Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Facebook Will Soon Rule

Facebook has announced that it will be slowly phasing in a new type of inbox and messaging system in the next few months. The new system will enhance the message box that many people now have. It will serve as a way to chat with friends, kind of like the way you do now, but better apparently. But, more importantly, they will provide a way for you to integrate your pre-existing email account to your facebook message inbox.

This is very neat in my opinion. I know a lot of people in the professional world use email, as do I, but facebook is a great way to keep in touch with people that you may not have email addresses for. For instance, I have many contacts from undergrad or church, etc. that I may not have email accounts for. This is a perfect way to contact them instead of searching for their emails. If you can send and receive facebook messages similarly to the way you do emails, then the transition will be seamless.

This is just another way that technology will provide an easier way to communicate. The consolidation and centralization of using just one communication hub will make things easier for users as well.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Windows of Opportunity

So as I went to bed the other night, I heard a commercial discussing different options and/or features of the new Windows phone. While I admit, I was not paying that much attention to it (I'm pretty happy with the iPhone), what did catch my attention was the fact that it is now compatible with Mac computers. I couldn't help but think this was unnecessary and perhaps maybe a little dumb.

If I were to buy a windows phone, it would most likely be for the sole reason of having an operating system similar to that of the one on my computer. If that differs, then the windows phone doesn't really provide that many useful features to me.

I got to thinking though that I bought an iphone when I had a pc (I now have a Mac), but I still felt that the two were not as different as the windows phone being used on a mac. The iPhone, from my point of view, is almost an autonomous device. While an apple product, it can be used as its own phone and personal assistant-type device and also an ipod. While it was not designed necessarily for pc's, the transition into that realm doesn't seem too crazy to me.

But in terms of expanding from pc's to mac's when thinking about a window's phone, it seems that they are trying to be too centralized and condense too many things when they should just stick with the operating system the phone was created for in the first place. While I'll admit that I have not done much research, or even played with the Windows phone, it still seems that having a phone based on one operating system that is compatible with another system that one may not have on another computer, would be unnecessary and perhaps problematic.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Google Can Predict The Future

Google has announced they can predict election results by using search results inputted into their search engines. They looked at the most popular searches in the month of October and the issues that were searched about and compared that to the stances that the politicians represented in their campaign.

Common phrases were unemployment, recession, immigration, etc. The margin of error between these predictions was very small. This is a very interesting fact because search results could probably predict many other things about a person as well. It is interesting to see how technology can track a person’s preferences and trends and gather data based on what they do. This is very important when used from a company’s perspective. If a company can get results on what people search, they can tailor their approach to what each customer is wanting.

Gathering and analyzing data from these searches is very crucial to firms’ success.

Google said the most-searched items for the upcoming elections was concerning marijuana in the California elections and immigration in the Arizona elections.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Does SOFTware Make Things Hard?

Windows has announced they are thinking about launching and introducing Windows 8 in 2012. It seems as though Windows has come out with a new update every two years or so like clockwork.

When I bought my laptop a little over three years ago, it came with Windows Vista. Since then, they have come out with Windows 7 and now they are thinking about Windows 8. I had just bought the computer after XP was considered outdated. So within four years, there has been four software updates and operating system changes to the PC community.

This is an example of things becoming harder because of technology. People will now have to devote more time to learning a new operating system rather than keep using their old system they are familiar with. I am positive that the new system will have upgrades and make certain tasks easier, but I don't think the new system will make drastic changes that will totally affect the operations. I think staying with a consistent method of work would allow people to stay more efficient and also allow for more information transfer since others would be using different systems.

There could be a situation where there are four different people working on something with four different operating systems and software systems. This could lead to lost information, changed information or other miscommunication.

I think this is an example of technology changing too fast and not bringing with it necessary upgrades to encourage change.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Apple Continues Growth

In this article that talks about things we have learned from Apple in the past year, it shows many trends that I find interesting. It speaks of Apple thinking about buying and merging with a lot of different entities such as something like facebook. It doesn’t say specifically, but something like that would be huge for Apple. The other thing the article mentions is that the iPad is gaining ground in the enterprise and the market they are targeting. The third learning point is that the iPhone is in a race with the android. And finally, we see that Mac sales are increasing.

If Apple merges or buys a bigger company, then that will be a huge event in the media world. Apple already has a leading edge on technology, now if they can buy the company that serves another purpose such as social networking or other information lookup, then they can be the leader in information services and technology services. That would make their product untouchable. They would be the leader in updates and improvements.

The fact that the iPad is gaining sales means that people are moving more and more to mobile computing and the iPhone is not covering their needs. The iPad offers such a better display and such that is attractive to consumers. If the iPad offers more capabilities in terms of software, then sales could skyrocket even more. This leads to the next point of the iPhone sales being in a battle with the Android. This does not mean, in my opinion, that the iPhone is losing its advantage, it just means that there are more options out there, and the people that may have bought an iPhone are now buying an iPad, or changing technologies based on other factors like service or price of cell-phone carriers.

The increase in Mac sales shows me that consumers are worried about having a centralization between the things they do. They don’t want a PC and an iPhone and have to worry about compatibility issues. Having an iPad or an iPhone and then a Mac computer on top of that would make the work from home rather seamless and make workers more efficient.

http://www.cio.com/article/623274/7_Innovation_Secrets_of_Steve_Jobs_

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Computer On The Go Phone Coming Out

Windows and AT&T have teamed up and have announced a windows 7 phone that is coming out in the next few days.

While the phone may have to compete with the iphone, it is still very important and exciting to me. I feel as though this is another big step to having an even smarter smart phone. Iphones and droids have so much ability and potential to be a stand-alone device rather than a supplementary device.

Iphones still do not use flash or other software programs that are not installed on the phone itself. Having a windows 7 phone may encourage the iphone to create more of a computer operating software on it so they can access all of the computer programs that a regular computer can. If phones add another device like this and can have a system that is the same as the computers people use, this would be a huge step in making work easier and the transfer of data from one place to another more seamless.

I can't wait to see what impact this has on Iphone and other smart phone sales, but also what it does to the next generation of Iphones.

Monday, September 27, 2010

People Matter Too

In this article, there is a lot of focus on processes, and trying to come up with the perfect process that fits a business. But what I think is interesting is that the author says that you can't come up with a perfect process without factoring in the people that will be in the process.

A process may sound perfect on paper, but if the people don't buy into it or if the people can't adapt to the process, then the business will fail or will have to find something else to create a change.

Certain changes don't always work even if it sounds perfect. People must be factored into the equation as well. In a growing age of technology I think this is very important because we tend to take people for granted and don't think of them as quite as important as they really are.

After all, we are the central part of the equation in all businesses and processes and we are the factors that make things work or not. Humans must also manage the work and the process for things to be successful. Very interesting to me that not everything can be solved with more technology. Sometimes that is a bad thing.



http://www.cio.com/article/619276/Processes_and_the_People_Factor?source=rss_news

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Facebook Outage Leads To Realization

Thursday saw the longest facebook outage in four years according to the article linked below. It made me think...what has facebook done to me.

I have had a facebook account for the past 6 years from my first year at Mississippi State as an undergrad. I have slowly added friends, used the chat mechanism, sent messages and also relied on status updates to figure out what my friends were doing or were planning on doing.

When facebook was down, I couldn'd do any of this. I then realized that I could easily find these things out by other means of communication. Email, text, etc. It made me realized how much technology there is out there. But it also made me realize how facebook has relied on instant communication. I made four phone calls to people I hadn't talked to in a few weeks during that time just to see what they were up to cause I couldn't check in on them through facebook.

The increased phone usage may have been due to me traveling, or perhaps that my birthday was in four days, but considering the content of the discussions, I would believe otherwise. It made me realize that our world is so used to instant information and the ability to get information from a wide set of places at once rather than rely on one medium (phone) at a time and then call someone else.


Strange to think about, but when technology is taken away, you realized how much you rely on it.

http://www.cio.com/article/618313/Facebook_Apologizes_for_Worst_Outage_in_4_Years?source=rss_news

Sunday, September 19, 2010

A New stand on a Newsstand

Apple has announced it will team up with many newspapers and magazines to sell subscriptions and single issues to consumers digitally through the iphone, ipad and even itunes.

I personally like this move. We all have discussed over the past few years how the newspaper industry has been dying, and how it will become extinct. Although I believe we are moving to the age where there won't be any paper boys delivering papers in the morning, I think this move will preserve the print media. It will be in a different form, but it will not change that much from what we already know. We will read it on an electronic screen rather than ink on paper.

This move will also help ads be targeted towards each individual person or reader, creating a market of one. Apple could use the likes and preferences through itunes to develop advertisements tailored to the individual. This would cut down on flipping through ads in the newspaper and magazines that don't pertain to you.

The only thing that is keeping publishers from going all-in with this is that Apple will receive a cut of the profits. They say that Sony doesn't receive a cut of the profit from tv shows watched on their sets. While I agree with this point, I still believe this move will help increase circulation and readership by substantial amounts. This move and partnership I think will save the newspaper and magazine industry.


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Facebook Banned?

Yes, Facebook has been banned by Harrisburg University on campus. According to the article below, the Provost has blocked the social networking site Facebook and also twitter, instant messengers and other social networking sites.

Apparently, he did not block them for any other reason except to see how the students would react. All computers and wireless systems would block your access, but you could still access it on smart phones.

Actually, this comes as a surprise because the aim of the University is to address Pennsylvania's need for increased technology. While I support the effect of the research, I think the experiment could be done in another way, perhaps using something better to officially ban the networks.

This however was not the first thing I thought of. I always hear of how Facebook is bad for students attention and things along those lines. But, actually, Harrisburg could fully support Facebook and team with the company to implement certain things even further. Facebook certainly has its social components and was started as a site for friends, but it could be so much more. It works as a calendar, group setting, email database, and more.

In this case, I think Harrisburg and other Universities should look at how they could INCREASE the use of Facebook. I definitely think the use of Facebook will help in the professional world as weird as that may sound. I use Facebook for the obvious reasons, upload pictures, keep in touch with my friends, see what is going on around campus, etc. But, I also use it to market my company, set events, and send mass messages regarding certain meetings or information that needs to be explained further. It allows to you to make sort of a personal webpage for an event or organization without paying the domain name fee, and it is a lot faster.

With that being said, I am interested in seeing the results of this study, but I think that the increased use of Facebook could actually be a good thing on college campuses.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

American People Get Louder Voice

The White House recently started a site called challenge.gov that will give readers, contributors and other citizens a voice that they may not have had if it were not for updated technology. The purpose of the site is to get the public's help on tough problems that the government is having problems solving.

This is a very unique approach. From a political standpoint, it allows constituents to directly (for the most part) contact their politicians on issues that affect them. Not only can they voice their opinions and say that they would like something to be done, but they can actually give possible solutions to the problems as well. In this way, it is very in tune with the advancement of technology. In my opinion, it will work as a wiki site. Not necessarily for all Americans, but for politicians and the engineers working on particular problems. The pool of possible solutions will be looked at and discussed before arriving at a decision.

This is a social networking aspect that will enhance the political structure of the American system, giving the people more of a voice, something that most Americans want. Also, it will continue to make the U.S. a smaller country in terms of differences each area possesses. By this I mean there is a lot of unfamiliarity between the south and the west coast, and the northeast and the midwest for instance.

This site also allows people to post pictures of landmarks and interesting points in their areas. This allows people to experience what other parts of the country experience and bring us closer together as a country.

The most important aspect of this site, in my opinion is the rapid feedback the government will get from its people, and the possible return of information from the government back to site users. This will be the first major technological advance that will allow what is for the most part one-on-one communication with government officials.

http://www.cio.com/article/610317/White_House_Launches_Site_Asking_for_Citizen_Help?source=rss_news

Monday, August 30, 2010

Google continues Gobbling

Google shows no signs of slowing down their hunger to eat up the social networking market. According to the article below, they bought SocialDeck, which makes games and applications you can play with your friends on blackberry phones and Iphones. This goes along with what I have seen recently over the summer and the past few months.

I have G-mail, and I have noticed them implementing things along the way to make Google and Gmail more interactive and user friendly. They instituted buzz, which allows you to update your status, much like twitter. Also, they have a friends list now and you can follow people that you communicate with on a regular basis. The following is much like twitter, but the saved contacts, and the ability to email or contact them is much like facebook. They add another dimension which allows users to video and voice-call there contacts. Much like Skype.

These additions are making Google a much more powerful company, but all of there additions and acquisitions are improving the customers efficiency. The customer now can go to one spot, Google, to communicate in a variety of ways, rather than go to twitter to update a status, facebook to look at pictures and events, and call someone using skype. Google offers all of these options, from Buzz, email, google groups, calendars, even the ability to upload documents for other people to share and edit rather than emailing back and forth.

I personally think this is great. The fact that you can condense six or seven social networking sites into one, maybe two is very intriguing. More efficient, less hassle. The recent acquisition of SocialDeck will only expand their consumber and customer base. This now attracts people that may not be into social networking, but are into social gaming. The purchase ties both aspects into Google.

The ability of Google to handle all of these social networking needs is almost a mirror image of companies and work places today getting more organized and more efficient. The more you can do with less seems to be the idea with companies and consumers today, and Google is offering that. You can do more with Google than you can with any one other social networking site, and you can do just about as much with Google as you can with the "industry leader."











http://www.cio.com/article/607665/Google_Scoops_Up_Fifth_Company_This_Month?source=rss_news