CAP Tech News: New Image of T-Mobile’s Dream with Google’s Android

August 30, 2008

"Dream"-ing with Android

First finding the story in Engadget it certainly looks like all the involved companies are working fast to get this one out and running into the marketplace.

I’m sure all you tech geeks (myself included) have read or heard more than a few recent stories of Apple’s continuous stumbles in the media from their iphone ills to their mobile me troubles to even accidentally publishing Steve Jobs’ obituary! So it makes not only great sense to launch something new so close to the holiday season but also an added timing bonus for competing with the wildly popular Mac when they seem to not be the “Apple” in everyone’s eye anymore.

More to come in the next few days I’m sure.

cap

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CAP Tech News: Is The Red Going to Finally Slam the Final Nail in Film’s Coffin?

August 24, 2008
Will This Camera Finally End Film?

Will This Camera Finally End Film?

Many believe that when the “prosumer” digital video cameras landed into the excited hands of the mainstream audience that that would usher in the new era of filmmakers / videomakers / videographers / etc.

That hasn’t happened yet.

We can go into the numerous specifics of why that is:

1) Traditional auteurs / filmmakers still latch onto sing the praises of film.

2) The mostly young directors-in-training are still developing their skills.

3) Because of this recent surge in cheaper technology, somehow these folks have forgotten the basics to develop their abilities to tell stories.

4) I’ll really have to expound more on this later (I’m getting pissed just thinking about it here).

Criticizing modern wave filmmaking isn’t the point of this post.

Beyond the Canon XL series, the Panasonic DVX series and the Sony Cine Alta comes the newest darling of the pro level, cheaper and comparable to film geek gadget for the cinephiles could just very well be: The Red Digital Camera.

Founded by billionaire founder of Oakley (yes, those Oakleys) Jim Jannard, The Red Digital Camera promises to finally shut the gap between celluloid and digital in terms of aesthetics and depth that film has provided for 100 years.

To read Wired’s article on The Red hit this shizz.

You can also check out this video clip shot with the Red.

Going off on a tangent (again), I wonder how Goddard and Truffaut would handle all this access to great filmmaking technology. My guess is that

Seriously, I’m going to write a post about the ills of modern day “filmmaking” sometime soon.

Right after The Closing Ceremonies of The Olympics.

Or maybe after the US Open.

Maybe.

cap

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The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman (and “Business as Usual” no longer exists)

August 14, 2008
The World is Flat and You Better Get With The Times

The World is Flat and You Better Get With The Times

I read (and was floored by) The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman a while back but couldn’t fathom how to write a post about something that is so big and fundamentally pivotal and necessary knowledge to find success in the modern global landscape. Then I realized that that is exactly what the book is for and about.

If you want to understand why oil (and life overall) has gotten so expensive so quickly… if you’re curious as to exactly how and when we went from hiring travel agents to priceline and expedia… if you want to know how some smart kid in India is answering all your technical questions about your Los Angeles based PC… if you wonder how we came from the encyclopedia Brittanica to Wikipedia, cable to youtube and Hulu, libraries to Google, Blockbuster to Netflix, iTunes and Pandora… if you want to know what is really the purpose and business model of UPS (those dudes in the brown shorts aren’t just about delivering packages. They are doing so much more)… if you want to know how you are actually working for Southwest airlines right now… if you want to get a grasp of where the next level of this hyper speed innovations are potentially headed… and so so so so much more.

You need to read this book.

And to all the readers born after the Reagan administration: This shit is mad important, yo!

First, let me share this audio clip from one of Friedman’s speaking engagements to whet your palette.

Though I had heard much about Friedman and this book in particular before, this was the catalyst that made me order the book on Amazon and devour the information in a few days. Then let it sink in and go over all my highlights at various time to make it stick.

Friedman lists out all the factors that contributed to the connected world we live in now:

Beginning at the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the day Netscape went public, to outsourcing, to insourcing, to the sudden awakening to the global network of potential employees (your job could be taken by someone who lives halfway around the world who has more qualifications and is cheaper. Plus they no longer even have to move to do your work!), to all the “technical steroids” that continue to speed up the innovations and workflows even further, The World is Flat is an extremely well researched and well communicated book that I just can’t stop lauding (in case you couldn’t tell).

I know it’s maddening right now. So many changes so fast. And just when you think you’ve got a grasp on one thing, another thousand pop up to change everything you’ve killed yourself to learn.

Yes, you can pay people to know this for you. But I’m perpetually curious with a voracious appetite to learn as much on my own as I can. It’s a blessing. But mostly it’s a curse.

I would consider this book almost a prerequisite to entering your adulthood. The best minds in our country are already hip to this. We all should be. Don’t be left out.

I said earlier that I didn’t know exactly how I was going to write a post about this book. I think I just ended up writing an expanded headline. And in doing so I’m hoping that some of you will stop wondering about why our wallets are getting lighter, our homes are losing value, food is costing more, etc. and start informing yourself of the factors behind it.

The World is Flat doesn’t try to answer all these questions directly but it does give you all the fundamental changes that occurred and continues to happen in the world so we get a better grasp as to how we got here and where we’re headed.

cap

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The Search: The Birth of Google

June 12, 2008

the search

Great book to get your internet and business geek on.

With all the French Open coverage I’ve been consuming the last couple of weeks, I also used the time to catch up on some much needed research and reading to feed my brain.

John Battelle’s The Search is both a highly informative and fascinating book on the origins of the search engine, it’s present status, a well educated guesstimate of where it’s headed and it tells these complex tales of history and subject matters in a relatively, fun and non-tech geeky way for anyone to understand. It merely and clearly defines the values and benefits of the search engine and discusses why there’s so much resource being put into this next generation of technology.

The Search also uses the search engine / corporation / new most powerful entity / every other superlative juggernaut in the known world in Google to tell this story. If you’re going to tell any tales of this stature, you might as well start from the top.

A few key points learned from reading The Search by John Battelle:

- Google and most search engines are really in the business less about what actual words we’re typing into our search boxes and more into learning about our intentions. The “why” we’re typing in certain terms or phrases into the search boxes. They’re literally in the business of trying to read our minds and thoughts.

- Jerry Yang and David Filo started off Yahoo as a way to try to win some fantasy basketball league (which they did).

- Yahoo and Google have very fundamentally opposing philosophies on how best to satisfy searcher’s needs using the technology of search. Complex algorithms and text ads aside, the end goal is to properly read our true intentions and purposes in our search. What are we searching for and why?

- No matter how advanced all the search technology seems to be to us plebians, the general concensus is that it’s all still very much at it’s infancy. Just about every expert in the industry believes that we’re only about 10% into getting to the “perfect search”.

- As powerful as Yahoo and Google are now, neither seem to flex much muscle when opposed by the Chinese government. In order to enter the highly lucrative Chinese market, both companies (as well as many others) have had to bend on their principles and previously “unbendable rules”.

- The guys over at Google, Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, etc are all extremely powerful companies filled with highly intelligent people. But at the end of the day, they’re learning this as they go along just like the rest of us.

- Brin and Page both like to eat Burger King after a major breakthrough.

There are countless other points of interest that make this book a worthwhile read.

The Search is an easy, fascinating read told very well. It’s not nearly as juicy in terms of dirt as James Stewart’s Disney War and that’s a good thing. Besides, Google is far too new and riding high to warrant much negative “inside” gossip… Yet.

As this relatively new and perpetually innovative industry continues to change, update and repeat itself, The Search is a great book to start to learn about the humble beginnings and see where all this crazy ass interweb stuff came from.

cap

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Roger Federer: My Modern Day Sun Tzu?

June 5, 2008

I’ve Learned Much About Business From Watching Roger Federer Play Tennis

I’m sure you’ve heard all the cliches: business is war. It can be the ultimate sports competition. When we see Kobe play basketball, we obviously enjoy his stellar athleticism. But I believe that a lot of us see a bit of ourselves in great athletes as well. The way they handle pressure. The way they lead their team to believe against conventional wisdom. The way they’re willing to take the ultimate shot in the end carrying the whole game on their shoulders time and time again.

I’m not the biggest basketball fan but I am a lifelong tennis fan.

And though the popularity of tennis has waned in America recently, it’s never been a better time to enjoy this sport for us true hard core fans. Mainly this is due to having the privilege of watching the one guy who just may well be the greatest of all time: Roger Federer.

He’s at the peak of his abilities at 26. He’s broken just about every conceivable record out there. He’s only three Grand Slam titles away from besting Pete Sampras’ record 14 Grand Slam titles. Blah blah blah.

Besides the obvious accolades that make Federer great, what really sets him apart for me and many others is just how much of a class act he carries himself in spite of his herculean achievements. Lesser people would cry and plead for the adoration. That’s not Federer’s way. It’s not what brought him to the dance and it’s not motivates him.

He wasn’t always like this. There are great tales of a younger Federer being quite temperamental: throwing racquets, screaming, hitting balls out to the nose bleed sections, etc.

I’ve had those days too.

But now I watch this guy, this deity of the sport I hold so dear. I watch Federer conduct business in what is essentially his office. I see this and I see how I could pick up a few pointers from the (arguably) world’s greatest tennis player and use it in my business meetings.

    He’s cool.
    He works hard.
    He’s graceful.
    He’s respectful.
    He doesn’t give up.
    He’s always prepared.
    He has fun.
    He doesn’t expend his energies in anger and useless theatrics like many of our modern day celebrities subsist on.
    If something doesn’t go his way, he relies on all the off court hours worth of spotlight free training to switch his game plan.

    And he does all this to win.

These are characteristics that not only help great athletes but they help great businessmen, leaders and people overall.

Prior to becoming a Federer fan, I was a fan of Lleyton Hewitt. I enjoyed his scrappy play and great energy including his over the top “COME ON!” fist pumps. But I always wondered if all that was a little too much. After all, Sampras was never a big personality (most often he was downright chastised for it). Even Agassi’s greatest triumphs didn’t occur until after his “image is everything” phase had long faded away.

I’ve spent the bulk of my evening reading and re-reading another draft of a business contract that I’m hoping to close sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’ve put a lot of work and efforts into this deal over the past eight plus months. There have been ups and downs along the road. But ultimately whenever I find myself getting frustrated with any aspect of it, I remind myself how Federer might handle this situation if he was down a set and a break.

He’d stay cool, classy and allow his hard work and diligent preperation to pull him through to the Win column.

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Earth Class Mail: A Virtual PO Box? Who gives a rat’s ass?

June 1, 2008

Earth Class Mail

What the heck are they supposedly introducing as a value based service again?

In my eternal search for new and innovative ways to avoid being productive (don’t bother me when it’s Grand Slam tournament season), a new reality show on Hulu found it’s way to invade my time.

Though I generally try to avoid reality shows (unless it’s got that Gordon Ramsay dude… but only because he calls his contestants “lazy cows”) this one piqued my interest because it’s about a tech based start up company. And I find said subject extremely fascinating.

The show is called Start-Up Junkies and it’s traditional TV home is the Mojo cable network. But if you’re like me and you basically have the French Open playing in the background on your TV, your best bet is to check out all eight full episodes on Hulu for free.

In a nutshell, Start-Up Junkies is about a group of rag tag entrepreneurs who start up a brand new tech based company to interrupt the multi billion (perhaps trillion?) dollar “snail mail” industry.

How, you may ask?

By intercepting your paper mail, scanning it and re-sending this mail to you via email as a pdf type file. But not to worry, you can still get your regular important mail the old school traditional ways, this service is really for those pesky junk mail type stuff that you wouldn’t really pay any mind to anyway. I mean bills, personal letters, health clinic reports, those are things too personal to allow some stranger to open, yes? Right.

The show itself sheds a spotlight on many of Earth Class Mail’s trials, tribulations and passionate sales presentations all mostly done by company jolly guy, Ron. It’s all very fascinating and kinda inspiring. A bunch of renegades bypass working for “the man” in order to create and grow a company to become “the man” themselves. Very touching.

Here’s what I don’t get. These folks over at Earth Class Mail and Mojo don’t do a very good job of explaining quite exactly what they are offering. Is it virtual mail? A virtual PO Box? A junk mail filter that actually just ends up as more junk email for the user? And they would actually pay for this service?

Just to be clear… I’m paying you to send me more junk email? Because I most certainly wouldn’t give the green light for total strangers to open my private mails, bills, checks, packages, etc.

WTF?

The other thing that kinda miffed me was that they call their company and service Earth Class Mail, no doubt an obvious effort of trying to ride the new “green” cultural revolution that’s taken over our country. But from what I gather, this company’s service doesn’t actually eliminate any of the paper based mail that the receiver would normally get. All it does is just send the same paper mail to another address where this huge, overpriced, oversized mail sorter machine just scans the original paper mail and sends a pdf type file to the recipient’s email. Then if there is anything of interest, I may print out the email to save for later. So, basically I just used up more paper for what I think may be a pretty lame service. Al Gore would be very displeased with me.

This all leads to my “duh” questions of the week: Why would I pay someone to go through my junk mail? If this company just scans stuff that I normally wouldn’t pay any mind to anyway, why would I care that someone else take the time and efforts to scan this for me and send it to me? Isn’t that just helping the junk mail senders instead of making my life easier? Oh, and I get to pay for this privilege too? Am I missing something here? Ooh, piece of candy!

If anyone out there knows about this company or watches the show and can explain exactly what service they are selling and why it may be something, anything of value, I’d appreciate a note or message here.

Cheers.

Rafael Nadal

This kid is looking more like he’s going to win four in a row in Paris.

By the way, Rafael Nadal just absolutely destroyed Verdasco 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 in the fourth round of the 2008 French Open.

cap

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Brand Simple: Great Introduction to Marketing and Branding Techniques

May 25, 2008

It’s Sunday afternoon and despite my best efforts to make this long weekend as productive as possible, I succumbed to a moment of weakness and went out to meet friends, grab a quick bite which lead to a few drinks and a slight hangover this morning.

But I woke up to the pleasant surpise of the opening day of The French Open which saw:

Brand Simple book cover

Now as a not so subtle means to procrastinate from finishing up some weekend work, I want to quickly think out loud about Allen Adamson’s Brand Simple.

Great book. Well written. Simply expressed. A fundamental must read for anyone who finds anything about anything interesting.

What I mean is that even though it’s primarily about marketing, advertising, branding and the such, the fundamentals of the messages contained within this little tome with a big punch can be applied to just about anything in modern day life from blogging to promoting to writing to many many more subjects.

Without getting too boring in my explanation (besides, this post is more about me trying to have an exercise to better remember the main points from the book) I’ll try to lay out the most important bullet points to hopefully get others interested in getting involved with the book.

    1) Brand and Branding are two two completely different concepts. A “Brand” is something, anything that someone associates with your product, service, company or individual associated with the company. “Branding” is the actual process of getting people to associate the right messages as it pertains to your product, service, etc.

    2) One of the most important steps to take when you’re about to brand or market something is really think about how your product, service, company, etc. differs from the competition. People are very savvy now. It just takes a few minutes on Google to figure out if your promises are legit or not.

    Once you’ve determined what that difference is, you must use that as the core method in which to market or brand your product or service.

    3) Know your audience. Know who you are marketing to. Specifically. You can’t please every demographic at once. Start with the core audience and expand accordingly.

    4) Don’t overcomplicate things. Most likely the thing that differentiates your product from your competition is probably right under your nose.

    5) Have a business strategy that coincides with your branding strategy. Once you figure out what and who you want to market to, stick to it. Don’t change either factors on a whim. This sends out too many signals to your audience and they are not going to respond to any of them. Stick to your game plan.

    6) Consider a tagline for your brand. In the film and TV world it’s sorta like the logline that best tells us about your product or service in a nutshell. Make sure it fits with the overall strategy.

    7) Map out how your typical customer will run through your product. From the initial thought of needing or wanting your product or service all the way to the actual purchase of it and beyond, walk it through and see where you can make the process simpler and more satisfying for the client or customer.

    Eight) Spend wisely. You can’t control every factor. Don’t be wasteful in the aspects of your strategies that you really don’t have any control over. And not just with money but with your time and energies as well.

    9) Make sure that the difference you promote for your product or service is a difference that people will genuinely care about. A difference for the sake of difference is not gonna do anyone any good.

    10) Remember that this is all a marathon and not a sprint. Once you’ve got your strategy and ready to execute your plan, stick to it and realize that time will be the only true tell sign on whether it will be effective or not.

Adamson really goes into quite a few examples based on personal experience to really flesh out these ideas above and it’s all very interesting.

I’m in the process of closing a pretty exciting deal myself for my company in the next few weeks and wholly plan on utilizing the techniques outlined and explained in Brand Simple.

Now if only I can be this focused with the rest of my life.

More to come.

cap

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