Yammer is Twitter for companies. Can anyone please tell me why they won the main prize at TC50? I don’t see any innovation in this product at all. It is like making a new kind of coke.
Companies I did like at TC50:
Payoneer – Of course, best company ever.
Flyscreen – Go Itamar
Any additions?
-Aryeh
Apple’s main theme in this past event was music. They launched a new service called Genius, in which with the click of a button you get recommendations to similar songs, and the iPod or iTunes automatically populates a playlist inside your own music collection. The request goes to some fancy algorithm cloud, and it is supposed to all be anonymous. What they don’t tell you is that you need to open an iTunes account in order to use the service. In order to open an iTunes account, you need to provide a US billing address and credit card number.
It’s just so backwards that they claim that Genius is anonymous, but they still need our private details. Ok so they don’t gather info on our song preferences, but rather all the private information that they can easily get from the credit card companies. Bad concept and dumb feature. I’m not going to use Genius.
-Aryeh
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New iPod Touch
Well, yesterday I did something for the first time ever, I preordered a new Nano from Amazon. The new iPod lineup does not dissapoint. When I first encountered the Nano 3rd generation, I truly did not think they can make it any thinner, the thing was like three pieces of paper.
Well, not only did they make the new 4th generation thinner (now it is like two pieces or maybe even one, it is ridiculously thin), but they now offer a 16GB version of the Nano. I have an old 4th generation iPod (maybe if I had a few more readers, Apple would send me the new iPods for review) that is around seven times the size of the new Nano, and it only holds 20 GB, and this thing holds 16? That is just nuts.
They added this new “Shake to Shuffle” (do I have to explain what that is? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the name says it all) feature, which is kinda cool, I guess. However, the huge enhancement for me, is the addition of the accelerometer. How did they manage to get that inside such a microscopic machine? It is really amazing. And those colors, I mean, I am generally not into colors, but you got to admit, those are some nice colors.
The new iPod touch does not dissapoint either. It is also thinner, and it has the whole Nike+iPod chip built in, which once again, leads me to the question, how did they get that into such a thin machine? The iPod Classis remains the iPod Classic, a little thinner and more memory, nothing huge there.
The one big thing that Apple just announced in the Nano, the Touch, and iTunes is this new Genius feature (you gotta love the names that Apple comes up with, makes me wonder if there is someone within Apple that sits around and comes up with these names). Basically, you can select a song and with one click, creat a similar playlist. I am not sure I would use this feature, but let’s wait and see how well it does.
All in all, after watching Steve Jobs’ keynote, the first thing I did, was call Amazon and order a new Nano (granted it was for my younger brother, but if I could afford it, I would buy the new Touch), so suffice it to say, I was impressed with the new lineup.
– Hillel
New iPod Nano Colors
Interesting ad, what do you think?
Check out the TC50 live stream
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This is totally pathetic. It makes no sense at all. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Today I downloaded Chrome along with the rest of the world, and am pretty impressed with the speed and design, but I am looking forward to the plugin capabilities similar to that of Firefox. I need my plugins to block the adverts, my social bookmarking tool bar, and tab management. If you watch the Google press conference about the program, they blabber on about tabs and about their design etc. but where the hell are the settings to change the functionality of the tabs? I want anything I type in the address bar to open in a new tab, not the same one, is that too much to ask? Overall it needs work, but its fast and it works great with Google Reader and Gmail, so I’m happy, but not going to use it as an everyday browser.
I also download IE8 today, come on Microsucks… which moron came up with this browser? They are regressing in their design. They want to integrate their own StumbleUpon into the browser, which is totally unnecessary because StumbleUpon already exists, and if people choose to use the program, they will. Internet browsing needs to be simple and clean, and if people want to make it complicated, they can choose to do that themselves with plugins. On to the installation… Ok this is the story, I downloaded Chrome and within 2 minutes, I was browsing. On the other hand, I download IE8 and it takes a good 5-7 minutes to install and to the run the installation, and then I need to restart the computer??? Its an Internet browser not an operating system, why the heck should I need to restart the computer to install a program? Again the largest computer company in the world can not figure out how to install a program without rebooting, its pathetic. Noting really new or innovative with the new IE8 and I’m not surprised.
-Aryeh
I dont want to be almost there just install the freakin program!
Addition:
This just proves my point. Look how heavy IE8 file is:
Breaking away a little from the tech side of the blog and onto the marketing. I just came across this company called Jumbohostel, who have taken a plane and turned it into a hostel.
The jumbo, which was built in 1976 was in serious need of repair after its company went bankrupt in 2002.
” I was getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda. Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda, I didn’t hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck”, Oscar Diös explains.
Oscar Diös previously owned and ran the hostel Uppsala Vandrarhem och Hotel.
In December 2007, Oscar received the permits to move his hotel to the entrance of the Arlanda airport, and in January 2008 the plane was moved to its construction site gutted, and the work began. The plane/hostel is expected to be ready by next summer.
I think that this is definitely going to be a major attraction to this noname place in Sweden. It should surely draw plenty of free press because it’s a great story that includes real innovation.
Here are some pictures of the concept design.
– Aryeh
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Hey,
All the rumors regarding the HTC Dream are starting to materialize, as more and more pictures are starting to leak out. I am very excited about this phone, can’t wait to see the pricing.
Gnight
Aryeh
When you’re on a website and you want to email the URL to a friend, why does it take so many steps? You need to copy the address, open Gmail, paste the address, add the name, and send. Alternatively, if I want to add a meeting to my calendar, I have to open Google Calendar, add an event etc. Come on! We are in 2008, there has to be an easier way.
Ubiquity is the answer, its brand new from from Mozilla Labs. The technology uses open APIs to create a really easy-to-use command program. The shortcut keys are really amazing and very intuitive. It provides you with a set of commands, that when typed, activate certain actions that would have generally taken many more steps.
For example I could type “email this page to Steve” and my Gmail opens with a link in the body, and Steve’s email address in the to field.
Another example is, if I want to search for something or get directions to somewhere on Google Maps, you can type “map my home address to the location” and then email it by writing ” email this to Me.”
The best part is that you can easily customize the commands and shortcut keys to fit your needs.
So take a look at the movie below to better understand what I am rambling about.
Try it and let me know what you think.
Aryeh
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