Social Media Still A Mystery To Companies

I have my issues regarding Facebook's woeful treatment of privacy of its 700 million+ users.  They don't care about our privacy.  Zero.  Nada.  However, Facebook is a fantastic platform for individuals or groups with an agenda or a company that has a product or service to sell.  

And if you run any kind of a business, you will want social media to be a part of your company's online outreach to customers or use it in ways that allow you to communicate directly with your customer base.

However, some executives are unsure if Twitter or Facebook could help them at all.  So I'll keep it simple.  If you're one of these executives, you should reconsider.  And if you're the head of a department or company and one of your minions suggests to you that social media has no place in your company, fire that guy or gal.

Consider the booming ebook market.  Consider Borders Group now being liquidated.  I am sure there was a time when Borders executives thought the idea of reading books on electronic devices will never catch on or that if it catches on, it will not happen in the time frame that it has.  Now, Amazon controls a large share of that market through the Kindle. And Borders competitor, Barnes And Noble, woke up finally and quickly acted to push through a large initiative within the company and came out with the Nook that effectively allow it to participate as a book seller in digital realm. 

If anything, you'll want to be a part of the social media to know what your customers are thinking and use it as tool to see where your competitors are headed.  

Maybe social media is a fad but I'm sure Borders thought e-reading would be a fad and would be confined to small corner of the book industry.

Source:  ReadWrite.

HTC Filed Suit Against Apple In the UK; Apple Likely snapped HTC's Olive Branch

After being handed a setback by ITC that ruled HTC violated two key Apple patents and having the S3 patents that Apple's Mac alleged violated be ruled unpatentable, HTC was in a much weaker position in the courts and bargaining position.  

Hence, HTC suddenly became malleable to sitting down with Apple and negotiate an agreement with Apple.  That was last week.

Today, we learned that HTC filed a suit against Apple in the UK and the war between the two is likely to escalate to the level of fighting between Apple and Samsung spanning continents in multiple jurisdictions.  

Why?  Is HTC simply trying to rattle Apple a bit?  On the surface, one could see this as a ploy to bring Apple to the tablet.  However, I've got another explanation.

Apple took the olive branch from HTC, broke it in half, and threw it right back at it.  

And if I'm right, all the Android device makers will have to deal with Apple in just such a manner.  Apple does not file patents to collect royalties. Many Wall Street analysts mistakenly insist that exchange of money will make this "all go away" especially Taiwanese research firms.  Apple filed patents to protect its products from being copied and infringed upon.  

Also, HTC assured investors that the spat with Apple will not hurt its business.  I think HTC investors ought to do a little homework and find out just who HTC is dealing with.

Tablet: Amazon Should Learn From HP About Web OS Failure and Pricing

Amazon can learn something very valuable from HP’s Web OS debacle. More importantly, it can pick up a couple of things from the frenzy created by the firesale of the Touchpads in the US, UK, and Canada.

 Okay, it’s not like the $99 is something Amazon can pull off with its own Kindle tablet, possibly called the Scribe. But it does have to realize that it has to compete with the iPad on pricing. That is the only differentiator that Amazon can offer. After all, ecosystem to ecosystem, Amazon doesn’t come close.

 For the same price or even just $100 cheaper, why go with anyone else other than a proven tablet with hundreds of thousands of apps and quality that you can depend on. But at $200 cheaper price, a $300 price tag just might be enough to attract more than a few users.

Some TV Shows Bought On iTunes Streams To Apple TV, Now About iOS Devices?

Apple has a deal with ABC, Fox, and possibly others that allows Apple TV to stream TV shows they bought.  When I first read about this earlier this morning, I had to reread the post to make sure it was what I thought it to be.  And this was made possible through an Apple TV update available today. (Macworld)

If you buy a TV show from a studio has such a deal wtih Apple, you can now download the TV show but also stream it live through Apple's servers to your Apple TV and onto your HDTV.  This certainly has me closer to buying a TV after all.

What's missing is that some studios and channels have not yet agree to this.  Hence, users reported that some TV shows are missing.  

And while Apple now allows TV shows to be redownloaded, I wonder how soon before Apple allows users to simply stream TV they've gouth.  Furthermore, are we any closer to a TV subscription?

No 3.5" iPod Touch with 3G; 7" iPod Touch With 3G Makes More Sense

I'm gonna make this my thing for the fall until the next iPod touch comes out.  3G access is something I've wanted for the iPod touch but never got and now it's likely Apple is shipping an iPod touch with 3G.  My question is which one.

See, I've been using my iPod touch with my Clearwire iSpot until I bought new Android and iPhone recently.  It was my mobile battle platform if you will.  As a mobile warrior who insisted on taking that extra leap into what I think is the future, a future where there are no voice plan but data only plans, it was a grand experiment.  

My set up was not as robust as I would have liked largely because the VOIP options were spotty.  Now with Apple likely to release a touch with 3G, I reckon Apple should have an option for VOIP in development in the future.  Perhaps, there could be a FaceTime option for just voice.  

So, would this just be a conventional iPod touch upgraded with a 3G modem?  I think not though because the addressable market is just too small.  

I'm going against convention and speculate that the iPod touch as we know it will remain the same while there could be a separate subset of the touch with a bigger screen and form factor to support 3G and a larger battery life.

Just yesteryday I posted the news that Samsung has developed a 7" screen wtih 1024x768 resolution, the same one as the iPad.  To call this an iPod touch 7 would make sense and the resolution would allow Apple to let this 7" touch use iPad apps without requiring developers to rework their apps.

Furthermore, a 7" iPod touch form factor would allow Apple to increase the battery of this new device with similar battery life to that of the iPad.  

So, I'm gonna be looking at the Web to see if there are more evidence to support my assertion.  I promise to show you that Apple has already show us that it could be working on just such a device.  I'll get to it soon enough.

US Debt Rating Should Not Be Downgraded - Ever

The unhappiness regarding the compromise budget and debt ceiling deal should be a sign to rating agencies that the US will always make sure it pays out its debt obligations.  And it does feel like this time around, both sides are willing to accept necessarily and unpopular measures to make sure the US gets back on track.

Perhaps, it's the popularity of a President and the clever maneuvering of the Tea Party that is going to make it possible for both sides to be serious about US debt.  

What we saw over the weekend with the government working to find a compromise was what the Founding Fathers had intended.  And it is a system that is dysfunctional much of the time but can yield surprising results when needed. 

And in 2012, if President Obama is reelected, he may owe much of that to the Tea Party keeping him moderate.  

And as long as there are opposing sides working to make sure the US keeps its financial house in order, the ratings on US borrowings should never be downgraded.  Not just for our sake but for everyone else's.

Will iCloud Become Apple's Cloud OS?

iCloud, though the public has not seen it, has been regarded as Apple's newest weapon and its best hope to supplant the services offered by Google, Microsoft, and others.  It will be what MobileMe was meant to be.  And it could be Apple's final effort in trying to convince users that it knows what cloud computing is.

Even at this point, iCloud may well be nothing more than a glorified online storage for files, photos, and music.  But as with everything Apple, it offers pinpoint improvements over time and adds new innovative features and apps when they feel it has been baked well enough.

And it could be possible that as iCloud evolves further, it could merge with iOS and OS X further in the coming years.  Just as what we are seeing now, iOS and OS X share features and that could become more so with whatever OS comes after Lion

Google's Chrome OS is a vision that we could see future embedded devices head towards.  And though that could be challenged by Windows and OS X, there is support for this path.  Mozilla's new project "Boot To Gecko" is aimed at the smartphone but just as some earlier netbook makers were anxious to make Android their default OS, don't think "Boot To Gecko" will be used exclusively for mobile phones.

Obviously, this is merely my own speculation.  However, a cloud-based OS where features are "downloaded" and accessed by the user would core OS be updated by Apple more easily.  And then Apple can build apps around it.  I reckon this could also be more efficient.

It was from reading this Yahoo post regarding iTunes getting iCloud integration that made me realize just how important iCloud could become.  It won't be just the core apps like iTunes, iLife, and iWorks but Apple could extend integrations with more advanced features in future updates.

This could lead to faster boot times and smaller footprints for future iOS devices and Macs.  And moreover, Apple could offload heavy lifting by its server farms as well.