests, location specifics, past purchases and more

THIS IS MADDNESS!

WELCOME TO CYBER WORLD 2013

Read Those Contracts!

You’d be surprised that most mean the opposite of what we think they mean. They claim one thing and in confusing legal gobbily gook turn around and deny or reverse that. What is the point of a contact that says that the company can change or discontinue that contact at any time?

They spell out your obligations but at the same time refute their own. We are caught in a Bizarro World of obligations and regulations that folks with years of legal training and experience cannot decipher nor understand. So how are we to make sense of any of it? The truth is that we aren’t! We are meant to get so frustrated that we just give up, throw up our hands and let come what may.

It is only when we seek to appeal to higher powers that we begin to truly sense exactly what we have set ourselves up for and how we are bound to get hoodwinked and bamboozled.

Bits and Bytes 11.26.12

Most of the big news from this past Thankgiving week and weekend is centered around new products and discount sales leading up to the 2012 holiday season.

Cyber Monday is here and is much more insidious and annoying than it was last year in the early days of its infancy.

The pundits and analyst are busy cranking out posts of “The Best this and that” and looking back at what happened in 2012 and forward to personal predictions about what we can expect in 2013. Somewhere in between there are some useful reviews of the some of the latest and greatest products that  we will use in the coming year. These may aid us in making our choices of which tech options can help us be more productive.

Bits and Bytes

  • CES 2013 is near and almost here
  • Samsung Adds iPad Mini To Lawsuit Against Apple
  • Apple Ordered To Reveal Agreement With HTC To Samsung
  • Apple Space Ship style (Campus) opening in 2016
  • Samsung to stop supplying Apple with iPad and MacBook batteries

Black Friday, Cyber Monday? Stop it Already!

Today when I pulled in my email there was over 100 junk emails from retailers and marketers hyping Black Friday sales for products I have absolutely no interest in.

This situation clearly points out several things:

  1. That our email addresses are being traded and handed around on mailing lists in the hands of junk marketers we have not consented to nor approved of nor opted into.
  2. That all these fake ad-hoc holiday sales (i.e. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.) are really only excuses for crass commercialism.
  3. As consumers we are being seriously overcharged on average everyday prices of  most products we buy and that retailers can remedy it if they have the incentive and motivation.

“Urban Technology Review” The Update

The Publisher of The Coolness Factor has been professionally approached and inspired to create a technology news byline titled Urban Technology Review intended for reprinting in major market newspapers aimed primarily at english and Spanish speaking Urban communities domestic and worldwide we will also show up in several Nationally distributed print magazines as well as online.

UTR’s first cities will be in California, namely San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, San Jose, San Pablo.

The first UTR articles were to become available launch day August 26, 2012 but the project has proven to be alot more intense and involving than I first imagined.

PROJECT UPDATE: Despite the hiccups I am still working on UTR. a few fits and starts that have delayed my overall progress on Urban Technology Review but regardless I am moving forward. Sometimes it is the choices and changes that can stimey or deter progress. Sometimes the technolgy chooses the exact wrong time to peter out, fail to function, or emerge as the best solution. Success is plowing through all that and arriving at your destination without blowing a gasket or totally flipping out. The last time I ventured out there on the limb it brought me  a stroke that it has taken me over four years to recover from. Pressure and stress are killers!.

Unwise Decisions Matter

When I began blogging I did research on which platform to choose, Tumble or WordPress. Fast forward 5 years. Tumble is sold to Yahoo and I am overjoyed by my decision of long ago.

Its not that I hate Yahoo, I don’t. I just think that any company that fumbled the future as badly as Yahoo cannot, nay should not be trusted with the prospects and destiny of another such highly valued online resource.

Yahoo is like Dracula, refusing to die sucking up the life essence of others to sustain just a little bit longer.

Users Fly Away from Tumblr

Now that Yahoo has confirmed their 1.1 billion dollar buy up of Tumble users are abandoning the blogging platform in bunches.

One of the reasons voiced often is that Yahoo couldn’t and can’t even successfully manage their own future, how can we expect them to do right by Tumblr?

Tumble has over the last bunch of years has lost momentum to other CMS options like WordPress. they once had a sizable lead but as time progressed they gave way to more innovative solutions.
What Yahoo will use Tumblr for is curious. Some suspect Yahoo will reengineer the underlying blogging technology to get back in the game. Other more suspicious types suspect Yahoo is actually trying to improve their footprint and appeal to future buyers and investors.
Yahoo several years back was heavily believed to be a prime acquistion target attractive for the likes of major tech players like Microsoft.
The change of CEO has given Yahoo space to maneuver and attempt to get back on track.
Soon we should see if any of this movement and activity actually bears fruit and leads back to market popularity, prominence and profitability for Yahoo.

Bits & Bytes 5/20/13

So, what happened in tech this past week that’s worthy of notice?

Bits & Bytes:
Google I/O 2013 seems to have come off fairly well
Glass has captured the imagination of gadget lovers everywhere
Dell stock went in the tank dropping 79%.
Congress looks into privacy concerns surrounding Google Glass.
LinkedIn moving into personalized business news with Channels.
Samsung Galaxy S4 getting ready to launch
T-Mobile finally gets iPhone
Rumormill: Google working on a smart watch (joining Apple, Samsung & Pebble)
New Google Play UI gets warm reception from users
Bad Move: Yahoo to acquire Tumblr
Rumors about possible quantum computer speed and bandwidth increases.

Google Glass = Cyborg tech

Google Glass represents more than Star Trek’s Jordi they are more a huge step towards turning us into The Borg of Star Trek fame.
Is resistance futile? Well a large contingent of users are swearing that they would never go that way but an even larger group can’t wait to get assimilated.

That is exactly what Google is banking on and eager geeks are looking forward to. Google I/O was all about whipping developers and just plain folks into a frenzy in anticipation of the product. The more play it gets the greater the expectation and potential sales. This may be the most impressive aspect of the product. Everybody is aware of a nonexistent product and has an opinion or desire.

Spamming Your Notifications

This is becoming the new method of pissing you off. As soon as we come to appreciate and rely on notifications the scammers are targeting them as the next target for exploitation.

Yesterday I had 8 necessary alerts. All of a sudden this morning I had 35. 25 of them were bullshit marketing, schemes or useless pitches for crap I don’t need.

The Importance of Notifications

This has turned out to be the most needed and productive aspect of my Nexus 7. If tablets are to take over this will be the very indispensable thing that pushes them over the top.

Notifications are often overlooked and seldom promoted in hype but I have personally come to believe notifications have enhanced and enriched my Internet life and experience beyond what I thought possible.

It is improving features like notifications that develops will find important opportunities and as users we will make the best use of tablets and smart phones.

Who has time to hunt and peck through hundreds of installed apps to know what to do next? Notifications helps us order our digital lives and journeys. We can say we have gone buying web surfing to a more effective form of process thanks to notifications.

With Notifications we are alerted to:
New emails
Late breaking news items
Contacts from Linked In, etc.
App upgrades
Schedule reminders
Feeds
Invitatations
Downloads and uploads

Don’t Count Us Out

This is the chant and mantra for companies as big as RIM, LG, Nokia and Dell. Even Mighty Microsoft is singing that song, heck, they are leading the choir.

Remember Gateway and Compaq Computers? Sometimes an exit is quiet and unexpected. In other cases it is loud and anticipated. In many other instances the decent and decline can be slow and uncertain leaving the company to teeter of the edge of oblivion for years if not decades.

In all cases it is painful for those that have invested their faith and futures.

It is the nature of business that companies will sooner or later encounter peaks and valleys. It’s when the valley is as deep and forbidding as the Grand Canyon that blame is cast, heads begin to roll, excuses are made, and desparate attempts to recover and regain lost glory that things get specific. Some would like to believe that in the wake of the loss of Steve Jobs that even lofty Apple may be on the ledge of its own deep drop into the valley.

The incredible thing is that this can be the very catalyst for change. Innovative companies see this as the perfect and exact moment to change the direction and culture of companies too long mired in inertia unable to change with the times and trends.

Cryptocurrencies

As if we need another term in our lives, now we get “cryptocurrencies”. The latest and so far the most successful incarnation is “bitcoin” (Winklevi)

None of us really know what the hell they are but according to all the hype we want it.

So have the geeks actually created a way to make money?

I sense a scam to be revealed some day leaving many to wonder how they could be so foolish.

Bits & Bytes 5/10/13

Another nothing week tech wise or is this just my opinion? It seems that news has slowed down or I have become jaded and numb to the blurbs that masquerade as news these days. I am not sure what would move me but it must be something other than new law suits and companies moving into the wheelhouse of other market leaders.

So let begin the roundup of Bits & Bytes:

Apple developers, fans and fanatics all poised for Apple WWDC 2013 (SF)
T-Mobile moves into the iPhone world, no contract marketing hype is challenged

Google Glass, My Ass!

Talk about an unnecessary solution to a problem that does not exist. Google is it. I immediately get an impression of elitism and privilege that puts me off desiring one. Now we are hearing the coming spy-like features and capabilities.
When a couple of casual Google glass users are severely beaten or shot for their “snitch potential” and a few more are injured in brutal snatch and grab attempts we might then begin to reconsider the real risks and negative social impact of technology that lies beyond what is simply cool.

We did not wisely contemplate this in the emergence of laptops nor smart phones much to the regrets of hundreds maimed and injured users to this point.

Creeping App Complexity

Some developers erroneously  think that they can easily improve their apps by making them more dense and complex. Occassionally a talented development team will dig deep to improve their apps interface and general functionality and in turn wind up discovering whole new markets and hordes of loyal and committed users. Development should not be a static process. It must be dynamic enough to incorporate what works. It should also be innovative enough to explore new ways. The real problem is that most developers play it safe and follow the leaders and in doing so they avoid the risk of charting new paths.

Cutting it Close

Some have fun living on the edge. Inventors of the first Atomic and Nuclear bombs did not know whether their toy would destroy everything but they took the chance and risked the survival of the planet and all mankind.

Runaway Technology and Innovation

Have we let our sense of adventure take over where common sense should have prevailed.

In our never-ending pursuit of the new and cool we seem to have mindlessly and casually sacrificed basic protections and precautions. What we have opened up is a virtual Pandora’s Box of invasive technologies that hold the potential to undermine or overturn our most precious rights and needs.

Digital Divide 2013

The gap between the digital haves and have-nots has certainly narrowed in distressed communities such as among seniors, the disabled, low-income and youth on one hand, on the other hand far more disruptive gaps have erupted and will widen along other dangerous fault lines threatening to tear apart any allusions we have about ubiquitous communities.

In the related areas of mobility device utilization, App solutions and useful web services there is new work that needs to be taken up and done.

Other promising areas include training, access, support, and overall consumer affordability.

Many individuals once disconnected and outside the ecosystem have given into smart phones and tablets these tools have brought a sense of cool and cache that appeals to forner virtual Luddites.

Google Glass

The best description I’ve heard of Google Glass described it as “a Segway for your face”. In that report most respondents didn’t welcome nor did they appreciate the covert and intrusive nature of the device.

I personally pursue what I think are cool gadgets and devices but Googpe Glass is one that causes me to pause and rethink my pursuit of newly emerging tech. Can wearing a cool device instantly brand one as uncool?

If everyone is wary of you then you become a privileged pariah, an outsider potentially spying on the rest of us. Using technology to gain an advantage. This then is a new sort of privilege limter to the rich and well connected. These were the fears of Philip K. Dick and other futurists that saw the danger inherent in runaway technology.

Creating a personal firewall

Building a boundary around you to protect your privacy.

We need to exercise much greater caution and scrutiny in our selection of which technologies and tools we incorporate into our digital lives.

More specifically we must know more about the ethics of those that create them. Blind faith does not work.

Google Play Store UI upgrade

When I peeked in on Google Play this morning I was surprised to find a new user interface that was an improvement on what came before. I long thought Google could do better considering this is where the revenue flows from.
Other companies should take the hint and get busy updating their early attempts and resist resting on their laurels when they find something that works. The catch is that the changes must be better, much better and not just an incremental update. Yet it must be consistent with what users expect and require.  Change for change sake is useless.

Responsive Design: What the Hell is That?

Every week some new supposed trend crops up and causes many to scurry around to figure out how to make it pay. Some are just passing fancies, others may hold actual potential. Folks often do not wait to see it play out and mature into a real thing. They spring upon it like hungry feasters in a famille and suck the marrow out before it has had a chance to catch.
The latest buzz trend to reach my desk has been titled “responsive design”. Before I even Google it I sense it has to be something to do with marketing.

Persistent Spam

Have you trashed spam messages only to see then reappear in your inbox? I suspect that hackers have figured a way to do this successfully to get around your annoyance with their unwanted and unsolicited messages.
This takes up your precious time and virtually kills your off email productivity.

You never know till you’re challenged

We all think we know ourselves until we run into obstacles and challenges. These teach us our shape and form.
What may seem as a tragedy may be the best thing to happen to you.

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