January 2011
34 posts
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AdWeek Recounts Apple 1984 Spot, Also Commits Fact...
On the 25th Anniversary of Apple’s famous 1984 Super Bowl Ad, AdWeek recruited Steve Hayden to write his account. He is currently vice chairman and chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide but back in 1984, he was senior vice president and creative director at Chiat/Day, and the fellow responsible for making the ad happen.
Hayden points out that it is now overlooked that the...
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Hulu's Owners Plan to Crapify It
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the farmer is sharpening his hatchet with eyes on killing the golden goose. NBC Universal, News Corp., and Disney, unable to agree on how to enjoy the spoils of the wildly successful Hulu, are in plans to transform it into a pay-walled video-on-demand cable channel. Craptastic!
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HBR: Wintel Fails Due to Broken Business Model
In a previous post, I discussed three reasons why Microsoft’s CES announcement of Windows future support of System-on-a-Chip (SoC) was a big deal.
An article this week in Harvard Business Review suggests a similar, if more gloomy motivation: the beginning of the end of the Wintel business model.
I don’t think the landscape is quite so bleak for Microsoft and Intel, but the rise of...
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Angry Rant: Taking it to Microsoft Analyst Michael...
At this month’s CES, the Microsoft keynote was capped off by a demonstration of Windows’ next generation OS, ostensibly Windows 8. Test devices from Intel, AMD, and several ARM manufacturers were rigged up to show System-on-a-Chip support, which will be a native of function of Windows NextOS.
The bulk of the entire system was held aloft in a motherboard slightly larger than a...
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Google Voice Ports Mobile Numbers, Briefly
The Washington Post reports that Google Voice, for a brief time earlier today, permitted its users to replace their Google Voice-assigned telephone number with that of a traditional cellular account. This process, known as porting, is prevalent in the traditional mobile telephone space. In fact, it is required under Federal law.
But Google has sidestepped compliance of this statute by claiming...
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Best Tech: Order Chick-Fil-A Online
The *real* point of technology? Help me do what I want to do better. Behold! Order Chick-Fil-A online.
You can order ahead and have it ready for pick-up, OR have it delivered for a $100 minimum. Can you say Waffle Fries?
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Angry Rant: Taking it to Dvorak
In his PCMag column this week, John C. Dvorak takes a swipe at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Consumer Electronics Show and provincial Europeans.
What raised my ire most greatly was Dvorak’s assertion that CES is really just there for the convenience of the press. It isn’t, it wasn’t, and if CES becomes more about the press than about the buyers and sellers of the real...
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Verdict on 3D TV in 2011--Overpriced Buzzkill
Since the advent of television, the storyline that drives sales is the communal experience of watching together. Even now when so much of our screen time is solo, modern advertising amplifies our desire to have the new set ready in time for “The Big Game,” whether that’s the Super Bowl, the World Cup or the Dancing with the Stars finale.
Whatever floats your boat. And of course,...
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One Less Thing: Verizon & Friends Announce Lots of...
This morning Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg addressed attendees of the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show with impressive new technology. For many hopeful Verizon customers, however, there was no mention of Apple or a prospective Apple iPhone whatsoever.
But what Seidenberg and his posse did announce was noteworthy: Verizon COO/President Lowell McAdam touted Verizon’s onward march with FiOS,...
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Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg Takes the Stage for CES Keynote
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Time Warner CEO Announces TV Everywhere Concept—Pay Once and Play on Any Device or Platform
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Google Engineering Chief Mike Cleron Sneak Peeks...
New features: Google Video Chat, Availability status of address book contacts, improved multitasking. Browser tabs at top of browser, “the way nature intended.”
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No One More Thing: Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg DOES NOT Announce Apple iPhone
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Motorola Mobility CEO Announces Droid Bionic 4G Handset and Motorola Xoom Tablet Running Android 3 OS
“By 2014 70% of all consumer electronics will be connected to the Internet”
– CES CEO Gary Shapiro
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More on Kinect Avatar
An interesting new wrinkle on Kinect’s capability to handle facial recognition: “Avatar” is a Mii-like cyber-you that engages in real-time conversations with your friends, but in a virtual space. It’s real voices but fake visual versions of the people. The example shown involved a group of teenagers trash talking each other’s preferences around a virtual roundtable,...
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“Kinect Avatar”
– Announced
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AT&T Network Choking at CES
While strictly anecdotal, fellow CES attendees continue murmuring that AT&T is struggling more than other major carriers to keep data connectivity to mobile devices in and around the Las Vegas Convention Center. Of course, pack any 120,000 people into a roughly square mile area and you’re bound to encounter some problems. But of course, CES attendees are not like the general population....
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Ballmer Addresses CES Tonight -- Live Blog Here on...
This is not the first time Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will address the Consumer Electronics Show. Nor is it the first time he will feature a tablet concept.
Just last year, Ballmer showed off several design concepts that never made it to market. The iPad, announced by Apple just a few days later, had already lapped the field upon its launch.
Check this space for CES news as it happens....
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CES Preview: Verizon iPhone?
Will they or won’t they? That’s the question on everyone’s lips at CES this week.
For the first ever, the CEO of Verizon, Ivan Seidenberg will give a CES Keynote, scheduled for Thursday morning. The rumor mill is in overdrive about what Mr. Seidenberg will talk about. But, the story that just won’t die—a possible Apple iPhone on the Verizon network might just finally...
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CES 2011 Preview: Sharp's Brilliance
3-D TV emerged at last year’s 2010 CES with major fanfare. Then it flopped.
Last year’s Consumer Electronics Show was all abuzz with the Next Big Thing. I’m sitting here looking at a presentation I delivered just a few days after last year’s show. The first slide predicts the current crop of 3-D sets as a “#Fail” because the technology is good but not great,...
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Happy, Underinformed, #Fail, New Year
I don’t begrudge anyone a day off of work—I’m enjoying one right now. In the 21st Century, however, companies have some obligation to communicate that they are not going to be open on any particular day that a reasonable person might expect they might be.
This morning my shopping list includes a Costco trip and a haircut.
In both cases, the places are closed. But you...