Marketing in Documentation
August 9, 2008
I was reading a document from Apple and found the following interesting…
This stuff is right in their documentation.
If you are wondering why you are using MS Windows or you already made your decision and would like to switch from MS Windows to Mac OS X please visit http://www.apple.com/getamac/ and use your Apple discount to buy a new Mac.
Are Social Networks Any Good?
May 13, 2008
I am not sure about you, but I am really tired of all the social networking news out there. I guess I am sick of the hype surrounding it and I no longer follow it.
I have a Facebook account (along with ton of others), connected to my friends, added Apps, joined groups, added photos, added videos….but, then what? What do I do next? Poke Friends?
After doing all these stuff, I noticed I don’t do much with that. I know I am not alone here. I really don’t see much value on these social networks to login regularly after connecting with people. If connecting with people is what these apps do, then I don’t think I need them as I am already connected with the people I care with in other ways (IM, Email, Phone etc). Unless social networking is built around the apps I use regularly, I think it is not going to go far.
I couldn’t care less on all the Social Networking related news lately. This ends my rant of the week, I guess 
iPhone Usage Stats
May 13, 2008
I was checking out my iPhone usage stats today and found that I did more than 1GB of data transfer on the iPhone just on the EDGE Network…excluding WiFi. This is freakishly high compared to my data transfer rates on my previous Blackberry Pearl.
The Data Received itself crossed 1GB and the data sent is around 200MB.
As I mentioned earlier, iPhone as an internet communicator impressed me more than other cool stuff. I can clearly see the change in my usage pattern and am sure I am not alone.
How does your usage stats look?
Another reason to use Online Apps
April 25, 2008
Here is another reason to use Online Apps..
For those who are heading to the US, here is a word of caution – the border agents can now search your laptop even without a cause.
This follows a US Federal Appeals Court ruling, earlier this week, that agents at the border do not need any “reasonable suspicion” to search through travellers’ laptops.
In other words, computers are like any other luggage going through the border, and hence, subject to searches at US national borders and airports.
More info here…
Sync between iTunes?
March 18, 2008
I am trying to find a simple Sync utility that synchronizes all my music, podcasts (atleast the configuration of podcasts), videos etc across multiple iTunes instances running in different machines. Do you know if there is any? If so, please let me know. I have been looking for something like this for a while.
Interestingly, Apple’s Sync functionality, that comes as part of the .Mac subscription, works for most of the other applications except iTunes. While it could be because of copyrighted content Apple doesn’t want to enable sync for iTunes, Apple certainly allows us to share/copy music manually between multiple instances (3 instances) of iTunes. May be they don’t want to make it easier to sync the copyrighted content?
I am essentially looking for a simple Sync tool that keeps my music etc synced between my iMac, MacBook Pro and Windows PC. Do let me know if you have any ideas.
If we look at this broadly, the Sync issues exist only when the apps/data reside on the desktops. If everything is on the cloud, we certainly can overcome these issues. Can we expect a weB-based iTunes? May be it is too much to ask from Apple….atleast for now.
Online Advertising 2.0
March 17, 2008
This post came from some random thoughts on the advertising markets. If you have some time to waste, please read on…
Currently, we know that Google is the king in online advertising. There are predictions that the advertising market is going to grow drastically going forward, which I agree, and I think we are just getting started in the online advertising space. But the interesting fact is, there are not many noticeable players in the market apart from Google.
Google is the current king in online advertising market primarily on contextual textual ads. But then, there are many other forms of advertising where we need some innovation coming from new players in this market. Hopefully we’ll see some new players emerge in this market with some interesting ideas.
I think there are many forms of contextual online advertising that not are well explored at this point.
- Content based advertising (Google is doing a good job on this one)
- Person Based (Targeting individual – based on a person, his preferences, habits, interests, hobbies etc)
- Time Based
- Location Based
- …and more
The most powerful and more targeted form can be a combination of all of the above.
Google currently owns the content based advertising. But other forms remain fairly unexplored. I hope companies like Facebook, Spock etc will innovate more on people based ads. They have information about an individual, their social interests, relations etc. They can do a good job of targeting ads based on their interests. Scoble has some ideas on how Facebook can create targeted ads.
While there are different concepts/forms of advertising (content based, time based, person based etc), there are different means of delivering these ads (text, banners, videos etc). The delivery methods can be different but they benefit from underlying context. On top of it, they can be monetized by we can have viewer impressions, Pay Per Click etc.
Its been a while that we saw some innovation in the online advertising space. I hope we’ll see more interesting players and interesting trends in this space.
Yahoo! + Microsoft = Death of Zimbra?
February 3, 2008
There is enough being talked about Yahoo! and Microsoft. When you get into the details, some Yahoo! acquisitions might end up no where after the merger. The best example is Zimbra which Yahoo acquired for $350 Million.
If you look at Zimbra, it really is an Exchange competitor. Yahoo probably bought it to build a platform around email gaining from Zimbra’s expertise on email. When Microsoft completes the acquisition, we can safely assume that the exchange competition will no longer exist. Yahoo might integrate some goodies from Zimbra into its webmail client. But then, Microsoft has enough email client(s) in Outlook, Outlook Express, Outlook Web Access and ofcourse Hotmail with tighter integration with their software.
What do we see at the end of the day? There might be some client side JavaScript goodies integrated into Yahoo Mail and nothing much. All the server side stuff of Zimbra might die a quick death. That’d be my guess. We should revisit this topic a year later.
What do you think? Is Yahoo’s $350 Million investment in Zimbra wasted with Microsoft’s aquisition?
Television 2.0
January 21, 2008
Over the last few years we have seen several changes in televisions with screen sizes increasing, thickness decreasing etc. I think these changes are just the beginning stages of a bigger change to the television. Over the next few years I expect some important changes to the TV like…
- Integrated Wireless Connectivity (this is going to be an important starting point)
- Integrated of Audio/Video/Pictures (Music, Family Entertainment, Photos etc)
- Integrated of Entertainment Units (DVD/Blu-Ray Player, DVR etc)
- Transmission over the web (like SlingMedia)
- Podcasts Integration (This is going to be key integration)
- Convergence of Gaming Systems (If everything is based on software, all PC games can work on these televisions)
- Convergence of Rental Systems (Directly renting from online systems and through cable systems)
- Integrated Browser
- Built-in Cam (think family conferencing)
I expect these systems to integrate with other systems…
- Integration with your telephone system so that the Caller ID is displayed on your television etc
- Integration with your PCs/Laptops etc
For all of this to happen, there needs to be a good platform that’ll make it easier for TV manufacturers. We need a good operating system for televisions (more on this later). That OS for TV can even be Android.
We’ll see how this key living room hardware will evolve over the next few years as the computers and televisions collide. What do you think? Any thoughts on how the television will evolve?
Can OpenID Takeoff?
January 16, 2008
I just returned from a WebGuild event (which was great BTW with around 200 attendees) thinking about an interesting discussion we had about OpenID. One of the panelists asked how many people in the audience are familiar about OpenID. It turns out that about 40% of them knew about it. But when he asked about how many people use OpenID, only 2 hands were ’sort of’ up. This certainly says something.
The concept of OpenID is really great. We need a common authentication across different applications on the web. We certainly will have a solution some day going forward. But is OpenID the solution? I seriously doubt it. Why?
Well, I know the concept of OpenID. But if you ask me how to use it, my frank answer is ‘I don’t know’. I know I have some account, but I don’t know how to use it. It is simply complicated. On the web, we are all used to the username/password form of authentication. If that behavior has to change, it is a HUGE ask. Change is tough. Just for this reason alone, I think OpenID may not be THE open authentication system for the web.
Update: Yahoo implements OpenID. Can Yahoo save the project? I doubt it.
My Take on Apple’s Announcements
January 16, 2008
Now that the much awaited MacWorld is here and the announcements have been made, here is my take…
MacBook Air
There is no doubt that this is a stunning piece of innovation. I’d buy one if only the price is a bit lower. Will there be a price cut in few months like we saw with iPhone? Possible, but don’t count on it. All the specs look excellent. I don’t know the maximum screen resolution on this one though. I wish they included an EVDO. For guys on the road, this is a great laptop.
iTunes Rental
As expected, this is a good move. One thing I didn’t expect though is a free upgrade to existing AppleTV customers. This comes as a surprise and I have no complains here. I am looking forward to playing with it. But frankly, I don’t care about movie rentals. I use AppleTV primarily for Video Podcasts. Its an awesome box for podcasts.
iPhone Update
The iPhone update is another expected one which is good. The best feature according to me is shortcuts (or web clipping as they call it). Now I have shortcuts to all the websites I visit regularly on my iPhone. I can’t wait for custom apps in Feb. The extra price tag for iPod Touch is a bummer though.
Time Capsule
I have been using Time Machine on my iMac successfully and I was hoping for this feature for a while. This is a good move for Apple. What is unclear is support for existing Airport Extreme customers like me. I hope it’ll work when I plug-in a hard drive to my existing Airport Extreme through USB. If not, it’ll be a bummer for existing customers. Interestingly, Steve Jobs didn’t talk about environmental friendliness of this product while he said he’d do so for all new releases. Is it because this is not built with Aluminum (like the other products?). Overall, this is a very good move.
Overall, a great start for the year. I can’t wait for more updates. I guess the wall street is expecting Steve to exceed his previous performance (MacWorld 2007 where he introduced iPhone).
