Ex-Apple Engineers Blow Up the Book

Tools like Push Pop Press lower the barriers of entry for content creators who want to create interactive digital versions of their products.This will help smaller publishers expand their product line and hopefully generate revenue.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Push Pop Press has the potential to have an impact on the print industry, which is scrambling to produce digital versions of books, magazines and newspapers in hopes of reversing declining revenues. For magazine publishers and newspapers, one of the trendiest solutions involves creating iPad or Android editions of publications. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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Lessons from the Amazon Cloud

Many folks were caught with their heads in the clouds and simply forgot about a critical item for any technology initiative - Risk Mitigation. Every solution is subject to failure - so you should plan for it.



Look at #7 in my early post .... IT Project Success

http://mediamix.amplify.com/2011/04/08/it-project-success-10-lessons-learned/

Amplify’d from www.v3.co.uk

Amazon is struggling to overcome an outage in its cloud computing services, prompting industry pundits to underscore the need for enterprises to back up critical services.

Enderle Group principal analyst Rob Enderle suggested that the incident should show enterprises that any essential cloud applications or services should be backed up with a contingency plan, similar to that of an on-premise service. Read more at www.v3.co.uk

 

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Learning Social-Media Smarts

The digital divide is shrinking - at least in the workplace. Employees are more savvy than ever before, everyone seems to be a programmer or a blogger these days. So its critical for corporate leadership to recognize this and to look for ways to harness these skills to increase operational efficiency and productivity.

Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.com

In their private lives, users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media are completely at ease forming communities of shared interests and keeping everyone up-to-date with messages, pictures and documents. Now they are ready to put those same tools to work at the office—to help everyone see who knows what, who needs what information, and how to coordinate their work.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are some of the first collaboration models your workers encountered, but they won't be the last. Some of your employees may now be experimenting with mobile video and location-aware applications. Always be willing to learn from employees about new technologies. Read more at www.wallstreetjournal.com

 

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Amazon Kindle & iPad Can Borrow Books

Here is a great reason to get a library card. Electronic book borrowing is the next step in the evolution of digital content distribution for our public libraries.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Users of Amazon's Kindle e-reader will soon be able to borrow electronic books from libraries in the US. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Google Allows You to Design the Map

Place your favorite neighborhood shops/restaurants on the map with Google Map Maker -- On second thought, I may leave my butcher off of the list -- he's better kept as a local secret!

Amplify’d from www.mercurynews.com

Google, starting Tuesday, will allow U.S. users to begin editing changes into Google Maps, allowing people to include the most specific geographic items in their neighborhoods, which Google hopes will enrich its valuable geographic database. Read more at www.mercurynews.com

 

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Skype for Android leaks user data

At this point I suspect that all of my personal information has been leaked all over the planet - Whether its Skype - Adobe Flash - Google -- or my wholesale food club, who let an employee download all of the companies customer data on to a laptop that was subsequently stolen. The problem is larger than sloppy code.

Amplify’d from www.computerworld.com

A flaw in Skype for Android could let criminals harvest private information from smartphones, including the user's name and email address, contacts and chat logs, the Internet calling software maker confirmed Friday.

One security researcher called it "sloppy coding" and a "disrespect for your privacy." Read more at www.computerworld.com

 

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MC Hammer - The Twitter Effect

Who doesn't remember "Can't Touch This" -


I commented earlier in the week about a new company "Kiip" - that has a new reward-based ad model for gamers. While I think Kiip is a great idea - I have been more fascinated by the fact that MC Hammer was the celebrity Tweeter at the launch. Well MC (Media Controller) Hammer is back in a social way and Twitter is his platform. With 2 Mil + followers (more than Lebron James and Tom Hanks) and growing daily - companies like Kiip are looking to capitalize on his social media popularity as a spokesperson to launch their products. His work on twitter has given him new life. Check him out.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bz5va

Google Investor Insanity with RFID

Investor beware! A great example of why every deal that involves Google isn't a great investing opportunity, particularly not one based on a $400 Google order.

For the Identive Group, this is almost as good as being acquired by Google.

Amplify’d from seekingalpha.com

In February 2011, Google launched an adjunct to Place Pages called Hotpot. Hotpot includes NFC RFID technology to connect consumers with businesses.

The objective of the Hotpot program is to deliver information to the consumers on the sidewalk at the moment they are making the decision to enter the store.

But investor insanity started yesterday morning when a small company Identive Group (INVE) issued a press release announcing that it has been selected as the exclusive supplier of NFC RFID stickers for the roll out of Google Places in Austin.

when the market cap of a stock increases by $144,409,800 on a $400 order of a commodity product, there is no way to describe it except to call it investor insanity Read more at seekingalpha.com

 

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The Next Mark Zuckerberg?

Will Brian Wong be the villain of the movie "The Ad Network" - only time will tell. But his latest venture appears to be spot on. Targeting the most popular activity on mobile, Gaming with a reward-based ad model. I will admit that I am a recovered Gaming addict - And it would have been great to get a free bottle of Coke after knocking off an evil warlord or saving the princess.

This looks like a winner.

Amplify’d from www.vancouversun.com

Brian Wong, the 19-year-old wunderkind and University of B.C. grad who is already on his second company startup, has scored $4 million in financing to fuel a new ad model that gives mobile game players real rewards ranging from vitamin drinks to a $100 Sony tablet

His latest project has won the support of such corporate heavyweights as Sony, 1-800 Flowers, Dr Pepper and Sephora. Last week, MC Hammer dropped in to see Wong and his team of seven employees at their new digs in San Francisco’s SoMa district. Monday saw Hammer tweeting out Kiip’s launch video to his two-million-plus Twitter followers. Read more at www.vancouversun.com

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FLIP Video is Out

Cisco doesn't even scrape the surface on addressing it deeper issues by dumping the FLIP. And I like my FLIP HD!

Amplify’d from www.bloomberg.com

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the world’s biggest maker of networking equipment, will close its Flip video-camera unit and cut about 550 jobs as it reorganizes its consumer businesses.

The job cuts, which represent less than 1 percent of total employees, will take place by the end of the fiscal year, the company said. Cisco’s consumer division also includes Linksys home networking and audio and media-storage products. Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

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New ad-supported model for the Kindle

The fish aren't going to bite for $25. The Kindle should be priced below $99 by now - (more like $49.95). Amazon should consider a book of the month club model - get the Kindle free if you purchase a book a month for two years - first two books are free!

Amplify’d from www.mobileburn.com

Amazon has announced a refreshed version of its popular e-book reader, the Kindle. Named Kindle with Special Offers, the hardware is the same as the previous Kindle, with the 6-inch e-ink display and 8.5 ounce weight. However, Amazon is now subsidizing the cost a bit with advertising on the Kindle itself.

Named AdMash, the service will provide a preview of the ads that users can vote on. Users of the Kindle with Special Offers can personalize their ad experience as well, with suggestions for the types of ads that they would like to see on their Kindle. Read more at www.mobileburn.com

 

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Kroenke deal values Arsenal at $1.2B

Kroenke now has two team that need to be revamped

Amplify’d from www.bizjournals.com

St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke vowed Monday to turn Arsenal back into trophy winners after securing a controlling stake that clears the way for him to become the fifth U.S. owner of a Premier League club Read more at www.bizjournals.com

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Manny Ramirez retires

Even after Bonds, Sosa, Palmero, A-Rod the big names continue to fall. The advantage of performance enhancing drugs seems to be outweighing the penalties.

Who's next?

Amplify’d from www.chron.com

Manny Ramirez walked away from baseball on Friday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, abruptly ending the mercurial career of one of the most talented - and tainted - hitters to ever play the game Read more at www.chron.com

 

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IT Project Success - 10 Lessons Learned

1) Listen to your customers and give them what they want when they need it

2) Track your performance - Successes and Failures

3) Write it down - regardless of your project management approach - Remember even the cavemen took time to write things down!

4) Avoid PM tool overload - if the tool doesn't provide a real value switch to a pen and a pad

5) Sometimes technology isn't the answer or even the problem

6) Don't be afraid to pick up the phone - Email ping pong battles just delay resolving the issue - you can always email a recap of the call

7) Have a backup plan for the backup plan

8) Minimize the use of IT jargon when communicating with customers

9) Data silos - investigate them, then destroy them!

10) Whenever possible, hand pick as many members of the project team as possible

Why Not Copy Facebook?

Designing an infrastructure to support a web platform shouldn't be as complicated as it is for smaller players, who handle a fraction of the traffic that Facebook receives. Now they can stop reinventing the wheel ( wasting time and money) - and leverage the experience of a technology leader.

Amplify’d from www.businessweek.com

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to share the social-networking site’s data-center and server designs with other companies to help the technology industry become more efficient

The effort, called the Open Compute Project, will provide access to technology Facebook developed with Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc

“We’re not the only ones who need the kind of hardware that we’re building out,” Zuckerberg said today. “By sharing that, we think that there’s going to be more demand for the type of stuff that we needed.” Read more at www.businessweek.com

 

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News Corp's The Daily - A Winner?

The iPad will be celebrating its first birthday this month and I am comfortable saying that product was a game changer. The media industry was hesitant at first, but quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Rupert Murdoch bet heavily on one iPad app experiment, The Daily - rumors claim he spent 30-100Mil to launch. Well how has it done? Based on feedback and studies like the one below - not very well. When my free subscription ended - I wondered how long before another free offer would appear - within a week it did, via a sponsorship deal. The Daily is full of Reuters and AP content - which I suspect people don't want to pay for, because they can get it free somewhere else. Like at Zite, a new magazine iPad app, really a reader, that aggregates news. Which is why major media players want Zite shut down.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Interest in The Daily seems to be waning, according to a Nieman Journalism Lab analysis based on Twitter sharing activity. After an initial spike of interest, then an app upgrade which eliminated some technical problems, News Corp.’s iPad-only publication has settled onto a undesirable trajectory best described as “decline, plateau, decline,” according to Nieman author Joshua Benton. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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Conde Nast scammed out of $8 Million

We have all seen the emails for free vacations, lottery winnings, and the ones from our friends trapped in Europe - And 99% know that its an email scam. Then there are the other 1% of the population - who believe the EMAIL has to be really - after all someone sent it to me!
Apparently, someone at Conde Nast changed the bank account information for a major vendor, because an email told them to do it.
read the full article @ http://blogs.forbes.com/williampbarrett/2011/04/03/conde-nast-paid-8-million-to-scammer-who-sent-one-email/