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Great David Pogue Lecture/Stand-up
David Pogue, who is an columnist at the at the NY Times, gave this lecture, which is more like a stand up comedy show. Check it out!
-Aryeh
Twitter: My New Addiction
One of the main buzz words on the Web for at least 6 months (probably more like a year) has been Twitter. Seems like everyone who is anyone, is using it. So of course I had to check it out. Before I did that though, I talked it over with a few friends and asked a simple question; “why would I use Twitter to read status updates if I can do that via Facebook?” I really did not get the point. Status updates? That’s all?
The main answer I got to my question was that Twitter is a simpler and more user friendly site than Facebook. No applications, no ads, no other annoyances that we find all too often on Facebook. After using Twitter for a few weeks now and admittedly becoming an addict, I can tell you that the answer I got is an accurate one, but that is not what makes Twitter so attractive. That is not what is going to take Facebook users away from Facebook.
So, if not that, then what? Why is Twitter so useful? Why has it become such a popular social networking tool? I am sure there are a lot of different explanations for this phenomenon, but to me, there is one major difference between the people you interact with on Facebook and on Twitter. Let me explain. Facebook is based on a “friend” system. Generally, your Facebook friends are people you know personally. Yes, I know everyone has people on their list that they do not know, but Facebook is geared toward adding your real life friends to your list.
Twitter, on the other hand, enables you to follow someone you do not know, have never met, and probably will never meet. You can follow their tweets if their life interests you. The thing is though, that does not mean they are going to follow you back. They are not your “friend” just because you are following them. Let me give you a few examples. I read Digg every day at least 10 times a day (in fact, some days I have a Digg tab open all day). Twitter enables you to add the Digg category you choose and get updated on popular stories in real time without opening your Web browser. I do not know who the individual behind this Digg account is, nor do I care. They are not following me because they do not care about my life updates, but that does not mean I cannot follow them.
Another example is Shaq. Yes, I follow Shaq (at least I am not following Britney), and contrary to the way Facebook works, this, from what I gather, is the real Shaq. I follow him, but I do not see him following me any time in the near future. So to sum up the main reason I love Twitter so much, there is no approving mechanism, you can pretty much follow anyone you want, unless of course they make their profile private (which, by the way, I do not get why anyone would want to do).
I am pretty new to Twitter and am learning new things every day, you would be surprised how complex status updates could be. Learning about DMs (direct messages), retweets, desktop clients (using twhirl), and of course iPhone apps (I like TwitterFon).
I find myself using Twitter as a news source, since the news gets tweeted way before it is reported by the news websites. One more thing Twitter has helped me with, is getting over my Facebook addiction. Facebook? Na, so 2008!
-Hillel
Blue Screen of Death at Israeli Train Station
Yesterday, while waiting for a train to my next job interview, I noticed that the monitor that is supposed to list the train times, had a Blue Screen of Death. Somehow, even though it was not my PC that was displaying the screen, I had that “warm” feeling that only Microsoft knows how to give you when their product fails. You know what I mean, the one that causes your heart to skip a few beats and your mind to say “oh no, not again”. Yea, I get that feeling too often, and I am not even running vista.
I know I know, time to upgrade my phone
You think Hamas was responsible for this?
Update: I did not make up the term “Blue Screen of Death” just to have a good title, that is what it is called. Take a look.
-Hillel
Zune Touch: Too Little Too Late, iPod Touch HD is Coming
As usual, Microsoft seems to be playing catch, this time it’s with Apple. Rumor has it, Microsoft is going to be announcing their Zune Touch, which is supposed to compete with the iPod Touch. OK, so first of all, couldn’t they come up with a better name? Second of all, I do believe Zunes will never compete with iPods. More importantly though, seems like Microsoft has missed the boat, again!
Since we are talking about the Zune Touch rumor, let’s look at what current rumors there are about Apple’s next line of iPod Touch. OK, sit down Bill, the next gen iPod Touch, according to some serious and unofficially confirmed rumors, will not have a 3.5′ screen like the current one. Nope, not 4 or 5 either. Depending on who you ask, the device will boast either a 7′ or 9′ screen.
You heard right! Apple is going to be releasing an iPod Touch HD. It will be a gigantic iPod (obviously it will be more like a tablet device than an iPod) with all the amazing advantages of an iPod Touch, including its OS, accelerometer, and most importantly the App Store. According to Arrington, we have no info on pricing but it is expected to go for significantly more than the $400 32GB iPod Touch.
So what do I mean when I say these rumors are unofficially confirmed? Well, Techcrunch has 3 independent sources for this scoop, including one that has supposedly held the device. That’s good enough for me! Does the thought of an MP3 player with a 3′-4′ touch screen, made by Microsoft, still excite you?
-Hillel
Huge Like Mob and Tech N’ Marketing News
It’s a good morning for my friends and I. So there is good news and…better news! Let’s start with the good news. Like Mob, our podcast about mobile world developments, is live on iTunes. We have recorded two episodes so far, but we are going to be recording weekly, so check it out if you have even the most remote interest in anything cellular. Here is the link.
The better news is that Tech N’ Marketing has made it to Apple.com. We are quoted giving a review of the app that has been in the top 10 apps since its introduction, iFart. I have to admit again, when Aryeh posted about this app, I told him I thought it was not news worthy and that the whole fart (I was considering using the word flatulation, but c’mon, who am I kidding?) app industry is a ridiculous one.
I was quickly put in my place when iFart made its developers $40,000 in two days and is the top downloaded app in the App Store. Well, it turns out that Aryeh was right on another count because the exact quote that I thought was not worthy to be on our blog, made it to Apple.com. It also made it to the top of the app’s description in the App Store.
I guess that is why Aryeh is the marketing expert. I think I’ll stick to the tech aspect of this blog, and let the experts do their thing.
-Hillel
The Coolest App Goes To…
A new iPhone app has just come to the world and this thing is extremely cool, I am talking Ocarina cool. It is things like this that make me want to go out and learn programming, I mean this is truly mind boggling.
Now, as talented of a writer as I believe I am, I do not think my words would do this app justice. You gotta watch this video.
-Hillel
Great New Podcast About Mobile News
Just wanted to give a shout-out about our new podcast. We recorded our second episode last night, and it is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Last night, Aryeh could not make it, so it was just myself and Itamar.
Itamar deserves all the credit for anything I know about mobile phones, I was using a RAZR before he got me into the whole thing. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Cellogic. They make a pretty revolutionary mobile application calling FlyScreen that enables you to put mobile widgets on your phone’s idle screen. The widgets update in real time and use very little data and battery. Pretty cool stuff.
Anyway, about the podcast. You can listen and subscribe to it at LikeMob.com.
Please send us feedback so we can improve. We are going to try to video stream it next week. Looking forward to your comments.
-Hillel
Article On $99 iPhones Misleads
I just came across something that really bothered me, thought I would blog about it. Everyone who has a site or a blog knows that traffic is important. There are many ways to attract traffic to your site, the big one and the the buzz word you probably hear a lot about is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It basically gets your site higher up on search engines like Google or Yahoo.
Without getting into the debate about the legitimacy of these methods, I think we can all agree on one thing, misleading your readers to gain traffic is not a legitimate method. OK, now that we agree on that, let me tell you what happened. A lot of the people I am following on Twitter all of a sudden posted the following message: “Wal-Mart Sells Apple iPhone, $99 Models Available – InformationWeek http://tinyurl.com/9yh5jd“. The posted link was to this article, the title being “Walmart sells Apple iPhone, $99 model available“.
When I saw these messages on Twitter, I assumed that someone was misinformed, but was then surprised to find out that the author of the article was the one doing the misleading. The title is simply not true. Walmart is NOT selling $99 iPhones. OK, it does not explicitly say Walmart is selling them, but it is extremely implied, and that in my opinion, is not the way to do things. First of all, I just think it is ethically wrong to mislead someone, but more importantly, I know I will never go to that site again for any information.
FYI, what the article says is that Walmart is selling iPhones, and at the very end of the article there is one sentence about AT&T selling refurbished iPhones for $99, nothing to do with Walmart.
The readers will read the article, see that it was misleading, and lose trust in the source. So maybe the site will accomplish their immediate goal of increasing traffic, but long term, it just causes damage, to the reader, to the source, and to the integrity of the Web as a whole. Dontchya think?
-Hillel
I Would Buy An iPhone Pro; Would You?
This morning a very interesting photo appeared on the Web. No one is claiming that it is real, it is just a very interesting concept. It is being dubbed the iPhone Pro or Elite (I believe the first time anyone uttered the words iPhone Pro can be seen in the video below), and it is pretty darn impressive.
I always find it kinda silly when talking about what features a mock up has because, um, it does not exist. I guess we can talk about what Apple could add to make the iPhone even more awesome. So this phone would have a full QWERTY keyboard, which might actually turn people away from the iPhone due to the thickness it would add, but I am assuming it would attract more users, especially business oriented consumers.
The result of a Google Images search for the words iPhone Pro
According to the creator of this Photoshop piece of art, the iPhone Pro would have 60GB of memory, although I personally think 32 is more than enough for 99% of people. It would also offer a one megapixel front camera for iChat, and a high quality camera, with good lenses, optical zoom, and video capability, all things that I think everyone agrees are missing on the current iPhone.
Gizmodo went ahead and mocked up the mock up. They added two hardware keys and a D-Pad that can be used for gaming. Being as I am not much of a gaming person myself, I am not feeling it.
To just add a few things of my own, I don’t think I am telling you anything you do not know, but here goes:
- We need some copy and paste functionality, but that really goes without saying.
- I truly believe the addition of MMS functionality would be a blessed one, although my colleagues dispute this point and believe that no one uses MMS today.
- Stereo Bluetooth or A2DP.
- Ability to save email attachments. Yes, you cannot do that on the current iPhone.
- Ability to search your emails.
October, 2008? Did you mean 2009?
To land a little, MacWorld 2009 is approaching us, and I do not think anyone believes we will see an iPhone Pro. What people do believe is that Apple (not Steve Jobs) will announce an iPhone Nano and possibly a 32GB iPhone.
What I believe is that if they do not implement at least half of the above features in a firmware upgrade soon, I am not going to be happy, and we know already know that when Tech N’ Marketing is not happy, Apple is not happy.
-Hillel
“If Apple Can Do It, So Can We”
Looks like the cellular market is far from being exclusive to corporations like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, or HTC. Apple saw their own success in the world of computers and media players and decided there is no reason not to take that and apply it to the cellular world. I think it is safe to say now, two years and more than 10 million iPhones later (that number might actually be low compared to the reality), they have succeeded.
Comes along Lenovo, and says “anything you can do, I can do better”. We do not know a lot about the new Lenovo phone besides of course its iPhone-dominating looks. We also know it runs 624MHz CPU, which, correct me if I am wrong, is the fastest available on any phone today. It also has a mini USB interface, a 5-megapixel camera, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Oh, and it is running on this operating system designed by a small company called Google. If not for anything else, this gives them one point over Apple.
The experts say it will not make it to the US, but that does not mean Americans cannot buy it. That’s what we have the Web for, right? So the “Ophone” is a little bit bigger than, who else would they be comparing it to, the iPhone on all sides, but not by much. The way I see it, if I could get an open Lenovo phone, running Android, that looks like that, for a few millemeters extra, I am so there. I mean, cmon look at that screen!
-Hillel
