Floozy Speak!

I was excited to see the masses breathe life into the limited no 3rd party apps allowed iphone.  It seemed like a great union of festering creatives able to run free on the iphone propelling into astronomical headlines, press and kudos from the design community.  Underdogs could be underdog and Apple still made out like a bandit. 

I still stand by the idea of planned hackability.  It seems like an obvious plan to make your product accessible and tasty for a long frickin time, however Apple has taken the counter card bricked, or made ruin, a ton of phones with their 1.1.1 update that just hit the airwaves it seems. 

I have to say that sucks.  It mainly affects unlocked iphones, and while I wasn't planning to unlock my future iphone I did plan on installing many of the cool new home grown 3rd party apps out there that make the iphone ever so more delicious than it is.  And now those 3rd party folks are affected too which is brewing a PR storm, as Scoble calls it on the web. 

Just delivering on the threat of bricking folks is brewing a bad storm for Apple, despite however defiant they wish to be.  Two things will occur after this. 

First, the community will be weary of new updates from Apple, trust is lost so now when 1.2.whatever arrives a large portion of the engaged excited and news spreading community will wait, awhile, before installing that update.  Especially if its minor fixes.  People will make due with whatever experience issues they are having with the device to keep it open, playable and fun.  This is a not a win for Apple, this is a slap in the face of future innovation and promise Apple would like to continue to bring to device.  But its lost now, you burned that bridge and now you get extreme hesitation across the board. 

Second, the fragmented experience begins to formulate and be the norm.  Hackers will double their efforts to inform and make safe future updates.  In hidsight this could be a feature of the planned hackability strategy but the fragmentation of experiences weakens the brand unity since its obviously lost. 

People will learn from this update and be very cautious of the next one.  You made of made an amazing product Apple but you, and no company owns its future experience.   That is soley in the hands of the people that use it.  Your customers own your future experience, and today you messed up on that one big time.

Tags: apple, iphone, scoble, hackers, pr

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Posted by dan at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Someone else covered the story about coscripter and it can now be found here!

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Posted by dan at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just read on Techmeme about a new tool from IBM called CoScripter, that automates common tasks on what I would assume web pages.

This story is not about the tool, its about how I glance through a news site and have a common issue at the end.  The story is nice and all but I read and wanted to experience something new other than an article.

I leaped from techmeme to EWeek's story on the product.  From there, I wanted to actually experience the product, a web product, I figure it exists somewhere as a link.  Of course, it doesn't.   

Not content with taking no for an answer I do a deeper glance at the article.  The tool would reside on IBM's Alpahworks site.  Is there a link to that in the artcile?  Of course not.  This is a typical FU hype type article.  Talk about something really amazing but don't ever actually deliver the hopeful experience, just bait and hype people to death about it. 

Next up, I do google - IBM alphaworks.  What I wanted to see was something new on the front page saying "CoScripter is here!" but of course it isn't there. 

Not content with that result either I do a search on that IBM Alphaworks site.  Of course it can't find coscripter.  But even then I don't accept that, I go back to EWeek article fearing I may of mispelled it, and most search engines internally in companies don't give users a break on spelling, their absolute, so now I cut and paste "coscrpiter" and come back to the Alphaworks site, paste it in the search engine and low and behold.. nada, nothing, FU.

That whole experience unfolds in 3 mins.  3 mins of wasted time over a promise that no matter how true it could be just chalked up a big untrue in my brain. 

We're becoming fast paced glanceable creatures in this world wide web.  Looking back on all of that I don't trust anyone expect for maybe Google. 

To me this goes back to delivering on the promise.  If you say its new, and its web based, it better be accessible, otherwise, its trash and will fustrate me with hype magic that just becomes yet another nail into the coffin of why i really don't think IBM in the first place.  So nice article but it gave me nothing but a bad rub. 

Tags: eweek, techmeme, ibm, coscripter

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Posted by dan at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mass Awareness Infection, aww ya baby, lose control to get market share awareness.  Sounds complicated but core idea has just arrived in Halo 3 and in the latest update to the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft.  What the hell am I talking about?  Mass infection occuring on a massive scale, why, how?  Let the gamers spread the word about your game.  And no we're not talking about primative forms of absorbtion like talking, or writing, we're talking about video.  Awww ya, video infects all.  Its a great thing to share.  It immerses you into a world you haven't seen yet, video is this ages' golden child.  And video just got baby on board big time in those two games.

Now most of you, I hope, have seen the rise of machinima, or the practice where by gamers capture game output and create videos with them.  They can do anything make films, commericals, comedies, parodies, show off ideas, tricks, you name it.  Machinima has come a long long way from its obscure geek like origin.  It started with geeks that wanted to make videos of their gaming experiences.  They were often shunned and tortured via mass riddicule for thier endevors.  I mean why do that, why tape your game play and remix it. 

I remembered taping old PS1 game play and making videos with it.  Before that I recall using nintendo sound effects in songs.  Geek friends got it, others clearly didn't.  I've been taping, experimenting and messing around with video capture in multiple ways for years.  Its fun, but I never went as far as to try and make movies out of it.

Previously most game designers and comapnies just let machinima happen, most don't interfere with it, very few truly embrace it.

Well yesterday the much anticipated Halo 3 arrived with new bad guys, cool guns, sweet scenery and a new feature that allows gamers to record their games for video playback goodness.  Strangely enough, World of Warcraft's new data patch hit yesterday and on the mac's does the exact same thing.  Record video in game and compress it even.  These two events point to a new standard that is unfolding in game design... let the user save, relive, share and mix up your game experience in any way they see fit.  Its not just a happy after thought any more, its going into the code, hard wired into the very ooo la la extistence of those games.  Its a feature kids, it goes on the box now. 

In game video capture of gameplay means you empower a massive army of gamers to play with your footage and of course, infect the masses with it, all for a mere pennies if that even for the designer.  In fact, you don't pay at all.  People create, you reap awareness bucks for free.  Course it does help if the game is any good or not, but still, auto movie creation tools inside games is pretty damn rare.  We've seen it the Sims ( i think ), and in The Movies a fun old time hollywood creation game, but generally its never been in massive FPS or MMORPG type games before.  And on massive scale, I would expect.. massive results.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Tags: Tags: world of warcraft, halo3, halo, microsoft, warcraft, machinima

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Posted by dan at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are times when I feel like small business is like a strange blood sport from a country i've never heard of before.  People come and go, relationships are made, broken, trashed and reborn. 

This week I lose another coworker.  Now I can't say I didn't see it coming, but I hate seeing people with runner like numbers on their back, contestant number 213, your time is over... NEXT!

Its futile to think that in business anyone really matters other than your biz objective and the resources at hand.  I mean its art of war right?  Sure you need some basic resources but everything is replacable.  At least thats what the manual says. 

I'm always a bit bummed to see folks go.  I think to myself there goes another resource that was hand crafted to fullfill a set purpose here and did it really need to go?  Businesses like to blow off their hand with firecrackers so that they can explore new ways to rebuild that hand. 

It works out for the people that leave too.  I haven't seen this guy this happy in a long time, course I dunno, I've seen him jazzed up about work too at times. 

Well whethers its art of war or a new kind of blood sport, I wish this friend well in his new adventure.  With the way the web is wired these days we'll probably talk more than ever. 

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Posted by dan at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So it seems every other day we get a post on the web about Googles vaporware product, the GPHONE!  I keep asking myself why, why make a phone oh google?  Seems like a really bad play. 

I mean do they make hardware?  No, so they must be supporting someones hardware, but then then that seems kinda lame.  Ya know what its gonna be, its gonna be an OS trapped in some sidekick like device or some Q or something. 

I dunno, still feels like vaporware to me.  Other than alot of different kids humming the tune of google online there isn't jack for real proof on this one. 

I just don't see it as a complete sort of deal.  And it's when you go complete, thats where the fun begins on the experience.  If Google makes the OS, ok neat, but its trapped in limited hardware probably, then its trapped on a set carrier limitations.  People talk as if Google can just redefine everything and the reason we Apple do it is because they got a track record in doing it, where as Google aside from adsense... umm.. nope, I don't see it. 

Maybe its a marketing ploy.  Lately Google's been getting alot of them, going after office online (which is basically true), going after second life, go ahead i think, and bidding on various bands on the specturm out there. 

I just dunno man. 

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Posted by dan at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately there's been a rash of posts on the net focusing around the whole "10 things to do X" theme.  I dunno why, but lately, lists are in.. big time!  Absorbing the web is difficult, there's a ton of info out there, breaking your ideas down in scanable bits is the new cake, and folks, cake is tasty.

So here ya go, 7 trends on my mind lately.  These are concepts, themes and ideas that expose tomorrow's opportunity.   No real order here.

1. Planned Hackability.  You plan for open source editable, hackable, customizable possibility in your future service, product or experience.  Hacking is the new word for remixed, modifed, figured out, customized and enabled.  Big wins on the hackable front are: increased awareness, ongoing exposure, limitless shelf life, rabid fandom and flexible face forward.  Mashups are in this circle along with just about everything in the 2.0 scene that leverages its fan base to innovate the product or service for them.  The only downside which is a bummer for any big ego, loss of control.  But the web tells us countless times that the key to control is to give up some control. 

2. Data Enabled Objects.  Stuff is getting smarter.  Objects carry signatures, whether in the form of serial numbers, labels, barcodes, QR codes, semacodes, and or RFID.  Kinda goes hand in hand with planned hackability but the idea here is that we're moving beyond basic objects and moving into the realm of objects that carry data and or trigger experiences once enabled by some other construct like a cellphone or smart environment. 

3. Microsoft's Grave.  Microsoft is dead.  While PC's will continue to linger for the next 20 years or so, the company that so many talked about, dished about and pondered about in the first age of the web is dead in the second.  There is no steam, no umph no love for Microsoft.  They are faceless, championless, product non-existant aside from gaming.  Maybe they've morphed into something else, but they don't own the mind share any more, they've gone niche, Halo 3 and Xbox, and thats about it. 

This trend will continue to evolve.  Google and Yahoo will battle it out for the future office OS experience while Apple redefines what the promise of computing is all about.  Windows days are numbered, which opens up a few hundred thousand doors to new players getting in the scene.  On the physical product and communication side, lots of opportunity, on the web side, some but remember much of the game is for mind share and less about monthly reoccuring fees.

4. Hello, I'm Naked. It's data mining wet dream out there on the web these days.  Everybody is in on it, even you, the consumer, the customer, the segment, the target, you're in on it by default.  Its the cost for playing in this playground.

Data mining is huge.  There's a ton of opportunities on the web these days to mine the crap out of your potential customer.  People are a hundred times fold more agressive in stating who they are, what they are, what they like, dislike and more on the web these days than ever.  There's never been a time like this in history where data flows freely from the soul of the person to the digital pages you read right now.  It's never existed like this.  Everyday a new tool, service, widget of expression hits the streets, mass adoption of it is high possibility, new data can be traced, tracked and more, all for pennies on the dollar. 

Data mining?  Its data drilling, going full speed ahead into the minds of consumers.  You see lots of players on this scene, and lately in the past 6-8 months we're seeing big corporate players backing planned initiatives to give a little in order to gain alot back in undrestanding and planned targeting for consumers. 

5. Widget'dom.  I noted this trend awhile back and its gotten 9 billion times strong since then.  To me, YouTube didn't just expose the masses to amature video freaks of the planet, it introduce the idea of embedding code easily into blogs.  Embedded code was simply a widget to show you content from another site.  That core idea of embedding to spice up your blog or space page has exploded and anyone and everyone is in the widget scene these days.  Odds are you've experienced countless widgets and just didn't realize it.  Some sites, such as Facebook have dug deep into widget or apps like scene, spawning hundreds of developers coding all kinds of toys, tools, and data enablers to mess with. 

More to come... my day got sidetracked in a good way.  :) 

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Posted by dan at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today was a mixed victory on the RFID scene.  First, I took my flash code, swf, and phidgets osx framework dealio and started messing with it on the mac. 

Right away the mac found the reader, lit up the board and at first all seemed good.  Then came the issue of the webservice, which needs to run to really do anything with the phidgets RFID reader. 

Of course there's no real docs or any real built in help, the whole RFID scene for hobbists is pretty fubared really, and I mean !@!#@$ up big time.  There's just no real source of info, its another adventure in google search, scouring the net for reason and understanding as to what hell this phidgets thing is, can do, and RFID in general.  Any beginner or average user is screwed, that's it, no questions asked, you are ucked.

It really suprises me that a handful of gifted RFID kids hasn't just made this whole thing easier.  I mean sure they give you basic demos of code but nothing beyond the "hey here's a tag!", anything actually useful isn't thought of, documented and or pasted into some yummy organized page. 

Back to the adventure.  Somewhere hidden in the spaces of the web, I learned I had to actually run the webservice via the terminal.  That's intuitive!  First of all, let me stress doing this on the mac is FAR easier than the pc, the windows quest was a major ass ride in do this no this no this now this oh hell do that too.  At least the mac saw it and said cool RFID, but like an elite bastard it shrugged at me when I actually wanted to use it.  Sometimes the mac has a air of superiority to it, a kind of nice you got this far, now figure it out thing.

So somewhere on the phidgets forums I see some one posting a note about webservice being a /usr/bin executable.  The first thing I do is look for usr, i even ask finder about it, I'm a coder here kids.  Then I ask a coder, he says "terminal"... AHHHHH big light bulb goes off in my head.

Just cause you can launch the terminal doesn't mean you should ever be caught using it.  Again I stumble my way thru the terminal, eventually i get the webservice up and running, why i cant do this from preferences amazes me, i mean they give me the button to start the service there, why can't I start the service there, why do i have to go to the terminal, which is an nicely undocumented dealio aside from existing in some forum where by there's a strong change that unless that hoodat asked that particular question to spawn that answer, odds are I'd never know.

Ok so webservices running.  Great, now what.  Well mac finds it, mac sees it, I run my flash code?  Nada.  Gotta go to macromedia and give it permission, i learned this on the PC front, ok can do.  Then I try again...

BEHOLD, it works.  Sweet!

Now tinker with it.  In doing this I ran into the downside of my flash RFID victory.  I really just wanted to create a new function that would launch a website or movie or sound file when the reader saw the tag. 

Sadly, wrapping my head around actionscript 3 was not my destiny in 2 hrs I gave it.  So I'm stuck again.  Its another instance where code stops me in my tracks. 

Again it bothers me that someone hasn't cranked out some very basic flash files to play with... aside from seeing a frickin tag.. like:

launch a movie file

play a sound

open a url in a browser

Those three basic things would put uber joy into my life... but right now I got no clue, I've watched the tutorials online but alot of it makes no sense.  Some of the code feels like having a conversation with the flash engine that goes something like this...

MakeThing, thing that is made is made of said thing to speak to thing make thing be thing unless thing made thing of what thing is and was thing that is thing that made thing be.  To view MakeThing, using view MakeThing is too easy, must rewrite that function to be when need to view MakeThing, first validate said thing that is thing to be thing on thing that is thing to be thing.  Then state MakeThing to be thing yet say MakeThing in yoda like way is not what you need MakeThing eyes of view thus be MakeThing. 

makething=xyz.mov

view.makething

WHY!  Can't I have just that? 

Anyways, that's all for today, butt hurts from concentrated sitting and attempting to focus on stuff i can't learn in 2hrs.  :(

Tags: phidgets, RFID, flash

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Posted by dan at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The iphone hacks and apps scene is exploding.  Last night I caught a few wicked videos showing the awesome potential in putting apps on your iphone, it was slick, easy and now I can't find that video!

So I go to del.ico.us to check out the iphone tags to see if I can find that video again and there's been like 200 new iphone posts since last night on there.  Geeze.. then I find a few yummy app list type sites and there's just a ton of development happening here. 

MacMobile or iphone-hackability OS is booming.  It's gonna steamroll till decemeber driving sales and spuring all kinds of headlines on all the tech blogs.  Major players will take notice and even more headlines and development will occur. 

Sometime say march or april 2008, gen2 of the iphone will hit with potential gps on board and 3g!  Sounds yummy.

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Posted by dan at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

GET YOUR OWN BLIPBACK!

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Posted by dan at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First it's further proof that Yahoo buys its innovation process.  I mean geeze these guys buy everyone.  In fact, you got a 2.0 in development, start talkin to Yahoo so they can buy it. 

Second, it could be play for one of the up and coming markets to be, office in your browser wars!  Google has a good head start on its end, and now Yahoo just got big shot in arm, some 9 million users worth of Zimbra goodness.  Personally I've never used them before, unless I get the big urge its unlikely I will.

In other news, Nokia buys Enpocket a mobile advertising firm.. its coming folks!  Mobile, proximity marketing firms galore.  Go go rockproxy.

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Posted by dan at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I've been reading the 5 Factor Diet book lately.  I don't usually diet books but folks got me a gift card for Borders so what the heck, lets pick up this book, its basic premise is something I believe in, 5 meals a day, that's it! 

Well more than just that, but ya in general, keep your body working.  To do that you need to eat, to eat right you need spend $$$$$ in foods at are right for you. 

We all know this drill, though, getting these foods can be damn expensive and I wasn't even tapping all the fresh stuff.  The goal was simple, get some stuff that tends to be only offered there, but by the time we walked out, we had a lot of things we probably didn't have to get there like chicken breasts, mayo, green tea, nuts.. WTF was I thinking?!

Standing in the checkout I felt compelled to cry as the numbers kept climbing and climbing.  I saw apple products I could of purchased in my head.. shuffle, nano.. classic!  Ok not classic, but still. 

Analyzing the check I see like everything is 3 bucks more than other places.  After swearing the place off, forever, and ever, except for those yummy mix1 drinks, Mary said "thanks for taking us to Whole PayCheck honey..." yeee be welcome.. lol.  Whole PayCheck indeed.

Got to be more tactical here, I mean I don't need it to be so.. expensive.  Lesson learned, I'm throwin my taste buds out the window. 

Ok so back to 5 factor diet, I hate blogging about a diet but it's something I'm gonna give a whirl on. 

So every day, 5 meals, roughly 3 hrs apart, comprised of:

• low-fat quality protein
• low- to moderate- glycemic index carbohydrate
• fiber
• healthy fat
• sugar-free beverage

So far its been like a mix of eggwhites, nuts, berries, yogurt, cheese, oats, ricecrackers, veggies, protien in various forms, all washed down with water or green tea.. or the occasional green tea latte nonfat and or soy. 

The big thing here is that for the most part aside from the ricecrackers which arent as nasty as expected, I've been eating with this diet for awhile now.  Booted soda off the map, my body had a violent reaction for a shake the other day from DQ, like it was pissed, never again on that.  And in general just been eating better so this diet is like ok, can do this. 

Ya so pretty basic, nuff said, been kinda doin this already, just haven't stepped it up to the 5 meal aspect of it.  Next thing that is coming is the six day a week workout plan starting today.  Past few weeks Mary and I have enjoyed our water aerobic class, that's been fun learning techiques in water that if you keep at it for 35 mins is like walking the dreaded path 2 or 3 times.  That in itself is awesome for me, cardio bores the crap outa me, I need to find and discover all the various forms of cardio cause I want to do it, but not be bored at it. 

 When it comes to the food side of the party I wish I could get and store like a weeks worth of meals in the fridge.  I want it to be organized porportions.  Nice and clean, organized, analyzed intake of food.  That'd be a dream really. 

Ok so its time to begin the logs and let's do this!

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Posted by dan at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Create.  Buy.  Buy.. oh hell just buy. 

That's Yahoo's model.  Buy them.  In the past four days I've read I think, three new acquistions for Yahoo on the quest to owning the 2.0 type space. 

Woot, ok maybe not 2.0, but it thrived in the 2.0 era, so why not, but still, why Woot?  Why did Yahoo want to buy WOOT?  Couldn't it just of duplicated Woot?  Nope, its not about copying any more its about buying them! 

They also just snapped up buzztracker, a site i know nothing about.. checking out now.. plz hold...  its another digg i guess.. neat or something.  I'll stare at it later.  Yahoo also gets in bed with MTV... ahhh ha!  See more.. i'm tellin ya, YAHOO buys their away into the scene.  Acquire, acquire, acquire! 

This just in... BRAINS REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND WEB!

Apparently there's a report out there that social networking type news sites SKEW the news.. holy frickin frak!  I am amazed... NOT, of course they skew the news, its a crowd design baby, only hear want you want to hear!

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Posted by dan at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Posted by dan at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mary and I are taking a class this fall from Uko Smith called Dare to Draw! 

We've been itching to take a class lately, just something to fuel our brains with new ideas!  This guy creates art that is right up my alley, pinups and babes... yes! 

It should be interesting.  This will be the first real class I've ever taken on art and I'll keep ya posted. 

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Posted by dan at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let's test this.. Hello tumblr from the flooz!

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Posted by dan at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend I played around with vSide a virtual world app much like Second Life but hipper and stuff.  It seems to be much more musically driven for one.  Spaces have tunes in them, characters look cooler than they do in SecondLife, models can do all kinds of dances and the world, well all VR worlds all have that particular flavor to them, blocky, glowly, semi-neat but kinda dated feel. 

Anyways I snagged some footage of me messing around in game.  Sucked it down into motion, applied some effects and spit it out again.  Its supposed to look distorted and messed up.  Slap a song on their and instant vid. 

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Posted by dan at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think its smoke and mirrors folks.  I think the Gphone is poof, nada, non-existant.  A development in the works?  Sure, potential, but reality device?  Unlikely.. why? 

Lots of reasons, first and foremost, track record.  Google has nada track record for physical products.  Why do we think, assume that a company that excels in search engine technology and online advertising can just crank out a physical device.  I don't see it.  I also do see any evidence of it. 

I think what's more likely is google creating an operating system for a provider like nokia or motorola or samsung.  That seems much more likely, but them coming up with their own physical product and selling it at my local target?  Nah, not happening.

You just don't see the waves, there is no PR turblence on this effort, its hopeful hype at best.  In fact, Google needs to take a few serious pages of PR from Apple's book to pull a feat like this off.  I mean what we got here is track of evidence. 

Google bought Andriod.  Android founders created Sidekick.  Sidekick was btw, a much more closed OS on a mobile device that the supposed closed iphone appears to be.  In fact, iphone is closed only via PR and or inital press, you look on the web and its the next platform to build for, webdev or not, its got the momentum to go the distance to do that. 

So Google has Andriod, sure yer right, they probably are working on something mobile, course you remember that story not so recently about Dodgeball creators fleeing from Google?  Thats a huge mobile social gizmo and its apparently dead at Google, yet that would be something very cornerstone to the Andriod development in Google, at least you'd think.

No, its hype.  Its bad hype at that.  To think that tomorrow I can buy a Gphone seems really really unlikely. 

They don't do physical, they do virtual well, yes, indeed, but don't see their phsyical side, in fact you see nothing in the form of physical side of them.  A Gphone would be a massive leap into the physical space, a space where they have no stores, no vendors, no known relationship outlets in physical stores, they don't even sell books or hats or whatever, i mean they don't sell stuff, they make virtual ware work and they own online advertising space, but they don't make physical things. 

Just seems soo unlikey that they'd make a massive costly leap into a space without first dabbling in that space.  So thats why I say the development is for a provider in that space, a motorola, samsung, sony, nokia.  So who would be a likely partner?  Nokia seems unlikely, they have a sizeable investment in creating their own os, motorola seems like a good choice. 

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Posted by dan at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On October 2nd, 2007.. the game begins.

The race to harness the potential in proximity marketing begins on October 2nd, 2007.  On that day in NewYork and in Seattle, iphones and ipod-touches will be..ENABLED.  The moment you walk into those enviroments, Starbuck's Third Place dynamic spontanously occurs on your mobile device.  Asked or not, it appears.  Want it to leave?  Leave the store.  Walk into the store, its back again.

The race begins October 2nd, get ready! 

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Posted by dan at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've always got ideas cooking, some stay longer than others, most of them taunt me within, constantly nagging me for completion in some form, whether a blog post of actual execution.  We all get ideas really, stuff should be this way or that way, or that could better.  Acting on them is harder than it seems though.  Some are just massive ideas while others, could be small enough to really provoke us to real change.

About a year ago I envisioned a drive thru store called Just Veggies, it would sell.. well just veggies though later i added a sushi bar in the middle of it.  Veggies... i mean sure we all have experienced the drive thru beer and wine carry out, why not veggies?  Veggies is one those things that has a fresh rotation about it.  Beer an wine can sit around forever, but if your trying to eat right, Veggies are on your radar 24/7.  We're always on the go in America, we're always driving to and from somewhere, and we always seem to be short on time, why not stop on by and snag some veggies?!  Get a sushi plate even. 

In general I want the whole shopping experience for food to be.. smarter.  Just about everyone I talk too about shopping for food agrees, to shop wisely and not fill your body with crap is hard to do, and expensive.  Eating right, costs money, get used to it. 

This weekend I told one of my brothers that I could for see a shopping experience where you see nutrition easier in a store.  Its not a brand focus its a "is it good for me focus".  Organize the store by health.  If we all need it so bad, why not?  Stop beating around the bush, lets organize this experience to be optimal. 

This caught my eye today and I totally agree, smart move, one of many to come I bet.  Meanwhile I'll work on those Just Veggies plans... of coruse the first hurdle is location, location, location. 

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Posted by dan at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I seem to go round and round on stocks. I get some interest do some digging, build that fantasy profile and then walk away, then come back in six months and I go "hmmmm, move this to this and that to that..." so here's my lastest dive into the scene.

Keep in mind I know nada really, yet I've always had a knack for pickin good stocks. Basically cashing in on my gut thoughts of where its all going. I think certain players will do x while others will do y. Sometimes I'm right, of course, its those moments I go DAMN why didnt I invest real cash, cause I HAD NONE, but still.. alot of these hunches I get are from just general vibes before the wave breaks really. Its kinda easy to see I think.

So what's on my radar today?

CSCO, strap in man, they are going up el big time. Why? My gut keeps twiching on these guys, they keep buying stuff lately and making long term strides...

NTES, is NetEase, China's #2 internet service provider and all around wonder child. Holding in at about $15 it seems like a perfect buy for cheap folks like me. Google last month talked about a plan in the next 12 months to aquire a large internet provider in China, NTES seems to be a good candidate for acquisition. At the number one spot is BIDU which is holding at $214, and that seems like an unlikely buy. In the 3rd place is SOHU at $33. Anyways, either way I've been keepin my eyes on them. I think the strategy would be to get in nice and quiet and build.

On the China front I've also kept an eye on SNDA and NCTY.. these two companies hold the leash on some 7 million addicted chinese gamers trapped in virtual worlds which are never ending and always on going. NCTY in particular owns some key relationships and release rights to some very popular US games now infecting china. The market and demand for virtual worlds keeps increasing every year. More and more games are coming and theres been a big surge in the sale of virtual goods on ebay, and in direct sites. I know sounds crazy but its fueling attention and interest in cyberspace baby ya. For extreme cheapness you have the WZEN, which at 4 bucks says buy me, and is korea's largest online gaming faction of folks. Remember winter and xmas is coming and all these firms ramp up serious game launches for the winter days ahead, prime gaming season!

Despite the Apple iphone hoopla and while I do think other phone companies should be scared a bit, I think NOK, or nokia will continue to rise. All their experiementing on multi-media, social network enabled phones is starting to pay off. Big in europe at least. Maybe not a big money maker but a steady climb. We'll see an even bigger PR push and presence dancing from them now than ever due to iPhone's sexyness.

YHOO boogles the mind I go through this love hate relationship with them. On the portal front I cant remember the last time I've ever searched on their site. On the 2.0 front they are "the" player on the scene buying 2.0 startups and benefiting from those rewards (delicious, flickr, upcoming, mybloglog, to name a few). Yet they're going thru a big restructure, folks comin and goin and so forth. Still 23 bucks seems cheap for them. Maybe they have some long term cards left up their sleeve, dunno.

SBUX, starbucks, holding at $27, its cheap buy. With the Apple exclusive deal they get to hang out on apple's never ending PR wave and deliver the first real proximity marketing twist we've seen here in the states. What the hell am i talking about? Apple just announced that their new ipods and iphones, both with built in wifi, will now popup with a starbucks button the minute you walk into a starbucks. You will then be able to buy music that you often hear in the starbucks right off your iphone or ipod. Its basically a customized itunes exclusively for starbucks. People can buy tunes on the fly, check out the list of perviously played and so on. Only comes active the minute you walk into a starbucks, thats proximity marketing goodness people, no ones delivered that kind of experience here in the states yet, devices that "sense" via wifi that hey I can push this targeted stuff to my user. The game begins with this effort, we'll see alot more of this especially on the iphone because of the experience it gives. Its a big screen, touch friendly, great audio, built in bluetooth and wifi, its gonna be rich! Now its gonna be a slow roll out, but its baby steps to a big relationship. Get in now, I think that stocks just gonna keep climbing.

Speaking of APPL hanging out at $134, too rich for my blood but it will keep rising. They gained another 13% of the overall PC market share last year. With the rise of virtulization that can be done very easily, MACS can be PCS or even linux boxes all while still being a mac. They are just a massive juggernaught. They annouce something new every 6 months, no ifs, no buts, every six months they get back on the radar with something wildly innovating and new. Their PR machine is amazing and they deliver on the experience every time. I forsee a tablet coming from them in the near future, or a type of ultra portable. iphone's will get GPS by the end of 08 i bet and that whole iphone scene is EXPLODING online, its basically the windows mobile OS scene all over again, lots and lots and lots of new companies, businesses, and so forth will spring just from the iphone release alone. Strange ties with Google too. They share some board memebers with Google.

ok back to work.. more soon...

On the iphone thing, I think Samsung, Nokia and Motorola should be concerned. Mainly because the experience delivered on the iphone is so unique i think. That and its apple and its like WHAM holy frickin cow this is the state of mobile computing baby ya. This combined with the online hacking and development community which will never let the iphone fade a day out of the tech headlines means less attention and less love for whatever your innovating on in your end of the space. Nokia can hang a bit cause its got big strides in the social network, gaming and mobile media scene but motorla and samsung, should be thinking about their US plans mainly. I don't expect samsung to be too conerned in their overseas markets but in the states, I'd be like ummm.. crap. Price wise, Apple does price itself out of the cheap phone experience, but its also training the masses on how the experience should be by getting them on the music side with the ipod touch, which is just a wifi enabled ipod, but then for a phone its not much more, and making the leap to something completely different may make no sense if you have an ipod, makes more sense to go with something that you know will keep delivering the experience you want to have, the iphone.

Another yummy Apple note is that soon they too will be arriving on the Netflix's and Tivo's front lawn with their own video rental service. So right now you can do a few things to see new flicks, you can:

1. blockbuster, pay fines cause yer always late, you physically have to go there too (unless you do the their online option)
2. netflix, they come to you, you pay that monthly fee, you watch, return whenever via mail
3. on the tivo you use amazon's unboxed feature, any movie whenever you want on your tivo
4. i guess we can put movies on demand here
5. and now the itunes option, get them there, and soon, rentals!
6. you bit torrent them.. my prefered method..

Ok so enough about apple. Let's talk AVID, a once and wonderful stock. Now I think they are prime for acqusition. I don't forsee Apple buying these kids, but Autodesk that seems more likely. I've been outa this scene for awhile but Avid's face battle on two fronts, Apple in one corner with the low end, and Autodesk nippin at their heels on the high end. They feel big and slow to me and not that sexy. Could customized hardware solutions be finally fading off as cpu's get faster and faster and faster? Which means less dependence on hardware and more of the experience of editing. I dunno, part of me says its goin down and down and a buy is likely by someone.

Hmmmm well this wraps up my thoughts for the day, more later...

Tags: avid, phg, sbux, apple, appl, goog, ntes, ncty, wzen, nok, stocks, trends

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Posted by dan at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What's even better than the reward of early adoption?  When the product you care to early adopt pays you back for adopting!  Hell ya good job apple! 

Apple to give early adopters $100 credit on iphone purchases.

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Posted by dan at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So folks are ticked about the price drop on the iphone.  Personally you should of seen it coming.  I mean just take it in, feel the pulse of the web regarding this device, its massive, not small, not little, not oh its near, i'm talkin massive.  If your ball is rolling keep it rolling and pound anyone in your path.  Seems like classic art of war mentality here, sure its good now, but lets just drop the drawers on everyone. 

Its the cost of being first really.  You were first to the party with hot shiny tech, you wanted to be first, you wanted it now, you got it, you loved it and 2 months later they dropped the price on ya, oh well.  Thats the price of now.  You want in on the now, you flip you dance you get it.  Tomorrow you're already dated.  Being in the now is hot stuff baby but the art of waiting well thats just not in the mindset of the early adopter. 

So why didn't I adopt sooner?  Wouldn't I be ticked as all hell?  Probably.  Yes and no, I waited cause of two factors, cant afford it and I dont want to spend to get just to get. 

The phone is nice and all but I dont talk to too many folks I'm more interested in development.  Some people just stare at me when I say that but we're sitting on the edge of Apple's rendition of windows mobile development, and what thats in round 6 now?  We got waves and waves to go, there is gonna be whole new businesses arising from the iphone.  Its that massive and its taking shape right now.  Part of me is like, ok here is this awesome device, umm i need to get on it fast, but part of me is also thinking, hold on, what are you gonna make for this niche product? 

Its a niche with million pieces on the street in just two months, that niche is growing damn fast. 

I just can't put into words how massive the development is going to be on the iphone and now the ipod touch.  Apple has blown the doors off the compeition and if they dont realize it now they WILL feel it for the next consecutive 38 months, thats right, years.  The effect of this device is huge.  You can see it on the web, kids, freaks, people, everyone is making bit waves, you can see them all: some are working on new apps, new UI's, new webdev pages, others are harnessing and learning about the multitouch, picking up where apple may of left off, even others are enabling themselves in new ways they either didnt realize existed or considered until now.  WAVE.. massive, tusmani of development and really about a month go was on the edge of the wave, now its ON.. oh ITS ON! 

So picking arpart the cost issue?  Thats lame blogging to generate traffic for your blog.  Yes you too are offended, boohoo, its the price for now, you were hot, get over it, in fact most early adopters have, they are probably debating an ipod touch purchase as well, just cause, ok well maybe the fat nano. :P

But be aware boomkin brothers and sisters we have got alot of wave surfing to do coming up.  And don't cha' just love that big FU in the air?  I mean Apple continually stays in the light.  It has the cycle of innovation to product down, to keep itself in play, in awareness on your radar, constantly...and the experience keeps delivering.  What an awesome trend to seee and to see in action over and over and over. 

Note to Nokia, Samsung and all those other phone developers, you need to regroup FAST.  Its not about carriers its about experiences with superior products.  Apple has that look feel exude both in marketing and in delivery, that superior experience. 

I'd be seriously concerned if I were them.  It may not impact sales now, and you may be ok on the home front but you can't dispute the wave, you see the tsunami just as much or even more than I do, you can't escape that wave that is coming.  You should be freaked out and researching like all hell to avoid the doom that follows. 

Now no doubt there's a fist full of folks who think i'm totally high.  And thats fine, I'll ride out my high fumes and sit back and watch the countless hordes develop like mad for these new devices.  Tags: iphone ipodtouch touch apple mac osx development nokia samsung

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Posted by dan at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The RFID scene for the non-enterprise would be fellow is not a friendly place.  Sure there are readers and tags but software and apps ready to rock?  Well?  No.  You get nada, welcome to indi-RFID.  The DIY aspect of figuring out RFID for non coders, non real DIY'ers who usually hire DIY'ers is that yer screwed... go invent it and have fun.  Inventing software can be expensive, confusing and rewarding.

The scenario was simple really, now that I'm staring at it I don't understand why we didn't do this sooner.  Tag your stuff, PC reads your tags, your stuff is now like data-enabled.

In much of our work at lextant we use objects or stimulus to help people convey emotions easier than digging in their inner soul to find that right experession that fits what they think.  People can use smells, textures, sounds, visual cues like stickers or even simple words to help them express themselves.  This is called stimulus and usually at the end of the project, we give the client, the ones that have to go off and make the future happen, stimulus used in the body of research we just did for them. 

Say it was for a physical product, like a phone.  Participants held in their hands different materials, colors, shapes and surfaces to help them express their ideal phone shape, color, texture, feel.  Now exit stage left and the research is done, we got some good answers and oh ya by the way, here is all the stimulus we used on the project.  Each piece of stimulus has a story with it. 

The goal of RFID is to bridge that divide between having a just an object in your hand to having a data enabled object. 

So instead of clients flipping through reports to know more about stimulus they simply swipe it past a reader and the PC tells them the story. 

Now sounds really simple yet there was nothing, nada, negative on the market to do this easily.  There was no kit.  There was technology, capability but no glue.  So we had to go glue up a concept.  The idea itself could be too far along for some to grasp as well.  But thats the future of objects really.  One way or another they are getting data infused into them.  Just like GPS does to spaces in google maps, RFID can enhance your objects.  Making your data better, richer, more experiential. 

Oh ya.. per the subject heading.  We used phidgets for the hardware and tags, and flash to code the interface. 

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Posted by dan at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Get ready for the gravy train of mondo apple development.  So apple announced the iPod touch yesterday, basically an iphone without the phone and camera parts.  WiFi still there, as is safari and that means webdev kit, and of course its cheaper which means we got yet another means to develop goodness on those devices. 

I basically see a whole platform of development unfolding.  The windows mobile platform is huge business and right now, while perhaps not as open or friendly, its unfolding on there on those ipods and iphones. 

I for see a crap load of develop on the horizon.  I see major market dominance and you may all be yawning back there but I see serious good times ahead for anyone savvy enough to code an iphone app of any sort. 

Course all of this has been rallying in my head lately.  DO  DO  DO is all I hear lately when it comes to these devices.  I keep picturing would be experiences unfolding in a cafe, street corner or on a bus.  GPS would no doubt be a great edition, but we'll have to wait a few months for that.  Meanwhile the cash is burning a hole in my pocket demanding my self go out and get a damn iphone.. and I want to, but I want to do this right. 

RIGHT?  Yes, save up.  Rather than shocking my account is a hole of cash be gone, I'm gonna attempt to save up for it.  We'll see how long this lasts.  Best part of it, this doesn't mean I cant start making apps now. Sammi get crackin!

Tags: apple mac iphone ipodtouch webdev

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Posted by dan at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)