Tech News

Google Does Animated Thumbnails Of Videos

4:39 pm EST May 25th, 2011 | Tech | 2 Comments

I haven’t seen this before, but apparently now when you search for videos on Google, hovering over the result shows you a filmstrip, and on the filmstrip the thumbnails of the video animate a few frames. Pretty neat:

Topic: Google

Google’s Chromebook Is A Mistake

5:57 pm EST May 11th, 2011 | Tech | Comments Off

Google announced today that it would be selling the Chromebook – notebooks with the ChromeOS installed from various vendors. I can’t see the point. It’s a similar price to a low-end Windows laptop without the extensibility!

I got one of the Chromebook netbooks as part of their pilot program, but it’s value beyond being a web-browsing tool is kind of limited. This task is better accomplished via a Windows/Linux netbook or at the higher-end a iPad/Android tablet. This is one of those tech solutions in search of a problem. The problem does not really exist.

Microsoft Buying Skype

11:57 pm EST May 9th, 2011 | Tech | 3 Comments

Microsoft is apparently buying Skype. My guess is they’re overpaying for it like EBay did. I like Skype, and sometimes use it — but the same or similar technology exists for one-to-one video communication in Google Chat, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and yes, Microsoft’s own Messenger.

What is Microsoft doing? They’ve done a poor job lately integrating outside companies that they’ve purchased (eg. Sidekick) and they’ve stagnated as a company. They can always count on Windows and Office upgrades to keep them well stocked in cash, but their lack of innovation feels more like Detroit than what Redmond used to be.

iPad Magazines Are Failing

9:36 am EST April 25th, 2011 | Tech | Comments Off

No kidding. Media companies think just because a production method preserves their way of doing things, that consumers will support it. These guys would have been better off creating interesting websites that people will use, rather than attempting to get back into the horse and buggy business as the car is taking off.

One executive at a major publisher told me: “We shouldn’t be doing magazine apps. It’s a different format entirely from a print publication. We should be spending the resources to come up with special extensions of the brand.” The source added: “Consider the fact that iTunes doesn’t even have a dedicated ‘magazine section,’ so we’re effectively competing with Angry Birds and Flipboard at the same time.”

Apple’s App Subscription Service

9:08 am EST February 16th, 2011 | Tech | 3 Comments

Apple iPad To restate for the record – I really like Apple. But this subscription thing just reeks of a Microsoft-style land grab that screams “bad idea.” It’s a play by Apple to lock down everything in the digital media world. Here’s the thing: There’s a platform available where content producers can charge for their content if they wish, that allows them to publish tons of content, readily available on the iPad with audio/video content – and they don’t have to become subservient to Apple to use it.

Here’s a hint.

Topic: Apple, iPad

We Need Net Neutrality: Comcast Demands Bandwith Payment From Level 3

5:35 am EST November 30th, 2010 | Tech | Comments Off

Bad idea jeans:

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Thomas Stortz, Chief Legal Officer of Level 3:

“On November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that, for the first time, it will demand a recurring fee from Level 3 to transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content. By taking this action, Comcast is effectively putting up a toll booth at the borders of its broadband Internet access network, enabling it to unilaterally decide how much to charge for content which competes with its own cable TV and Xfinity delivered content. This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access markets as the nation’s largest cable provider.

“On November 22, after being informed by Comcast that its demand for payment was ‘take it or leave it,’ Level 3 agreed to the terms, under protest, in order to ensure customers did not experience any disruptions.

“Level 3 operates one of several broadband backbone networks, which are part of the Internet and which independent providers of online content use to transmit movies, sports, games and other entertainment to consumers. When a Comcast customer requests such content, for example an online movie or game, Level 3 transmits the content to Comcast for delivery to consumers.

This should also factor in to the Comcast-NBC merger which is just going to make the media-broadband world even worse.

Topic: Comcast, Net Neutrality

FCC Kicks The Can On Net Neutrality – Again

2:44 pm EST November 24th, 2010 | Tech | 1 Comment

The FCC has once again delayed a vote on net neutrality rules, laughably claiming that a week will allow them extra time for evaluation. What will one week add that we didn’t know years ago? The Obama administration has fumbled this issue badly and is still sitting around with its thumb up its rear instead of getting things done.

Topic: FCC, Net Neutrality

FCC Finally Moving On Net Neutrality?

11:38 am EST November 19th, 2010 | Tech | Comments Off

I sure hope so. The foot-dragging from the Obama administration on this issue has been ridiculous.

Internet and telecom companies have been in trying to reach a compromise on the hot-button issue, first at the FCC over the summer and most recently with Congress. Under the arrangement shepherded b y Waxman, wireline networks would have been subject to net neutrality rules, meaning the biggest telecom companies would not be able to discriminate against any web traffic or content on their traditional wireline networks.

Wireless networks, however, would not have been subject to all of those non-discrimination requirements. The major telecom and Internet stakeholders, as well as several public interest groups, signed onto the deal, but Republicans on Capitol Hill refused to support the draft proposal, especially so close to the mid-term elections.

iTunes Beatles Sales “Meh” For Apple

1:19 pm EST November 17th, 2010 | Tech | 13 Comments

So yesterday, Apple hyped up the fact that the Beatles were now available on iTunes. 24 hours later (1:16pm 11/17/2010), it doesn’t seem to be setting the world on fire.

Here are the top singles. The Beatles are not even in the top 10, instead losing to such perrenial classics as Rihanna, the cast of Glee, and Trey Songz.

The Beatles do better in albums, but the highest selling collection is at #7. They are outsold by Keith Urban, Rihanna, and again the cast of Glee.

What does this mean? The Beatles probably waited way too long to license their music digitally, while their core audience is – frankly – dying off or already has this music on CD. Oh well.

Probably dating myself here, but the first time I realized I liked a Beatles song was this Nike commercial with “Revolution”:

Topic: Apple, Music

Malcolm Gladwell Really Gets Social Networking Wrong

11:42 pm EST September 27th, 2010 | Media, Tech | 11 Comments

I’m a huge, huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell (not just for his books and writing but also because like myself he’s a first-generation American from a Jamaican background) but his new piece in the New Yorker about the limited application of social networking tools like Twitter or Facebook to real-world activism makes a big mistake.

Gladwell’s main point is that the dispersed nature of social networking can’t do social change because traditionally social change is hierarchical and social networking is a distributed network. But this is wrong. Contrary to the hype from social media gurus, social networking does have a hierarchy. Sure, it removes some of the barriers between people, but as it has matured, the medium does involve hierarchy and some semblance of command and control. My personal experience is largely with Twitter, though the same can often be said of Facebook and others (ditto for the blogosphere, where this argument existed a few years ago.) Over time, leaders do emerge. It isn’t a mesh network at all.

Things bubble over to real world via social networking when influencers push the influenced to do something. Social networks tend to magnify this, and the web does give some of us who would never be real-life leaders a way of having some sway. I find it odd that Gladwell misses this, because this is the whole point of his bestseller The Tipping Point.

I’ve no doubt that getting your followers to do something in the real world is more complicated than getting them to retweet or “Like” something, but I don’t think the barrier to doing that is social networking’s distributed nature but rather the intensity of the network following you. But this is the same as in the real world. Network leaders need to have leadership skills no matter the medium.

I’m not a social networking triumphalist by any stretch. For goodness sake I log into Facebook once every 2-3 weeks at best. But I don’t think a blanket dismissal is right either. It’s a tool that can work, but it needs human skill to make it effective.

Same as it ever was.

Topic: Malcolm Gladwell