Friday, August 30, 2013

End of The Tablet (or Smartphone) As A Gadget?

OK I am tired of the iPad and Nexus 7 as cute gadgets. Add the smartphone to that as well.  “Oh yes, I have one of those. We can check our email, watch a movie, read a book. I can even go to Facebook while watching TV.”

Problem is I can only do a minimum of reasonable productivity on these devices.

ipadActually I am getting bored with the whole thing. It was fun at first, just like the computer was 30+ years ago. Now these ‘gadgets’ are a time sync. I WANT MORE!!

When will the tablet grow up? Become a useful productive member of society? And not have to beNexus 7 NEW 4-3 supported by a laptop/notebook computer? If these tablets are to really take over they have to do more. They have to evolve and soon. Best I have here is a note taking device with some communication capabilities.

Up front let’s say that I do not want to create web pages, design the next complex automobile, or architectural wonder.  All I want are all the office like resources.

Currently I can make a presentation from my tablet to others however I can’t take the order or write a really nice thank you letter on it, I have to return to the computer. I can present highly sophisticated real time graphics on the iPad and even my Samsung phone but can’t write a letter that includes graphics, charts, or photo’s (with word wrap), and send it to my client. Back to the computer. In some cases I can’t even edit the document I am presenting.

Forget blogging anything meaningful with graphics from one of these devices. Guy Kawasaki says you should not put up a blog post without a picture, hmmm…. back to the computer (which I am using to write this).

With our rate of acceptance of new technologies accelerating it’s only reasonable that we want MORE!! The issue is I want it NOW!!

OK Apple, Google, Samsung, what’s next?

My wife’s car is ready, the coffee is gone, so I will move along. I think the dealership thinks I have take up office space here.

There's something due any day
I will know right away
Soon as it shows
Read more: Westside Story - Somethings Coming Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Yes the Tech Scene Has Been Changing–Where Have You Been?

NY Times article in their Technology section; Shifting Tech Scene Unsettles Big Players (published August 21,2013).  Admittedly this must be a fascinating read for someone who has not paid any attention to the technology changes in the last 5 years.

In my thinking the corporations having problems today are the people who produce the current technologies however they do not get why people buy them. Perhaps they are thinking “someday people will all get over these gadgets and return to the old world”. Why do these companies build these products? They do it to produce revenue. Most are inadequate derivations of successful products produced by an innovator of yesterday.

These same companies DO NOT understand the personal/sociological change occurring (or that has occurred). They produce for the money what is being purchased but do not "SEE" the change! Perhaps the change is not internal. “We build what they buy. Why people buy this stuff we have no clue.”

How often do you see someone (perhaps yourself) using a smartphone as a cute gadget? “Cool man”, I can make calls and get email and listen to the latest tunes on my phone. Oh and look at pictures also.

What do I see? People with graphical information related to their business data, being viewed on that same smartphone. These same people going to meeting’s with connections to their server showing Excel spreadsheets on their iPad as well as tableau visual analytics. This data stays up-to-date and is real-time. These people are not playing. This is REAL and it is TODAY! Apple device or Android, it works everywhere.

Koday JrQuestion: Why is it a sudden revelation that  HP's printer business is down? WHY is anyone surprised? Paper companies are going out of business - why? What is happening to the printer market? If Wall Street expects the printer market to grow they are out of touch.

NO ONE IS PRINTING! Amazing! Where have you been? OK some print but not the number that did. And it it getting less and less each day. Put you money on Google, Dropbox, SkyDrive, SharePoint, but get away from printers.

What is happening to the PC business? It is changing and as soon as some company is smart enough to realize that tablets of all sizes are becoming dominate productive devices we could lose a number of companies we thought would stay ahead of the curve. If major software providers of today don’t get off their high horse they will be replaced in years to come.

What is happening to the newspaper business? The movie business? The music business? What about books, magazines, the US Postal Service?

In closing; Yes the tablet was innovative, even if it took a long time from the first entry into the market to get to the iPad. Now look at the speed of development. We still ask what’s next? What have you done lately? Apple? Dell? HP? Microsoft? Just to name a few. Hey the iPad, iPhone, Galaxy S4 – that was yesterday. We want tomorrow.

Innovate, innovate, innovate. Don’t procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate. The consumer is ready now.

Finally. Today seems to be a world of choices in which the founders have lost track.

Friday, August 2, 2013

The End of Catch and The Beginning of Chromecast

I was a bit distressed on Wednesday (July 31st) reading in TechCrunch that Catch is shutting down. The article; “Evernote Competitor Catch.com Shuts Down….” is an interesting read. TechCrunch refers to Catch as an Evernote competitor however I might not go quite that far. On the other hand I have used one of Catch’s products, AK Notepad, for some time.

Is this the ‘fear’ behind latching onto an app and then down the road it disappears? I admit that AK Notepad was free and I used it as one would use a scratch pad on my phone. I made quick notes, grabbed a phone number, simple shopping list, and even used it to alert me to buy lottery tickets. It was easy to use and it was FREE. Perhaps the FREE part is what did Catch in. Although my PRIME use was the phone it was also available on my tablets. Catch, the parent, would sync my notes between my phone and my Nexus 7.

NOW I am a big Evernote user but AK Notepad, as I said, was my scratch pad. I will now be using Evernote as my scratch pad I guess but what if it sells out? Always there in the background.

Going back to the FREE aspect. I am more than willing to pay a reasonable amount to have an app and I would have paid for AK Notepad. How much would I pay is the question. I pay for Evernote – $45/yr, and PrinterShare Premium for printing from my phone and tablet. I pay for many other apps on my phone and tablets. You have to determine the value to you versus the cost of the app. The NY Times is a case in point.

I like the NY Times however I will not pay the current rate for the NY Times subscription as I believe it is too much money. At $16.75/mo or $195/yr. (currently) for a digital subscription I believe that I can do as well with my RSS feeds and other resources. I would pay but we have to get it down considerably.

Chromecast -

On a little different note I received by Chromecast device yesterday and installed it last night. Installation was a wiz after dealing with some Internet access issues on my home network. I was able to show my desktop on the beautiful 60” Samsung screen and it looked cool. The desktop did stutter and not scroll as I wanted however that aspect is in Beta and I am sure it will begin to work.

I lit up the Netflix 3 month gift and away we went. Seamless viewing and my router is on the second floor the TV and I on the first floor. I controlled it from my notebook and next up will be controlling from my phone. I was quite pleased. Over the next couple of weeks I am sure we will be playing a great deal with this.