Submitted by brian s hall on 3 September, 2010 - 09:50
I wanted to let readers know that I have also begun posting technology reviews and news at DeviceMag. Check out their site!
Here at DeviceMAG we take technology very serious, no matter if it’s a small gadget or a new device on the market. With a passion for everything that gets geeks high we’re here to feed you with the latest news.
A team of experienced tech writers that have been doing it for over four years now, got together to put DeviceMag.com up and to make sure, among others, it’s going to be one of the first things you need when you wake up, at the office or maybe late before bed.
Submitted by brian s hall on 3 September, 2010 - 09:13
Yes, I hate email. Yes, I use Gmail. Yes, I am loving their new Priority Inbox feature. So far, it works well. I confess, I am ruthless in assigning priority status. Very few make the grade.
Only problem to date is that this isn't available when I check my gmail on my iPhone. This makes for a disconnect. I scan the emails on my smartphone and it looks different than on my laptop. Google needs to make this work across all our devices.
Late last year, I used my TECHNOLOGY RANKINGS algorithm to score Twitter. This was when the general population was first beginning to really embrace Twitter and the tech bloggers were convinced it was a fad.
In my rankings, however, Twitter scored very well. With the exception of MONETIZATION of content, the service had done quite well. Since then, they have become more HYPERLOCAL and more MOBILE. Not surprisingly, they are one of my highest rated technologies.
Yesterday, their founder gave some numbers and once again, the rankings algorithm proved dead on correct. Just saying...
Twitter CEO Evan Williams just announced that his service has 145 million registered accounts and almost 300,000 apps using its API.
Total mobile users has jumped 62 percent since mid-April, and, remarkably, 16 percent of all new users to Twitter start on mobile now, as opposed to the five percent before we launched our first Twitter-branded mobile client. As we had hoped in April, these clients are bringing more people into Twitter, and, even better, they are attracting and retaining active users. Indeed, 46 percent of active users make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.
Submitted by brian s hall on 3 September, 2010 - 09:02
The world is changing completely, permanently. I am seeking to compile rules that will help entrepreneurs, businesses and individuals thrive during the smartphone wars.
Any you care to dispute, anything you wish to add please do so in the comments.
These laws will help you survive the global smartphone wars.
Content
Brian's first law of content: information wants to be monetized
Brian's second law of content: your cost structure will be destroyed
Brian's third law of content: people want what they want when they want it where they want it on the device they want it on (deny them this at your own peril). Only old people can even comprehend when this is not so; the young view it as a (momentary) glitch in the matrix.
Scale
Think locally scale globally
Hyperlocal is Hyperglobal. Do not make market scale a deciding factor. Scale will be achieved, quickly, once a need is met amongst a single group or locality.
Profits
We can get anything anywhere anytime from anyone, therefore:
your customers are your advocates -- or they will soon no longer be your customers
values equal profits
storytelling sells, and great storytelling sells much more
The creators of wealth gain at least equivalent power. Smarphones are enabling equivalent access to funding, global markets, data, content, social media and other services to all peoples of the world. They will thus realize disproportionate gains in wealth and power relative to Ameirca, Europe and what was once called the 'Second World'.
Time and Space
There is only one time: now
There is only one place: here
The spread of smartphones simultaneously decrease the impact of distance toward zero as they increase the impact of time toward infinite.
As the real-time social mobile web destroys all traditional barriers inherent in time and space for the globe's population, they increase the importance of presence for the individual.
I love Facebook. Only not like that. I just think it is going to continue to grow and pull in more ads, more location-based advertising, lead the global change to social commerce, create a worldwide virtual gaming platform, offer an alternative to cash and credit cards. Pretty much everything.
Which is why I love SMS GupShup. It's a SMS-based social network in India. It lives on the mobile phone. It is more popular there than Facebook and Orkut. From Mobile Marketing Watch:
SMS GupShup the text-based social network has reached 35 million total users while adding over 1 million each and every month.
These figures show SMS GupShup surpassed July traffic on Facebook (with 21 million unique visitors) and Orkut (with 20 million unique visitors) — two social networks who have long fought for social dominance in the region. Granted, SMS GupShup differs, but it shows mobile’s dominance in India.
There are roughly 550 million mobile phone users in the country and only 50 million web users, according to the company. With a 10 to 1 mobile-to-PC ratio and SMS serving as the most popular communications platform, the market is ripe for SMS GupShup to take off, which it obviously already has. The startup currently processes more than 500 million messages a month and accounts for over 5 percent of all texts sent within India.
The company has leveraged its massive user base into a profit machine as well, using its “groups” feature to create SMS-based communities around brands on the network. With over over 3.5 million groups surrounding brands such as Microsoft, eBay, pepsi, Nokia, Ford, and Dell, the startup is on to something huge.
This is a mobile phone video. There are quite a few similar to this.
The Asia Times provides more details of what is happening. I find it especially interesting due to the use of broadband, mobile phones, social media, YouTube.
SRINAGAR - Rasik Rasheed (not his real name) has been cooped up at home due to curfews and strikes for nearly three months now, but Kashmiri youngsters like him are not busy with their studies - they’re working around the clock to wage an online resistance. They spend hours uploading and watching videos on YouTube that depict life under the Indian government's security regime, sharing their views and slogans on social networking sites like Facebook. At least 65 people, mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s, have been killed in the latest round of anti-India protests in Srinagar, the summer capital, in the last 11 weeks, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The youths use Facebook to create a weekly routine for the protests, discuss ways to hold Kashmiri leaders to account and share news updates, according to the Associated Press. "I want to contribute to the freedom struggle in my own humble way. How does it matter if I don't go out and engage Indian security forces in the streets?" Rasik said in an interview with Inter Press Service. "I cause them more damage by these videos which depict how ruthlessly they treat Kashmir." Young Kashmiris are uploading video shot secretly from windows showing government troops causing damage to vehicles and property during curfews, says AP.
As for his parents who pay for his Internet fees, "they are happy that I am contributing to the freedom struggle in a different way", explained Rasik.
The Internet's reach is pushing young people like Rasik to vary the styles of their resistance against Indian rule in Kashmir. From an armed rebellion in 1989, the opposition to Indian rule in this restive state is morphing into an "ammunition-free" struggle, one where youth make use of both traditional and more sophisticated methods of protest such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
"It [the Internet] is emerging as an alternative media in Kashmir because these youth most often upload videos which depict the suffering of the people, which at times is ignored by the mainstream media, wittingly or unwittingly," said Sheikh Showkat, who teaches human rights in Kashmir University.
Broadband Internet services were allowed in Kashmir in 2005. "Within no time, these techno-savvy youth figured out how its use can outstrip the traditional media," Showkat added.
Rasik said, "The web teaches you how it can override barriers. The authorities may be the gatekeepers to mainstream media, but not here. Such is the power of the web which we are seeking to use effectively."
Kashmir's troubles date back to 1947, when Britain granted India independence and the Muslim-dominated areas became part of Pakistan. A United Nations resolution, in the meantime, gave Kashmiris the option to join either Hindu-dominated India or Pakistan or to become independent. But Kashmiris had no chance to make a choice as their homeland was claimed by both India and Pakistan.
Roughly a third of modern-day Kashmir is administered by Pakistan while the rest is under India. But it is an arrangement that has not been accepted by many Kashmiris, and some youths living on the Indian side rose up in arms in 1989 in an insurgency that simmers to this day.
"Kashmiris have realized the changing dynamics at the global level, violent means of protest not accepted by global policy institutions. That is why they are fashioning their struggle accordingly," said Professor Gul Mohammad Wani, a political commentator who teaches in Kashmir University.
While Rasik is content with what he is doing at home, others combine both protests on the streets and in cyberspace. A youth from uptown Srinagar, who requested anonymity, says he juggles graffiti protests, cyber protests and pelting stones at Indian security forces stationed here.
Is it almost free to Skype with the people in the video below? Can we FaceTime? Watch the same stupid videos on YouTube? Just how close are they to us?
Fellow apparently writes, when the mood strikes, I suppose, for the New York Times. Today, he has a review of the Blackberry Torch.
The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 may inspire a little envy of its own. It is the first BlackBerry with a true touch screen and the first with a slide-out keyboard. New features bring it much more in line with the rest of the market. For one there is the new operating system, BlackBerry 6. It has handy home screen shortcuts, much like those found on Android. Touch the top of the screen and a window shade menu comes down that lets you manage your network connections, set an alarm clock or alter your display, keyboard settings, security and more. Touching the home screen magnifying glass icon starts universal search.
The Torch also has home screens for media, downloads, frequently used apps and favorite apps that you see by sliding a finger sideways across the screen, as you would an iPhone. The phone has also updated its camera to 5 megapixels and added handy new controls like a geo-tag button, automatic and manual flash and lots of settings for specific kinds of photos like portraits, sports or night shots.
The sliding keyboard will delight anyone accustomed to the positive click of BlackBerry keys. Battery life appears to be good, in my short test of the phone I’ve only used two-thirds of the battery charge over several days.
But the phone is still behind the times in a couple of aspects. The screen doesn’t match the high resolution you get from the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy Amoled screen phones. The processor is slower than that of newer phones as well, although it ran smoothly enough. The app store is a disaster, so hard to browse that it is a painful experience. The Torch is also a blocky little thing, feeling weighty and thick in comparison to other new smartphones.
Pretty good, all in all. I mean, if you write for the Times you are required to prove you are not a glowing fan boy. In my SMARTPHONE RANKINGS the Blakberry Torch scored a very respectable '30'.
Submitted by brian s hall on 2 September, 2010 - 18:27
Hey, Scoobies. Just a quick recommendation. I've been using Pulse, a sort of visual timeline slash browser slash better RSS feed. Both iPhone and on iPad.
Love it.
I scroll faster through the stories, am able to more easily select exactly what I want to read; the visual presentation and touch UI elements make it superior to everything else I've been using to maintain my RSS feeds.
The Smartphone Wars presents stories and commentary on the economic, cultural and personal impacts of smartphones, location-aware services, hyperglobal connectivity and the real-time social mobile web.
Together, these are altering human sense of place and time and have set in motion a rapid global redistribution of wealth, power, jobs, opportunity, access and everything everywhere forever. A Great Leveling. Our job is to ensure your safe passage through the smartphone wars.
Brian S Hall is a writer, marketing guru and independent analyst with over 15 years experience in the software and communications industries. He is a principal in Rawcow Group.
My goal for this site is to provide the absolute best writing on the personal, political, communal and financial impacts of the global spread of smartphones and the real-time social mobile web.
For media inquiries, writing, consulting or speaking you may reach him at info@brianshall.com or call him at 408-64-SMART.
My book on using fantasy sports to teach children about math, business, management and leadership. Favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Available on Kindle and hardcover.
Support my smartphone documentary. I will profile individuals on all seven continents who are using smartphones to destroy markets, to finally enter the global economy, to permanently re-make their community. For good or bad.
