I was reading (and watching) about the Bloom Box – http://mashable.com/2010/02/25/bloom-box-videos/ – a new “fuel cell” technology. Apparently the concept is that you have a variable stack of these fuel cells (i.e. more means more electricity) and you pass fuel (such as natural gas or biogas) along with air and it produces electricity with less emissions. The goal is that in the future they could sell a “box” for about $3000 that could power an american home (less for other countries). Already some companies are using this technology – principally in California due to the subsidies involved (and the positive PR). Read more »
I’m wondering if Palm has a future – given the intense competition in the smartphone market. There was a rumor they were shutting down production but I still wonder about the long term. I’ve been a long term Palm user – back to the Handspring day so I’m actually a fan. I’ve been using some Palm apps for quite a few years – and was an original fan of “Grafitti” I’ve been thinking about upgrading from my Palm Centro to a Palm Pre for a while -but am wondering if that’s a good long term strategy. Read more »
I’ve played with Google Buzz some the last few days and have some first impressions. Frankly I’m still trying to find my equilibrium with social networks – the best way to interact with them. I had heard about Buzz (from Twitter) so I decided to try it. This involved doing something I hadn’t done for some time – log into Gmail. I’ve never really been a Gmail user – as I’m used to my Outlook client and the multiple e-mail addresses I have. In fact recently I merged 2 different outlook files together – plus and archive file. I’m a pack rat when it comes to e-mails – keeping just about everything. Read more »
The news about Google is starting to get interesting – in terms of the scope of what they are addressing now. Google seems to be building a vertical stack of services to cover almost everything to do with the computer. This goes back to what Jeff Jarvis said – Google makes money when we use the web (advertising, advertising, advertising) – and faster means more:
Google announced today they’re planning on testing out a new 1 gigabit internet service (http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi) – so they could be in the neighborhood soon.
Google has a DNS service (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/) – the magic thingy that translates the names we type in into the numbers that define the internet.
Google has Gmail – it’s free web-based e-mail service. It has a corresponding calendar, contacts, etc. service. One concept of calendars is you can share them – have group calendars, etc.
Google has it’s Google Docs – word, processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc. – so you can do those basics online. Read more »
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit the Kansas City Symphony with my daughter’s school class. It was a great experience – they had an very educational focus – a program aimed at the kids that started before the concert. My daughter enjoyed it and likely learned a lot from the event. I also like the symphony a lot – wishing I could go more often. I played the French horn up through High School and I love music – so the symphony has my sympathy and support.
What was interesting though was how concerned they were about people taking pictures or video of the performance. I wonder if they should be encouraging people to take pictures/video or should continue with their policy to ban it? It is in their best interest to tightly control their content or should they engage with their audience – encouraging them to share about their experience? Read more »
One of the most interesting things I’ve read today about the Apple iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad/) was that it featured it’s own processor- the Apple A4. This is a custom processor that runs at 1Ghz and is supposed to be very power efficient – which would be essential in a tablet. From what I can tell a consumer company creating it’s own chip is a break from trends – as even Apple switched to Intel for it’s computers.
Overall I was a little underwhelmed by the iPad – except for the price. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it might be – going from $499 to $899 – based on memory and 3G capability. This price point may actually be reasonable – considering the device essentially compares to the netbook niche. That’s what I see this as – as Apple’s positioning between a smartphone and a laptop. For that price you may actually get some sales – more than just Apple addicts – but for people who just want to surf the web, check their e-mail, read a book, listen to music, watch a movie – not a full computer but something easy to use.
I don’t know how much of an advantage their own chip has – it might depend on how much it cost – versus how much better it is than Atom or ARM based chips. It is an interesting trend toward power efficient processors – after the era of chips being a fire hazard. I think that’s where windows mobile as always had a problem – as it’s not very power efficient – vs. the old Palm phone I have. This tells you something about Apple – they made it themselves instead of using someone’s technology -because they could. It’s something Google would do (oh wait – they made their own phone hardware and OS). It definitely has a better cool factor than a Chrome based PC – even though those might be more functional in some core ways – but the “thinner” device seems to be in now…
I read this article on Techcrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/26/lessig-calls-google-book-settlement-a-path-to-insanity/ about a view on the Google Book project. The author, Lawrence Lessig, criticizes the Google Book project settlement on concerns over how this might change copyright law. He’s concerned with if books are treated in parts – instead of in totality – it will make future usability very difficult.
I agree that this digital world has seriously challenged the role of intellectual property in our society. The power of technology has changed our ability to use “intellectual” property in new ways – to make it much easier to store, use, copy, share, etc. what is someone else’s work. Read more »
I was directed to this by a LinkedIn discussion – a video about video blogging. This seems like an interesting trend – as it may make blogging with your customers more interesting – as they get to see you face to face. For some people video may be more natural than typing – so they may be more effective communicators. I can also see how you could use this for more than just talking about something – you could show it. If you are working on a project you could show intermediate progress – or a prototype of a product.
The other day I was working on a Facebook “FAN” page for a client of mine and posted an update as a link to a page on his site. I was surprised at how effective the link preview looked – it managed to capture not only a picture from the page but some key text off the page. I was very happy with the results and wanted to brag about a good piece of technology:
I noticed yesterday a new feature on Google’s search – near-real time results. There is a box on the search results that was changing – it was showing some real-time search results:
February 26, 2010 7:59 pm | 
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