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Over 70 Million People is Definitely a Market Opportunity

April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The hopeful image of active, fit and healthy seniors is, at best, a myth.

My sisters and I are helping our 86 year old father “age in place” as best he can by staying in his home. With even cursory analysis, it’s pretty clear there won’t be anywhere near enough capital to build assistive living or nursing home facilities to accomodate the huge pending influx of aging baby boomers, over 70 million of whom started retiring in January of 2011 and will do so through 2029.

When you add to that the real possibility that these oldster’s life expectancy is expected to rise as well, and it certainly appears we have an impending crisis on our hands. As you’ll see below, I argue that the enormity of this population of aging boomers represents quite a market opportunity for technological, community, societal and financial support solutions to alleviate that crisis and make money to boot!  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness, Technology

YOU Might Already be a Victim of a Cramming Scam

March 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The New York Times had this article in the “Money” section yesterday about mobile text messaging scams. It’s likely you won’t pay attention to this scam until YOU are a victim, but you might already be one so read on.

Sick with the flu one weekend this past January I’d gone to bed early on a Sunday night only to be awakened by two back-to-back text messages arriving on my iPhone at about 2am. Having been in the internet/web industry since its beginning in the mid-1990s, I instantly recognized the potential for charges from this scammer so I sat up, grabbed my iPad, and started poking around to see if either the message identifier (the “318-50″ in the screengrab below) or the toll-free 866-861-1606 number was an active scam.

I was stunned to learn it is a scam and even ignoring the message meant my account would be charged $9.99 PER MONTH! 

Based upon the sheer volume of complaints I found during my searching online shows that this scam is rampant, apparently is seeing little-to-no preemptive action on the part of the wireless carriers, and many, many mobile users are being charged monthly fees. This fraud is commonly known as cramming.

I am writing this post for the express purpose of bringing this issue to your attention. If *I* can get scammed (and I am VERY cautious, careful and savvy about online scams and still don’t know how my number was discovered) I can only guess how pervasive this is and that it appears the carriers are likely complicit in perpetuating these cramming scams since they apparently receive 30% of all subscription fees collected..

What is this scam and what can you do?  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Gadgets & Hacks, Technology

Steve Jobs – Billion Dollar Hippy (BBC Documentary)

December 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Watched this on our AppleTV last night and it’s well worth a view. As always, the BBC does a fantastic job:

Filed Under: Technology

3D Printing: Manufacturing’s “Big Bang”

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Visualizing the future for me is so easy that I get very impatient waiting for it. Way back in 2005 I wrote a post called, “Print” 3D Objects on Demand which talked about a breakthrough in 3D printing technology that promised to turn computer aided design in to end-products in an instant. 

Since then we have come a long way but I’m still impatiently waiting for mainstreaming, even though I’m about to jump in to MakerBot, “…a company founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Smith producing an open source 3D printer to democratize manufacturing. You order it, build it, and you have a machine that can make you almost anything!“

But is mainstreaming close? Yep. The New York Times “Bits” column about “The Business of Technology” had a brief post on Sunday by Nick Bilton about 3D printing called, Disruptions: The 3D Printing Free for All which said, in part:

It won’t be long before people have a 3-D printer sitting at home alongside its old inkjet counterpart. These 3-D printers, some already costing less than a computer did in 1999, can print objects by spraying layers of plastic, metal or ceramics into shapes. People can download plans for an object, hit print, and a few minutes later have it in their hands.

Near the end Bilton writes:

A recent research paper published by the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., titled “The Future of Open Fabrication,” says 3-D printing will be “manufacturing’s Big Bang.” as jobs in manufacturing, many overseas, and jobs shipping products around the globe are replaced by companies setting up 3-D fabrication labs in stores to print objects rather than ship them.

No question we’re a ways off from buying a 3D printer for our home to make finished goods, “Honey! Will you come here and look at these designs online so we can start printing our plates for Thanksgiving?” More likely 3D printing is going to first enable organizations to rapidly prototype new designs and shorten the cycle times for taking a great idea or innovation to manufacturing. Later on we’ll undoubtedly head over to a “Kinkos for 3D Printing” to have stuff made on industrial-strength printers, like those made by my hometown dominant player in the space, Stratasys. 

But who knows? Maybe breakthroughs in nano-materials will enable us to buy a 3D printer at Best Buy and crank out all sorts of finished goods right at home. Finally I’ll be able to just ‘print’ my ideas vs. taking weeks to get a production-ready prototype.

To learn more:

Filed Under: Commerce, Innovation, Technology

Skype for iPad is Still “Rare”

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Like many of us who use and love Skype, I’ve been eagerly anticipating its release for the iPad, in the same way I look forward to a “medium well” juicy steak now and then. Unfortunately, like in a bad restaurant, I metaphorically bit in to the new iPad Skype app this afternoon and it turned out the damn thing is rare! 

Once I installed the app and launched it, I logged in and called one of my Skype accounts. The microphone and speaker didn’t function. Then I completely quit the app and I could still hear audio clicking coming out of the speaker. Hmmm….not good.

Then I completely quit all iPad apps and rebooted the device and relaunched Skype. It tried to connect and then, inexplicably, Skype killed my Wifi connection and I couldn’t re-enable it. Hmmm….not good.

Did the same complete-quick and reboot and relaunch of Skype. NOW the Wifi stayed on and the microphone and speakers functioned perfectly. So did my headset/microphone combination. NOTE: If you install Skype for iPad on your device, make certain you completely quit all apps and then reboot.

After proceeding to test it thoroughly several times, I was satisfied it worked. But searching for contacts? Yikes…there isn’t a search function. So if you have A LOT of Skype contacts like I do, be forewarned you’ll be flipping and flipping and flipping your various contact screens to find the person you’d like to call. This is a bizarre oversight in my opinion.

The interesting part of this not-quite-fully-cooked iPad app is that the iPhone app functions pretty well (and also if it that app is used on the iPad), even though I frequently get “low connection” errors when using Skype with iPhone on my home Wifi which is “N” and really fast. In fact, the iPhone app worked better on the iPad than the new iPad app does. If it wasn’t for video on the new iPad app, there’s little reason to use it over the existing iPhone app.

In many ways I continue to be stunned by what a mess Skype apps are regardless of platform. The Windows app is dramatically different (and better) than the Mac app (the latter which is a joke for user interface design and everyone hates it); the iPhone/Android apps are a bit closer in functionality but different enough to be material. The iPad app being so minimal, and with not very robust capabilities, is most bothersome. Hope Skype/Microsoft gets this right since I’ve been paying for the service for several years now and use Skype all day, every day and really want this iPad app to be awesome. 

Filed Under: Technology, VoIP

Louis C.K. on Why Appreciate ‘the Amazing’

July 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Comedian Louis C.K.  has this very funny rant on how people don’t appreciate technology, flying, Wifi on those flying planes and more. This is EXACTLY what I’d love to say to people when they complain about their smartphone while they’re riding in a car (“it, like, is totally slower than my home internet“) but you’re in a CAR going down the HIGHWAY AT 75MPH! Or those who complain about the nearly 13 hours it takes to fly from Minneapolis, MN to Narita, Japan (“oh my butt is so sore“), a trip that took weeks by train and then ship less than 75 years ago!

httpvh://youtu.be/itn8TwFCO4M 

Filed Under: Technology, Travel

Tools Aren’t Keeping Up

July 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

A bonobo at the San Diego Zoo "fishing" for termites with his stick "tool"

Though other mammals have them, humans and our opposable thumbs have made using tools a key part of our evolutionary acceleration as a species. The higher level the tool, the more of us that can use it. Unfortunately in today’s accelerating technology world, I feel more like that chimp above than a higher level human since the tools are so incredibly immature.

Take the explosion in desktop publishing in the mid-1980′s. A Macintosh, Laserwriter printer, and software like Aldus Pagemaker made the previously manual and film prepress process in to one accessible to millions of us. In fact, my wife and I started our business 25 years ago because these technologies were available to us.

That’s why I’m somewhat taken aback at the acceleration in tablet and ereader acceptance, but realize there are a woefully inadequate number of tools available. I probably should say affordably available and accessible to normal humans vs. skilled programmers or publishers with deep pockets. If you have enough dough or people, you can afford to have your iPad magazines created, served and delivered by companies like Adobe with their Digital Publishing Suite.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation, Technology

Nikon D5100 – A Surprisingly Awesome Camera

May 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You should know before you read this post that I’m a technology snob. Since I always strive for the best result or outcome I can achieve, I’m usually buying the highest end product I can afford. In the case of cameras, that would and should include full frame ones like the Nikon D3X…but that camera is nearly $8,000 and is a “bazooka to kill an ant” when it comes to how often I’m able to carve out the time to shoot photos.

Still, I want to achieve the best results I can so on Monday my new $899 Nikon D5100 arrived along with a new Nikkor 35mm 1.8G lens (which, by the way, is in such short supply that it’s commanding a $100 premium over its $199.95 List Price). Though the Nikon ‘kit’ includes the 18-55mm zoom lens, I already own the amazing Nikkor 18-200mm lens, probably the best “vacation” lens ever made since it gives a photographer a fabulous range, so I’m selling the ‘kit’ lens.

I immediately opened up all the boxes and took some shots. One of the first was of a character I fixated on as a child, the Disney cartoon bug Jiminy Cricket, which I bought at Disney World when my college age daughter was a toddler and we went there on a vacation. A vacation that was as much for me, a guy who’d never gone to a Disney theme park but grew up always wanting to, than it was for my girl.

Jiminy sits on our mantle (which proves what a saint my wife is!) and I walked over and took this shot in available light. While not a definitive photo or an analytic review of the D5100 like this one from DPReview, it nonetheless made my jaw drop with how perfectly it came out.

I then spent that evening walking around the house experimenting as I learned the capabilities (and the limits) of this little device. There is NO question in my mind that this will revolutionize the results I’ll achieve from my photography. As I view the several hundred shots I’ve taken thus far, I can say with confidence that my typical “keeper” percentage has gone up from 20% to nearly 50%…which is saying alot for a hack like me.

I’ve yet to spend much time shooting video with the camera since there is a 4GB limit (~20 minutes) and much of the video I shoot are conference, seminar or interview sessions that are usually an hour in length. Still, So the next time you have a friend, family member or photography buddy trying to convince you NOT to buy new tech or to step up and spend the big dough, show them results like these on Flickr or a video like this one all done on the D5100:

 

 

Filed Under: Technology

“Big technology companies down to, ah, Microsoft”

January 20, 2011 By 2 Comments

With people like veteran analyst Mary-Jo Foley questioning Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s vision and ability to execute and others that the company has run out of ideas, there is obvious and growing concern about the company’s long-term viability. Coupled with that is my own overwhelming realization that there seems to be virtually zero buzz about the company among leading mobile or hosted web application developers (two of the hottest technology categories in the marketplace).

So should we be surprised that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke likely just ‘dissed’ Microsoft on national television without realizing it?

This week CEOs from Microsoft Corp. and Goldman Sachs were part of a group of corporate leaders which the Obama administration brought together for a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The intent was to discuss U.S. business interests in China and to be frank about intellectual property (I.P.) concerns. American companies have had I.P. pirated (especially in software) or had physical goods knocked off instantly by counterfeiting Chinese companies while that government has historically looked the other way.

Watching CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, I was listening to this segment where the show’s main anchor, Becky Quick, was interviewing Commerce Secretary Locke. While paying half attention to what was being said, I did a double-take when Locke said at the end of his talking point that the CEOs had met with President Hu Jintao and President Obama and had “reinforced the message” about  I.P. protection and stopping counterfeiting but then added these CEOs included those from…

“…our big technology companies down to, ah, Microsoft.”

Ouch. Here is the 40 second snippet from that segment:

USCommSec_MSFT.mp3
Filed Under: Current Affairs, Innovation, Technology

Mac App Store Makes Buying *Easy*

January 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Analysts and tech pundits have been buzzing about Apple’s App Store ever since its introduction, and with Citibank’s projection that Apple will rake in $2 billion in 2011 from sales within it, logic would dictate building an app store for Macintosh applications would be another great way to make a ton of money.

Apple’s Mac App Store is now open for business (press release; Mac App Store web page). I submit it’s instead part of an overall strategy to make the Apple experience just as seamless, integrated, rock-solid and, most importantly, easy…as it is for the iOS powered devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch (and even iPod to a certain extent).

Why do I think this Mac App Store will be wildly successful? Three reasons:

1) Discovery: In the past most of us read one of a handful of magazines to find new applications, used a website that offered reviews, had a friend or colleague recommend one, or shopped for one in a retail store (yikes…remember buying shrink-wrapped software!?!). Though there are still far too many apps on the iOS App Store—and will certainly be too many to browse all of them on the Mac App Store—at least the wisdom of the crowd will help hot ones bubble up to the surface for simple and quick discovery. I’m hoping Apple will use the “Genius” capability in the Mac App Store at some point to look at what we have installed on our Macs and make recommendations on other complimentary apps we might like to own

2) Easy Downloads with “No Baggage”: The Mac App Store removes several steps to obtain a Mac application. Before, we’d have to find the app; download the Zip or DMG (disk image); do the install; if DMG, eject it; then open Downloads folder and move the Zip or DMG to the trash; empty the trash. THAT ‘OLD WAY’ EQUALS SEVEN STEPS!

Now with the Mac App Store, THE ‘NEW WAY’ IS ONLY THREE STEPS: Discover the app; click “Install”; enter your Apple ID to buy one or download a free one. Even I, someone who can do this sort of stuff in my sleep, smiled in delight at how easy this would make it for me, a self-described “power user,” let alone someone new to the Macintosh. This is especially true if someone has come to the Mac due to their experiences with an iOS device and using the iOS App Store

3) One-stop-shop: Over the last three years as my firm has done work implementing numerous ecommerce sites for clients, not only are ecommerce experiences completely different on nearly every website, but I’ve been increasingly stunned as to how many sophisticated consumers I know and meet do very little or no ecommerce transactions! They’re afraid of an insecure site, are reluctant to buy an app and download it, and so on. I’m convinced that this Mac App Store will extend the accounts people already have on iTunes and the overall experience will remove all sorts of barriers to even newbies buying Mac apps online.

Nicely done Apple.

Filed Under: Computing, Technology
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