Hi All,
This story is making headlines all over the place. A Greenwich village baker is making a cookie called the “Drunken Negro Head” in honor of Barack Obama. People are attacking him all over the place and even threatening to burn his store down.
Even with his poor taste, this baker has been featured in shows like Sex in the City.
But now to the real question, is he just dumb or is this a very smart viral marketing campaign?? Heck, I covered it. What do you think?
-Aryeh
Robin Wauters of TechCrunch claims “You need to see this video”, and I agree.
-Hillel
With all the talk and Hollywood movies about robots outsmarting humans, we might have reached a dangerous point (no, not really). A new app called Cube Cheater proves that the iPhone is in fact more intelligent than your average homosapien (I have not used that word since like 6th grade).
The app analyzes a Rubik’s Cube (can you believe they have a website?) in any given state and tells you how to solve it step by step using a 3D interface. You can input the state of the Rubik’s cube by painting it in the app’s UI, or by taking a picture of it, how cool is that?
I don’t know about you, but I do not know many people that can solve a Rubik’s cube, and the few that can, take much longer than Cube Cheater. Should I prepare for the revolution? (OK, so I watched one too many Terminator sequels, so what?)
-Hillel
No, I am not confused. It is true, Apple might get sued for infringement on numerous Palm patents that are implemented in the iPhone, as reported in a very lengthy and interesting article on Engadget. To sum things up, it is true that certain technologies we saw in our brief introduction to the Pre seem to be patented by Apple, and therefore if acted upon, might cause a delay in the release of the Pre. One of these so called technologies is the way the iPhone UI “springs” when reaching the top of a Web page (I seriously cannot believe they patented that). You can see it demoed in the video below.
However, it seems that for every one patent owned by Apple and possibly “stolen” by Palm, there are two of exactly the opposite. Seems like Palm has a patent on the way the iPhone adjusts the screen’s brightness, the method in which the iPhone toggles between different dialing options (speed dial, dialer, contacts, and call history to be exact), searching for a contact by typing initials only, and the way you implement conference calling in the iPhone. So, it is safe to say that if Apple does decide to sue Palm over certain patents implemented in the Pre, Palm will not go down without fighting. We might all be surprised to see Apple actually lose a legal battle at the end of the day.
Of course, chances are none of this will ever happen, kinda like the Cold War and how neither side ever launched out of fear of the other side’s retaliation. If Apple loses this battle, they will owe Palm royalty fees for every iPhone ever sold, that would be a whopping 16 million devices. I also do not see Palm taking the first shot in this war, I don’t think anyone doubts the amount Palm has to lose. If they lose this battle, say goodbye to the Pre, and therefore we can pretty much uncover the grave we dug for them right before they surprised us with the Pre.
As Nilay Patel of Engadget so elegantly puts it, “All we want is for both Apple and Palm to come to the table, hammer out a cross-licensing agreement like other companies in the wireless industry do all the time, and get back to work on innovative, exciting technologies and devices. The lawyers get paid that way too, you know”. Could not have said it better.
Watch the video below to see an iPhone technology for which Apple could sue Palm. I did not even know the iPhone did this, did you?
-Hillel
You gotta see these videos of the amazing LG Renoir being seriously tortured and surviving. Engadget summed it up by saying, “The handset was left in the freezer at -20C (-4F) for 12 hours, dropped to the floor, stepped on, thrown in a clothes drier for 15 minutes, caked in dust, dunked in wine, and run over by a Ford Focus”. All that, and it worked perfectly. Pretty awesome.
Watch the videos below, might as well turn down your volume, unless of course you speak Russian.
-Hillel
I just came across a very disturbing article written by none other, than Mr. TechCrunch, Michael Arrington. Just to summarize it, Arrington is taking some time off from blogging. What seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back was a very extraordinary event he experienced in his recent visit to the DLD Conference in Germany. Basically, as he was leaving, after a long and very tiring day, he was approached by someone who apparently did not get the exposure he would have wanted from TechCrunch, and was spat on. No, that is not a metaphor for the man saying something not nice to him, the guy actually hocked a lugi at Arrington. This is after Mike had his and his family’s lives threatened by another lunatic last year, which led him to have to hide out and walk around with constant security for a significant amount of time.
Arrington: Would You Spit On This Guy?
Now, this bothers me on so many levels, I do not even know where to begin. OK, I do not think this is the appropriate stage to discuss manners and ethical behavior, so I will focus on a different aspect. The Web has been known to be the most effective tool ever in marketing your business, and if there is one site that does it best, it is TechCrunch. You get your company mentioned by Arrington and you’re set. However, there is another side to that equation. The staff at TechCrunch do not randomly decide who to publicize and who to leave out. I am pretty sure they do not determine the topic of a post based on how nice the company’s logo is. They also have readers, and they need to keep them interested. He knows his audience and he writes accordingly. If Arrington posted about every company that he was exposed to, TechCrunch would not be what it is today.
But that’s not all. As I said, the Web can be a CEO’s best friend. One mention on the right site at the right time can make or break a startup. However, and this I can tell you from watching friends I have that work around the clock trying to promote their company, if your company does not succeed, no blogger or site is to blame. Yes, they could have helped, but making a successful startup takes years of sweat and tears, and that cannot be avoided. This guy who thought spitting is an appropriate reaction to his life’s failures, obviously has a failing company and he decided to blame the wrong person.
So to the spitter, I have two things to say:
To Arrington (since I know he is reading), I say come back soon and keep up what you have been doing. I think it is safe to say that every tech blogger out there looks to you for inspiration. Wow, OK, Itamar made fun of me about my last post when I said Oren is a “sweet guy”, I wonder how he is going to react to this.
-Hillel
As you all know, I have been spending a lot of time on various social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. While I do not consider myself any sort of Web 2.0 expert, like every other person on Twitter writes in their bio, I do think I am becoming somewhat of an addict. A vast majority of the information I absorb from the Web, whether it be technology related, or just general news, comes from sites like Digg, Reddit, TechCrunch or Twitter.
Now, being the relatively young blogger that I am, I am generally not exposed to startups first hand, I just read about the newest trends on sites like TechCrunch or Blonde 2.0. This week, thanks to Itamar, I was fortunate enough to take part in a very exciting event for the first time, Mobile Monday. There were tens of very interesting mobile geeks present, but there was one that really stood out in the crowd. I met an individual who has started a Web 2.0 startup, which enables social interaction on the Web via interesting stories and news. The site is called HYPick (I think it is from a combination of two words “Hype” and “Topic”, I am liking it). You can post links, videos, pictures, or just thoughts on the site, and based on popularity, it makes it to the front page and thereby gets greater exposure.
OK, I know what you are thinking, I thought it too, and so did Oren, the founder. Isn’t that exactly what Digg is? The answer is, that Oren has an angle here, which makes HYPick much more pure social interaction than Digg will ever be. Here’s the thing with Digg, as much as I love the site, and its founder, Kevin Rose (especially his podcast, Diggnation), every post I write here, gets uploaded to Digg, and take a guess if I ever made it to the front page. I have not. The reason is, because I do not know enough people on Digg to digg my story. I cannot ask my 10,000 friends on Digg to vote for me, because I am not Kevin Rose, Michael Arrington, or some other Web icon (not yet anyway). So, in reality, Digg has gone from a true social media site to a plain and simple popularity contest.
Not only is it not really effective for someone who wants to find a story that really interested the largest number of people, it is also not effective for someone who has a great story and wants exposure, because if you do not have thousands of friends on Digg, chances are you will not make the front page. Now, I know this sounds like I am coming down on Digg, so let me make myself clear, I love Digg. I read it in the morning before I brush my teeth, and totally depend on it for the day’s entertainment. I could not live without Digg (OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration), but the truth is that stories get Dugg based on popularity, not only true interest.
So then how is HYPick different? Well, here is where Oren’s innovative genius comes into play. There is no upvote or Digg button to be found. The popularity of the story is determined by the amount of participation in the comments. After all, if it is a truly attractive post, people must have an opinion about it. The more comments it gets, the closer it gets to the front page. The site has a really simple and user friendly feel to it, and is very intuitive and fun to use. I am liking HYPick, in fact, I already posted my first story there, and accomplished what I have not accomplished in the 2 years I have been using Digg, I made it to the front page.
In addition to the brilliance behind the idea and concept of HYPick, Oren is also a very sweet, down to earth kinda guy, and I would love to see him succeed. I think what might set him apart from the rest, is his true passion to make the Web into a real social media tool, and to give some justification to the overly used term, Web 2.0.
-Hillel
Well, it doesn’t really break the glass. But this new app, which is made by a French company by the name of VisuaMobile and will be available in the App Store soon, emulates what breaking your iPhone’s screen would be like. Watch the ad for “Fracture” above. The graphics seem really cool, and I have a strong feeling we will be seeing this app in Top Apps category very soon.
Check out the demo in the video below.
-Hillel
Just to bring you another one of Apple’s great iPhone ads. Enjoy!
-Hillel
My recent acquaintance with the rapidly growing and truly addictive micro blogging platform, Twitter, has presented me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I have been spending endless time tweeting and reading other people’s tweets. I am learning new things every day, such as the effective use of Hashtags on Twitter, and the various URL shortening services, some of which introduced us to a whole new method of infecting PCs around the world.
What also amazes me is that Twitter really facilitated the birth of an entire industry to support it. From the desktop clients (I have reviewed em all, and will share my conclusions with you in a later post), iPhone apps (in one word, TwitterFon), and plugins, to the stat sites, twitter design tutorials, and user analysis tools, the possibilities are endless, and I am presented with new ones every day.
As I am writing this post, I came across a new and interesting Twitter tool, a Twitter dictionary, or Twittonary. Yes, there is a whole new Twitter language, with words like Tweets, Tweeple, and Tweetaholic becoming mainstream, I really cannot get enough of Twitter.
I met a few of the people from my Twitter followers at Mobile Monday last night. I have to say it was a little strange to put a face to all the tweets. Some of my followers have already added me on Facebook after we tweeted back and forth a few times and realized we have a lot in common. I am reading new articles written about the Twitter phenomenon every day, and it seems like the interest in Twitter is only getting greater.
However, Twitter also presents me with a challenge that I have yet to overcome. I am the type of person that likes to share my experiences with others. When I am excited about something, I need to pass it on to friends and family. Whether it is via the blog, my Facebook, email, or just in person. Somehow though, I cannot do that with Twitter. As much as I love it, I cannot relay the genius behind it, to my peers. Every time I try to verbalize how revolutionary Twitter is, I always get the same few answers; “I don’t get it”, or “So basically, it’s a chat room”, or “Why is this such a big deal?”, and of course the answer I get most frequently “So they stole the idea of status updates from Facebook, and this is exciting, why?”
I have tried to pinpoint what is so amazing about it, but have had no success so far. I wrote in my last Twitter post that the ability to follow anyone and not just people you really know, is what separates it from other social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, but as cool as that is, that does not do Twitter justice. I thought maybe it was the ability to get real time news, like we saw in the famous Hudson plane crash, but that too does not seem to impress the people I speak to.
What ended up happening is that when I am trying to “sell” Twitter to someone, the conversation always ends with me saying “you just have to try it”. The below video is the closest I have come to finding an explanation that might satisfy some. So I will conclude with a request. If any of my readers can think of a good explanation of what makes Twitter so great, and what caused its numbers to increase 850% in 2008, or to explode with 20,000 new users every day, I would be greatly appreciative. Not only would your suggestions help me explain Twitter to others, it would also help me justify my strong addiction to myself.
-Hillel
Looks like some very smart developer is working on one of the most sought after features for the iPhone, wireless file transfer. As I wrote those words, I thought to myself how hard it is to believe that Apple left out such basic bluetooth functionality like file transfer and stereo bluetooth. It really does not make sense to me, and I would love to hear some suggestions from my readers in the comments. Why is Apple so opposed to making our lives that much simpler, with features (I would not even call these things features) like copy/paste, video capabilities, and running multiple apps simultaneously?
I am a firm believer that most companies do not just leave out basic functions when designing a mobile device. I am sure somewhere along the line, Steve and some of his buddies were sitting in a very nice conference room somewhere and discussing what the iPhone would and would not have.
Maybe the conversation went something like this:
Steve: ” I want to make the best mobile device the world has ever known. It will have an amazing touch interface, and will work better than any previous phone”.
One of his buddies: “Well, OK, we can do that, but just take into account that certain functions that were available 10 years ago, will not be able to be implemented on this phone. No way we can get copy/paste functionality in it, for example. Not to mention Bluetooth functionality that can be found in the most basic of Nokia phones.
Steve: “OK, go ahead as planned, as long as you can swipe between pictures”.
OK, so that did not happen. What was really going through Apple’s mind when leaving out file transfer via Bluetooth? Please share your insights.
One thing I will tell you in full certainty, if this developer pulls it off, he will be a very rich man. Watch the demo in the video below.
-Hillel
