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Pinterest for your Thoughts

  • February 8, 2012 3:47 pm

Pinterest is the hottest topic since Twitter or Tumblr hit the scene. But what is it? Pinterest is a social networking website that simply acts as virtual bulletin board. When you find something online—an image, a blog post, an inspirational quote or a photo—you can pin it to your pinboard for everyone to see.

This About.com article explains it well: Create a Virtual Notice Board with Pinterest

One thing to note. Unlike physical pinboards you hang in your office or at home, your Pinterest pinboard can be used to share content with other Pinterest users who are following you. Sharing with others is a great way to discover and recycle new content by repinning it to your own pinboard.

New term, pinaddict: someone who is addicted to pinning images, videos, and blogs to Pinterest (pinterest.com). February 8, 2012 (4:05 p.m.)

Why Content Matters for Search Engine Optimization

  • January 17, 2012 12:22 pm

I found this infograph that shows compelling info about why the content you put on your website really matters when it comes to SEO. Click on it to view a larger size (via brafton.com).

Brafton's Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

#1 thing holding back portable device development

  • November 25, 2011 11:52 am

I’m allowing myself one technology post every few months. Please excuse the non-marketing content. :)

Portable electronic devices, including music players, laptops, phones and smartphones, tablets and e-books, are becoming the every day norm. Most people own at least two of these devices and are thinking of buying another within the next 6 months. Have you ever wondered why they’ve become so popular recently?

Back in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, all of the above mentioned devices existed. Music players were Sony Walkmans, Laptops were Toshiba T1100s, phones were Motorola DynaTAC 8000X “brickphones”, and tablets were Microsoft Tablet PCs. But what was the one major annoyance that kept many of these first-of-its-kind devices from becoming mainstream? Its weight and size, and overall portability. Battery life played a role in its popularity. In the early days, the battery played a significant role in the functionality and weight of these devices. Not until battery technology advanced to a breaking point that these devices could exist.

Would you buy a mobile phone today if it only lasted 1 hour of talk time? Probably not. The manufacturers of these devices knew they had to have a certain amount of battery life, thus, the battery had to be larger. But because these devices were marketed at portable, they couldn’t weigh too much to not be functional. How long can you hold a 1 pound device to you ear for?

Only until the 21st century, could devices become truely portable. Laptops now have 8 hours of battery life without weighing more than the electronics and casement. Mobile phones can easily fit in a childs pocket with 5 days of standby time. One could argue that advancements in energy saving electronics is also key and I would argue for this as well, but the advancements in battery technology has jumped leaps and bounds over the last few years.

What does the future hold? A bright one indeed. Where music devices are held within the earphones themselves. Where laptops with full keyboards can fit in your pocket (that depends on if keyboards survive the onslought of the touchscreen). Where mobile phones are flexible and moulded to fit around your wrist. Who knows!

Search engines are threatened. What’s next for them?

  • October 25, 2011 9:19 am

Many tech startups fail, not because of a product that wasn’t well thought out or executed, but because it didn’t fit well into a persons life. Tablets have been around for years but the first ones that came out were not user friendly. The user would need to be trained on how to use it. Only recently, with the iPad, it seemed someone figured out how to make it user friendly.

Similarities can be drawn to the use of search engines. The early search engines would understand key terms when searching. For instance, when searching for an antique lamp stores in the Toronto area. One would type into Google “antique lamp store Toronto”. The sentence is not something someone would guess to type in to find what they’re looking for. The user would have to be trained on this before hand.

You may be asking, why didn’t the first search engines fail like the first tablet? The reason is because there was no viable alternative to search engines back then. The only way to find websites was to either clicking on an endless number of links to find the information you’re looking for, or use a search engine. With the tablet, the alternative was the desktop or laptop computer.

Now that there are alternatives to search engines like social media, search engines will need to become more user friendly. The next step for search engines are to understand natural language. If one were to look for antique stores, they could type in “Where are there antique lamp stores in the Toronto area?” and the search engine would find it. The search engine would understand the context of the sentence (a question) and find possible results to answer the question.

You’ll notice natural language technology already being used in smartphones to understand voice commands. The Siri feature on the iPhone (and similar features on other smartphones) is a good example of this.

Why I chose the Samsung Galaxy S2

  • September 21, 2011 1:55 pm

My last blog post, I was contemplating getting a new phone. Well, I did. And it is the Samsung Galaxy S2.

I’ll start by telling why I didn’t get other phones. In my last post, I stated the main reason why the iPhone wasn’t for me — customizability — and that still stands. As for a Blackberry, the very same reason. It has many more options than an iPhone, but it doesn’t have as many as Android phones. With Android, you can customize everything from icons to the fonts to the homescreen design and functionality to the motion effects to the button assignments. Plus more! It’s fantastic in that respect.

But let me tell you an underlying factor in my decision. Image/Branding. Yes, Blackberry’s image has gone down the crapper. I didn’t want to own a Blackberry because it was going out of fashion. It’s no long cool to own one. I’m not one to follow trends, in fact, I do the opposite. I tend to go for the underdog. But when it comes to Blackberry, I don’t even think they have a chance in winning the smartphone race. So I exited. As for Android, they’re at the top of their game. They have the most used smartphone OS right now, along with Samsung creating industry-leading hardware, how can you go wrong.

What should my next mobile phone be?

  • August 3, 2011 8:58 am

It seems I’m blogging quite a bit about the mobile industry lately. I was a tech geek years ago with getting the best desktop computer money could buy. Then I realized I didn’t need the top of the line video card because I don’t play games. I never had the newest cell phone either. However, I was always a mild mannered hacker of sorts. Not the malicious kind, but the kind who always optimized his electronics for custimizability and perfomance. My second cell phone was a LG 4600 which I was able to put my own mp3 ringtones and backgrounds on. This was a few years before any other cell phone allowed you to do it easily. Then I got a Nokia 6275i which again was hackable to put ringtones, apps, and backgrounds on. It had GPS and I was able to put Google maps on it, without having data access.

The point I’m getting at is I never could settle for a normal cell phone. But then, I bought a BlackBerry Bold 9700, its what I’m currently using. While I was pleased at first with it, I became bored with it. I had played with all the settings and comfigurability and I wanted more. I feel I’m getting back into the hacking mode. I recently purchased a Nook Color because it was hackable and I was able to put an Android OS on it and use it like a tablet. That was fun and its a great tablet at half the price of an iPad. As for my BlackBerry, I still have 1.5 years left on my contract and I’m already looking to change phones. What am I looking at? Well, obviously not the iPhone. Not because I think its a bad phone, its a great easy to use phone. But thats it. It’s not very customizable. The Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) was released with great fanfare. It looks like a fantastic phone and people have already hacked certain parts of the Android OS. It’s a strong contender. As for the new BlackBerry’s which were announced today, well, they do look a little enticing. I’m not sure what the real upgrade of the new Bold is, aside from a touchscreen, faster processor and the new OS. Would it still be the same old BlackBerry? What are the new features? Is it more customizable? Those are key selling features for me. So far, BlackBerry hasn’t done much to say what else is new. Is that a job for the mobile providers to tell us? I think it’s both.

Facebook competition: Google+

  • July 7, 2011 9:56 am

Google recently released its social media platform, Goolge+ to a select number of people. I, unfortunately, was not one of them. So I’m posting a link to an article written by Canada’s own online guru, Amber MacArthur.

For the most part, Ms. MacArthur likes what she sees, both in terms of layout, current features and its future potential. See the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/digital-culture/trending-tech/google-hits-and-misses/article2089495/

BlackBerry PlayBook Expectations

  • April 20, 2011 11:54 am

Yesterday, the PlayBook went on sale to the general public.

Analysts set the expected sales figures low, but RIM managed to do a little better. An RBC Capital Markets analyst, Mike Abramsky, who keeps his ear close to RIM estimated 50,000 units sold on the first day. That number is comparatively low compared to the iPad and iPad 2 launch.

Why so low? Poor execution.

In terms of hardware, I’ve heard its top notch. In terms of software, it seems to be incomplete. BlackBerry Bridge, which is required to get e-mail on the PlayBook, has yet to be approved by AT&T. That doesn’s make sense since the target market of the PlayBook is business users who currently have BlackBerrys tethered to their side. As well, there are quote a few applications missing from the launch version of the tablet. It seems RIM was too rushed and was not able to release a finished version of the product. They promise to have an updated software released in the coming weeks. Too little too late?

But not only did it have poor production execution, it had poor launch execution. I didn’t hear much hype from friends about it. I didn’t see much hype online about it. The only hype I saw was because I’m subscribed to a few BlackBerry Twitter accounts who continuously filled my stream with “How to update XX on your PlayBook” and “Desktop Manager for BlackBerry PlayBook coming this summer”. Wow, people don’t own a PlayBook yet, so why tell us how to update it already? And why tell us we have to wait months before an integral part of the PlayBook experience is available.

What do you think they could have done better? More Facebook/Twitter hype? More print ads in newspapers, billboards, magazines?