KwasiG's 100% Natural Goodtime Blog Solution

ReBirth

Okay, I know what you’re thinking…where have I been? Or maybe you’re not, if so then don’t worry. If you are particularly bothered about my questionable absence, I’ve got more answers for you than Scott Thompson had for the Yahoo board on his C.V.

To be honest, I’ve been working on another #goodtime project, namely the goodtime podcast which is now moving onto its third season and is really worth your fine listening time. The second reason is that I’ve had those pesky finance exams again, with studies causing nightmares since the beginning of the year, but as of last week they are over (for now). As an aside, if you’re reading this and are stuck in a exam hell of your own, read these tips and tricks to keep you fresh.

Okay enough of reasons for my Houdini stunt, all I know is that I certainly have not been building theme parks with Kanye West (not a joke). Let’s talk tech news.



Don’t Like Boring Reality? Try These Google Glasses




Just to be clear, this is not escapism…this is augmented reality. There is a clear distinction. Using magic mushrooms is NOT cool, however if google is your dealer in warped reality, its TOTALLY cool.

Escapism aside, I do really like the idea of these, people may say you will look like a environmentally friendly version of robocop but I would get a pair. Google’s project glass is the next natural step in how us humanoids interact with technology. Touch is all the rage, reducing every piece of tech to being essentially a black mirror. This is why this tech overlay direct to your eyes is a refreshing look at the way we can digest our tech fix.

Of course there are sceptics, fanboys and parodies, I have links to all.

Will it tell you if that’s air your breathing, or if you’re part of a massive computer program built by a “architect” who looks like KFCs head colonel?

Probably not.



Paper Is Dead, Long Live Styluses and Note Taking Apps




The second tech prophecy that has effected me during my break is that paper is no longer needed. Of course this has been said before but I wasn’t buying it. The tools were shoddy, the tablets were literally bricks, the styluses don’t even bear talking about and the apps were non existent.

How times have changed. I bought a new iPad during my sabbatical, and around exam time starting thinking it would be great to have all my revision notes or questions in one place, organised and backed up. However in order to do this paper and writing were the weapons of choice, none of this typing bulls***. So the gauntlet was laid down:

The Device: iPad 3 - Mind-blowing screen and quad core goodness.

The Apps: Notability, Penultimate, Paper(to name but a few) - This is the area that really brings a smile to my face. Not just because these apps are all outstanding, but the ink clarity and power features coupled with the fact they all cost less than a packet of walkers crisps (Cameron’s Britain) is phenomenal. Also most serious contenders have palm rests which are key for using these apps as you would a piece of paper.





The Stylus: Wacom Bamboo Stylus - This was the glue. I bought a cheap stylus to test the theory (as I like to do) and it proved that the paperless dream was achievable, but i knew that to truly kill then pen I needed a better one. After much research, enter the Bamboo stylus pen. Its magical. Enough said.

Suddenly the trilogy was complete, I wrote all my revision annotations and past paper questions for my latest exams with the bamboo wand and notability my app of choice. Its been a game-changer, I now use it in meetings and I haven’t used paper in a couple of months. Im converted, like a mad scientologist just discovering the books of L.Ron Hubbard.


What Else Worth Mentioning Has Happened?




1. Facebook floated for $108bn dollars. Which from an accounting viewpoint seems totally realistic. If of course your accountant is SpongeBob Squarepants and happens to sh*t gold. But good luck to them. I’m sure their share-broker was ex-Enron.





2. Europe, especially Greece is running out of cash. Pretty self explanatory. Turns out relying on Zeus for a bailout was a bad idea as his cash came from a pryramid scheme he got into way back when with some Egyptians.





3. EVERYBODY is learning to code, including the mayor of New York. This is much thanks to codeacedemy which is an awesome new service to get people up and running, check it out if you’re interested. It was argued in a controversial piece that this craze has gone far enough but who knows.

That’s what you missed that I think is worth pointing out, best to check anything else out though to be safe.


Next Episode Preview

This should be relatively soon…heres to hoping. When it drops ill be talking about more of the latest life, tech and the universe. Also I’ll be talking in depth about a game that has us almost as excited as we were with those insane angry birds. That’s right, the #goodtimeblog will be looking at drawsomething.

That’s all for now amigos, in other news I turned a quarter century old in my lost period and haven’t had a quarter life crisis yet thanks to this excellent blog.

For now, go augment your reality and live in a dream world free of paper. While you’re there listen to this excellent podcast. You’re welcome.


- Cheers for reading,

Kwaz

P.S As I was releasing this I realised that my last post was 8 months ago. Even I admit that’s a pretty f***ing long hiatus!

Location:London

I can imagine that the readers are somewhat shocked that I’m keeping to my fortnightly release schedule…shame on you for doubting I’m tempted to say, but my track record is about as clean as as the River Thames when it comes to releasing these things on time.

As the Great Brtitish summer disappears into the distance leaving us wondering whether it really actually ever came, so does the notion of traditional data as we know it. The topic of this fortnightly post is ‘Big Data’. This kind of data is not new, however what is fresh is the attention and backing that firms who can deal with this kind of data are getting.

As I enter more and more into the mass abyss that is data analytics and forensics in my day to day life, I’m now beginning to realise that big data isn’t just data that was exposed to more protein shakes and gymnasiums as a child.


So What is Big Data?




Very good question, heres the stock answer from our friends down at at Wikipedia, but here is a much better explanation (in my opinion) from a true industry pioneer in this area.

In short Big Data refers to data sets that have become too large and varied to be dealt with by traditional data management software ie databases and data warehouses. Examples include RFID, Social Networks and sensor information. The IBM article estimates that “Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data”

I don’t know about you, but ‘quintillion’ not only sounds made up but also sounds like a HELL of a lot of data! Basically it sounds like what Godzilla and King Kong use for their hard drives…Also worth picking out is that 90% of all the worlds data is estimated to have been created within the last two years. That to me makes a lot of sense due to the social revolution and the involvement of technology in everything we do these days.

If you think of all your lovely photos on Facebook where you’re always having an amazing time with all your BFFs, and all the midnight chats with your prospective new lover that’s quite a lot of data! Add to that your witty tweets about the #goodtime that you had last night and your retweet about the funny thing that that dude said once…how great was that?!!!


The point is that if you multiply this data a few billion times, that’s the sort of levels of data that are kicking around somewhere each day!

The Next Big Opportunity

Companies and tools that can make sense of this kind of unstructured data are in a very good position and are getting a lot of interest from various parties. One very high profile deal that I’m sure you have heard about is Autonomy, a Cambridge based data powerhouse scooped up by HP for the tidy sum of £7.1bn ($11.3bn). Mind you HP had a pretty crazy week, saying they wouldn’t sell PCs and denouncing a product they’d announced for 6months…However it sent out a message.


Making sense of Big Data is big business. For most of us that means that we may start receiving some very cutting edge analytics…such as how your lifestyle is affecting other factors ie, social and working life. All that data exists, but only some is structured, most of it is unstructured. I bet if you have a coffee maker it has a sensor of sorts, imagine if that sensor data could be married with your other time sensitive data such as updating your status, eating, productivity etc…it sounds like science fiction but it really isn’t too far away!

There is also another consequence of the growing importance and competitive advantage of being able to process and understand big data. Namely, people who work with a lot of data day to day, will have be sure to keep up with the developments and techniques used with big data. Remember when data warehouses/marts/cashandcarrys were a crazy idea…now they are paramount to efficiently dealing with most data in businesses no matter how big or small….

Big data is here to stay, it brings a lot of challenges but even greater opportunities for the people who can harness it fully!!




Cheers for reading,

Kwaz

Well folks, I’ve decided that the sensible updating schedule for the 100% natural goodtime blog solution would be fortnightly (N.B I originally wrote this a week ago! Hence the fortnightly!!).  Originally weekly was my goal, but in these days of self cleaning ovens and location aware oranges there’s too much going on to keep up a weekly release cycle.

So here we are, summer is over (UK Summer that is) and schools back in session very soon.   Apple has finally lost its iconic leader Steve Jobs, who resigned earlier this week, HP announced that its flagship touchpad was a crazy thought on a night out and de-commissioned it and it’s WebOS software.  That’s the fortnightly news in brief but I won’t be looking at these areas in detail.  The main article is about Steve Jobs in a sense, but also about the bigger picture of dependence and collaboration even with your ‘enemies’.  This doesn’t just apply for technology but for every aspect of life.

No Jobs (In Apple and the Economy)

Steve Jobs is a legend, no matter if you’re an Apple fan boy with a tattoo in the back of your head, or you’re an apple hater with Apple fan boys locked up in your basement ready to cook them in an Android powered oven.  He has a great story to go with his success at Apple, where he was ousted and then returned as the prodigal turtle necked wearing consultant soon to become CEO.  He’s a legend in the same way Bill Gates, Michael Dell and more recently Mark Zuckerberg are.

His eye for design, showmanship and innovation have helped steer Apple to become the most valuable company in the world (briefly) and re-invent the way people use their technology.  As this news came out, many blogs and news articles covered the subject giving examples of Jobs’ leadership, both good and bad.

No Man Is an Island

What gets me about this crop of tech superheroes is that like the classic movie shot where you see the shot of the class of ’64…these men all crossed paths at younger ages.  This always excites me about insanely successful people…that at some point they all used to be pals.  They may have played rounder’s at Stanford against each other, or they could have been playing tiddlywinks at Harvard after a night out that one time.  The fascinating thing is that these ‘centres’ of excellence produce a disproportionate amount of visionaries and pioneers.

What is even more interesting is the dependence on each other; would Steve Jobs have risen to his level of leadership and innovation without Bill Gates? Simply put no.  Aside from the fact he physically invested $150m in apple when they were struggling, their competition fuelled Mac vs PC.  Both are tremendous visionaries and friends, despite the public nitpicking and squabbling they are of course friends with enormous levels of respect for each other.  Always knowing that without the other, they themselves would be a lesser force.  Sounds strange, but it’s true. 

Great leaders inspire and Michael Dell founder of Dell Inc. is one of my favourite CEOs.  I did a project on him at university and have also read his autobiography which is a great read.  Dell was influenced by Gates, and they crossed paths as young students selling PCs as a side business. 

The clue is in the title, no man is an island (thanks Bon Jovi).  People remember epic battles between companies, teams and individuals much more than they would have if that competition and bond did not exist.  The other side that some people don’t take into consideration is the respect between the two parties.  Take Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, both arguably the best tennis players of all time have fought epic duels over 8 years of tennis (so epic where’s a wiki on it!!).  Think how many times they played each other even from a young age, the respect levels are huge.

All we hear these days is that Google is suing Facebook, Facebook is suing Apple, Apple are suing it’s own mother, and Microsoft will suing everyone…even themselves probably! 

Did you know that while Apple is suing Samsung on one end, on the other end Apple pay them to make their key products?! Now that’s a relationship that definitely deserves the very shady ‘it’s complicated’ option on Facebook…

It creates this vision of complete lack of respect, distrust and hate between these people.  However we’re missing a trick, of course they are competing and the cutting edge, this is consumer technology after all.  People miss that they must work together and respect each other to truly excel. What usually happens is consumers form ‘groups’ to match this media segregation, so you end up with fanboys (don’t get me started). 

Truth is, the leaders at all these companies will have known each other for years, as will their families and friends.  All have respect for each other, and most actually probably even like the others (apart from Mark Zuckerberg of course who everyone says is an A**hole)

So when Zuckerberg eventually leaves office, think not only of his tremendous effort to change human interaction through Facebook, but also those leaders who competed with him, drove him further and eventually made him and Facebook stronger because of it.

No man/team/company is an island.  Always remember this; it’s remarkably easy to forget.

Thanks for reading GoodTime people,

Kwaz

Strange title I know…

 

The main reason being that, by now most of civilization has realized how powerful a tool social media is…It is the one aspect of technology that is accessed by everyone, tech savvy people and luddites alike.

 

It shares one common flaw however, as with all technology, it is a robot.   By that I mean, the people using it have the power to use it for what they want, be it successful advertising campaign, a noteworthy cause or coordinating violence.

 

The last use is the use that is being greatly debated in the UK right now.  A week ago, riots ran rampant in Tottenham, North London after a colored man, who according to sources was a ‘gang member’ was shot dead by police.  These initial riots were a direct reaction to this incident.   With the IPCC changing their story of the suspect firing first, and possibly misleading the public there was a revolt. 

 

However, by Sunday morning the ‘protesting’ had turned into looting and then the cause become blurred as the grumbling masses hijacked this cause as an excuse for burning buildings, cars and looting shops in several areas of London and across the UK in the worst violence seen in the Britain for decades.  Civilians were killed during the riots and big questions needed to be asked.

What caused the uprising is being widely debated with blame ranging from huge cuts by the coalition government to control the deficit, to a deeply broken social fabric and class divide in the UK.  This is an interesting debate, but not the focus of this piece.

 

Social Media’s Twin Personality

One thing is clear, social media ran riot.  That’s not a pun, it literally did.  Twitter was frenzied with its biggest day in UK history, and blackberry messenger was the medium of choice in which the rioters choose to communicate their plans to each other. Twitter’s spike in traffic was 15% higher than ever before, the closest being good old super-injunction function.  Rioters came in all shapes and sizes, from teaching assistants to 11yr old girls to daughters of millionaires. There was one constant though, social media.

 

The debate of social media censorship raged again like it did after twitter made a fool out of super-injunctions.  When lives and livelihoods are at stake, should the feds step in and start censoring or shutting down social networks?

 

In my opinion, if any life is at stake the authorities should have the power to move into any medium to get the information they need.   Google have always been a key supporter of this thinking saying that ‘if you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing on the Internet, you shouldn’t be doing it’.  They will of course share any data that may help to stop attacks and violence.

 

As seen this article, closing down twitter would not stop rioters and looters.  It would greatly help and RIM, makers of blackberry phones have already said they will assist police in any information they need and would not be adverse to a suspension in their messaging service if needs must.

 

What do you think readers? Too far or not far enough? Here at the goodtime, I think that the reason behind censorship is 100% legitimate, however practically shutting down BlackBerry messenger and censoring twitter in times of crisis where resources will aready be stretched will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.  I hope that there will be no repeat of the riots, however the next crisis that social media hijacks in a bad way could spell the beginnings of such censorship plans.

 

So with that brief look into the future, so concludes the trilogy of insight and I hope that you have enjoyed reading this series of long overdue updates! What’s next? Well I don’t want to overpromise and under-deliver now do I??!

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Kwaz x

 

Well it wasn’t all going to be good, now was it…?

Welcome to Part II of the weekend 100% GoodTime trilogy. I hope you’re enjoying your weekends wherever you are.

As I’m sure you heard, the exceptionally talented but troubled singer Amy Winehouse died late last month at her home in Camden in London. I personally was a great fan of her music and her voice, but her addictions to drink and drugs finally overcame her.  This caused a social media spike with tributes as well as many negative comments traded on twitter.

The negative comments were because she was an addict and society by default views addicts as worthless and thus people were failing to feel sorry for someone who had so much at their disposal but wasted it.  I won’t get drawn into that debate, but I will talk about something that is being taken more and more seriously each day. Technology addiction.

I know what you’re thinking, excuses excuses…when you cheat on your partner, your suddenly a sex addict like a certain golfer, or in this case when you play too much Pro-Evolution soccer…you suddenly cry out that you’re a technology addict and need rehab.  Rehab probably comes in the form of board games for tech addicts and a monastery or a convent for sex addicts…

However addiction to technology is a real thing, and within that there are specific technologies mainly the internet and pornography.  Experts are warning that our addiction to technology now outstrips our love of coffee and even…CHOCOLATE! I know…everybody loves chocolate.

Social Media as per usual is to blame, people are addicted to the technology that gives them the service or the ‘fix’ they need.  Facebook and Twitter as expected are the biggest offenders, and people’s addiction to them is the key reason why they are blocked in many workplaces.

The Guardian wrote an excellent piece on this, with 47% of teenagers admitting they use their handsets on the toilet and 60% classing themselves as “highly” addicted to their devices.

In other study by Telenav, it found that two-thirds of people sleep with their mobile by their side and one-third would rather give up sex than their mobile phone.  Of course if you’re not having any…it’s a no brainer really but still unbelievable levels of addiction.  Nowadays I think that for a lot of people going 24 hours without the internet is the same as quitting alcohol or cigarettes.

What’s the issue here?

People aren’t so worried because of course drink and drug addictions ruin lives and break up homes, what’s a little Facebook and late night tweeting going to do?

Well actually, a lot of these studies are highlighting the same key points.  People feel lonely and fragile without technology and social media, in the TeleNav study many respondents state of mind deteriorated over the 24hr internet free period.  A lot of people have built up their online personas so much they prefer them to their real selves, I certainly know people who’s constant presence online suggests to me emptiness within other areas of their life.

Also I was reading in T3 the issues when this addiction to technology is in the form of internet pornography, with over half of young people worried about the amount and content of the things they looked at on the internet.  The real issue here is that around 25% of respondents found that this excessive addiction was causing them to have less ‘actual’ sex with their respective partners.  Now you can see how this is starting to sound like a real addiction?

Addictions are usually to things that stop you from engaging with the real world on the same level.  Be it gambling, drugs, alcohol or technology.  Addictions create another engagement, be it relaxed inhibitions, altered perceptions or a complete online dream world.  The outcome is always the same however; the addict slowly withdraws more and more from the real world and becomes more engulfed in the world of the addiction.  The technology addiction is no different, people withdraw from normal life to the safety of their online ‘profiles’ and this is backed up by the numbers for people receiving treatment rising.

Think you spend too much time browsing Facebook or tweeting your following flock, check out this quiz to see if you’re a tech addict!

In conclusion, part of the darker side of technology is addiction.  Don’t get me wrong, some addictions are worse than others, but this kind on the rise and with technology being woven seamlessly into more areas of our life each day the numbers affected will only rise. Would all these people who left scolding comments after Winehouse’s death be similarly disgusted if someone’s life went off the rails due to obsessive technology usage? Who knows, I get a feeling that a test case is closer than you’d think though.

We all love a bit of scaremongering like the team down at Sky News, but I don’t want to frighten you lovely #goodtime readers.  You’re probably fine, but just putting it out there…we like to talk about real issues here too, as well as general technology banter…!

Part III will conclude this trilogy of insight and analysis, and will be on your content consumption device of choice quicker than you can say, ‘my name is Larry, and i’m a techaholic…’ 

Thanks for reading

Kwaz 

So here begins the trilogy, and unlike the scaremongers down at Sky News I’m going to start with the good technology news and issues of late.

Google+ is a sexier, less creepy relative of Facebook

One of the runaway success stories over the last few weeks has no doubt been Google’s second dip into social networking after the flop that was ‘Buzz’, which left you your private data more exposed than any England football team’s goalkeeper at any given time.

Google+ managed to amass over 10million users within its first few weeks of service and is still in a private field trial.  A friend of mine sent me an invite to join, so I have had a good play with it and I have to say interface wise, it beats facebook hands down. This excellent infographic compares it to facebook. 

Some of its core features are excellent such as circles and hangouts, it seems much more fluid and innovative compared to bookface. Circles allow you to quickly group friends, which is a great feature.  Facebook’s friend lists are garbage, but circles finally allows you to group your ‘homeboys’, ‘5-a-side Warriors’ and ‘Attractive people I’m stalking’ into separate coherent groups.  None of this time wasted searching…

Hangouts is just brilliant, it allows you to ‘hang’ with up to 10 friends with free video calling and lifehacker said it was the best group video chat they’d ever seen, I tried it out and it was excellent.

However, where it does suffer is content and critical mass.  These will plague any start-up that comes against the mighty bookface, because of this I have found myself spending less time on Google+ mainly because there’s nothing on it as yet…but I feel there are promising times ahead for it. 

OSX Lion Finally Turns Your Mac into a Very Powerful iOS Device

Apple has had a suspiciously stunningly good few months, for a number of reasons…

1)      Record breaking revenue growth and company valuation through the roof

2)      Newly released and soon to be released products OSX Lion, iOS5, iCloud, iPhone5,iPad 3/HD to make them even more ridiculous amounts of money…

3)      Successfully suing the three major android manufacturers for copying and patent infringements to makes sure it keeps its monopolistic lead in the portable market.

Whether or not you agree with Apple’s methods, which are starting to feel a bit like a certain company called Microsoft in the 90s, there’s no arguing with the results.

Back to the good, OSX Lion is the first OSX that has finally succumbed to trying to create harmonisation between Apple’s popular iOS mobile system and it’s desktop one.  Features such as Launchpad, mission control and full screen apps suggest Apple is moving towards a more unified OS for all its devices.

My love-hate relationship in Apple is fairly well documented on this blog, but what I love about Lion is synergy.  The fact that the apps on Launchpad look like the iPad and iPhone helps a lot as you use it in the same way as you use your mobile device and the familiarity is a reason why people are going back to buying MacBook’s. It boosts productivity and creates Apples favourite thing, an ecosystem.  I was disappointed in Snow Leopard because for me nothing really changed, Lion is a clear change and upgrade in features. There’s a great review of the features here. 

One thing I’m going to point out here is that the key is synergy regardless of company, people will pay for convenience and integration, and it’s paramount to productivity and effectiveness.  All big technology players know this, it’s no coincidence that Android, Apple and others are such a force.  From email, through to your television, Google has control, and I for one could be tempted by a TV integrated with Google for more synergies.

HTML 5 Could Kill Apps…With Open Source Goodness

It seems HTML5 has been around for a while and will signal the end of Adobe’s flash technology as we know it, I knew it would make quite the impact.  However I didn’t expect it to make such an impact so fast…in this case there has been a catalyst.  Profit retention.

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity

Being an accountant at heart, I know a lot about revenue and a lot of my work has been involved with looking at, analysing and trying to grow it in various ways.  So I know there’s nothing a company hates more than losing revenue and profit margin. 

What does have to do with HTML 5 Kwasi? I hear you say. I’m so glad you asked you asked me, because when a certain company namely Apple got greedier by changing their in-app purchasing rules, HTML 5 became very important.

I’ll explain…basically the California fruit shaped cruisers (Apple) said that for every in app purchase, for example buying your favourite book from Amazon’s Kindle app (no longer exists), 30% of the revenue would go to Apple.  So now Apple was taking a cut of paid apps, and even other peoples premium content within free apps, of course this is a huge hit to subscription based companies ie..the Times, Financial Times and Amazon Kindle.

Daylight Robbery…

Some took the 30% lying down, but megabrands such as Amazon could simply not afford to reduce already thinning margins on its books so it fought back…with HTML5 as its weapon of choice.

HTML5’s technology means that native web apps accessible through a browser now are incredibly powerful and can replicate the functionality of the native apps you have on your Apple/Android/Blackberry (if it had any apps) devices.

Thus the Kindle store is now a web app, which bypasses all of Apple’s money grabbing tactics as it doesn’t go through the app store, and believe me you wouldn’t notice the difference. It still has an app icon, but it loads the web app which is full screen and behaves just like the app.  All because of HTML5.

Others are following suit, here’s a test…go and download the financial times app from your preferred market place (Android or iOS).  It will tell you to download the web app, go ahead and see if you can tell the difference. The FT web app is now on my iPad supports offline reading and everything the normal app did, in short it’s brilliant and the FT’s subscription fees are safe and sound thanks to HTML5.

As more follow to get away from Apples draconian rules, HTML5 is going to be the sleek getaway car and could again change the game for the way we enjoy apps and content…and it’s all #goodtime for consumers and bad times for the App store, which could really suffer as discussed here. Although it may signal the slow decline of Adobes premier product ‘Flash’ technologies which Apple famously has a major issue with so it still wins on that front!

In short, thanks for reading Part I of the trilogy ‘The Good’, it’s a bit longer than usual but then again I haven’t blogged for a while…but it shows good things are happening in the world and technology. Despite what Sky News say…

Part II is coming very soon; you should be able to guess the title…

Cheers for reading,

Kwaz

  

 

The rumours of my blog’s untimely death have been greatly exaggerated and I’m here to tell you that the #goodtime blog is BACK!

Funnily enough I was reading about the dos and don’t’s of blogging recently and realised that while I have adhered to a few of the do’s I have also done quite a few of the don’ts…most noticeably…

“Being consistent allows readers to stay engaged to your blog. When bloggers go weeks or months without posts we tend to forget about them and we’re not so likely to check back. The best way I found to keep my blogging consistent was to set a blogging schedule.”

Hmm…Well I suppose no schedule is still a schedule…?

Apologies for my absence (second I know), here’s but a few reasons for my temporary disappearance!

1)      Creating a groovy sister podcast to go with this blog which can be found at http://goodtimepodcast.tumblr.com this has taken more time than I’d thought but has been thoroughly worth it! It’s also on iTunes, so get your iDevices on the case!

2)      You’ll be pleased to hear I passed those pesky CIMA accountancy exams that were the reason for the blogs last disappearance, so it seems that aloofness seems to have been worth it!

3)      I also changed jobs and as of next Thursday I will no longer be sitting in finance but am moving more into the technology and consultancy type line, thus aligning me more with my strengths so expect some good stuff in that arena!

4)      Lastly and certainly not leastly …(is that a word? There’s a wobbly redline underneath but that’s not going to stop me) myself and my housemate finally replaced our PS3 after it’s sudden Yellow Light of Death incident.  Pro Evolution Soccer has to be blamed for some procrastination…

Enough excuses though.  Last time I wrote, I actually played a cover of Girl of The North Country by Bob Dylan.  Since then a LOT has happened.  I can’t even begin to list it, but I will try and highlight a few that have impacted the world of technology and social media…pretty much anything these days…

1)      The’News of the World’ newspaper is gone…after a huge phone hacking scandal.

2)      Amy Winehouse, the troubled soul sensation died aged 27. Her most celebrated Album ‘Back to Black’ topped the album charts the week following. 

3)      Riots kicked off across London and then other parts of England and were co-ordinated using technology such as blackberry messenger

4)      Apple has briefly topped the charts as the most valuable company in the world and is really firing on all cylinders…

I will be touching on a few of these issues and much more in a Trilogy of blogs that will hit your screens this weekend.  Look out for it, and for those readers who haven’t dropped off due to lack of content…

 

It’s going to be a good one..

Thanks for reading

Kwaz 

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Girl Of The North Country

I was a lovely wedding in Romania the other week, to see two friend’s of mine tie the knot. The groom had decided that one of the wedding pieces that he wanted to have played was Bob Dylan’s love song, Girl of the North Country from his iconic album ‘The Freewheelin’. 

I actually got to play the song at the ceremony which I really enjoyed, backed by two excellent string players who made the piece.  In tribute of the wedding, and Dylans recent 70th birthday here is my cover of the song.

Enjoy good time readers,

Thanks for listening,

Kwaz

I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately on tech as I like to do and there is a recurring theme in a LOT of articles and that is the slow demise of two aging major titans of mobile phone technology namely Nokia and Blackberry (owned by Canadian Firm RIM). I’ve read so much negative press that I’m surprised the speculation hasn’t caused both companies to implode!


Apps Not Apples

The demise of both of these platforms, especially Nokia stemmed from not listening to the rapid changing consumer mobile phone market and more importantly not concentrating on software and app platforms.

This article states the truth that it is apps, not Apple that are hitting RIM where it hurts. I totally agree. It is the ecosystem of Andriod and iOS that is really showing Blackberry up. Blackberries are seen as clunky business phones who’s one true function is emailing and corporate support. However nowadays the mighty Droid and Apple are widely supported, due to their overwhelming popularity.

Apps mean prizes and Nokia and blackberry have very few native ones in comparison.


Whats the Damage

Just see below for what its done to Nokia’s share price…


RIM’s share price hasn’t faired much better either. Just look at their decline in Market capitalisation below.





Both brands have really fallen out of favour with consumers as well. Nokia’s mobile phone Market share in Q1 of 2010 was 39% compared with 24% in Q1 2011. Also with mobile platform revenue being driven by apps there is very little money in business phones like Blackberrys with users that are naturally adverse to downloading apps. This may be due to company restrictions put on the phone, or simply that the functionality isn’t available or required.

The competition for Blackberry and Nokia has also heated up incredibly, now Blackberry is a distant third to Android and iOS. Also personally in my opinion it is a distant fourth as I think the Windows 7 platform is very strong already and will only get stronger as more apps and developers start creating for it. As for Nokia, they aren’t even in the running in smartphone stakes.






Where next for these flailing platforms?

If you can’t beat them, join them. By them I mean Microsoft, as mentioned both brands do not lack hardware but software expertise. Nokias new N9 is a great piece of kit and they have jumped into bed with Microsoft’s mobile platform to get at the 20,000 apps available on Windows 7 Mobile. These unions make perfect sense and Nokia will no doubt move to have all their new phones running Windows 7 Mobile.

As for RIM, there are rumours that Microsoft will buy them up to seriously bolster their WinMobile 7 platform. This makes sense as there would be a lot of expertise shared if the two joined forces.

In the words of Bob Dylan for both of these former mobile warriors “It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.”

It doesn’t stop the media witch hunt though, this article is simply titled ‘RIM: You’re done here.’

Only time will tell.


- Cheers for reading,

Kwaz

Location:Westcroft Close,Camden Town,United Kingdom

So here I am living the exact situation there’s a heavy storm outside and I’m stuck in Geneva airport writing an angry blog. I’m not a grumpy old man, but in these days of NFCs and paying for sandwiches with your mind and cars driving themselves. Is it so difficult for a major airline such as easyjet to announce over the airport speakers that the takeoff is delayed as opposed to letting people stand for an hour!




They asked us to board at 4.15pm, then the smug folk with speedy boarding went through and then nothing…I thought ‘ha’ served them right for wasting 5 quid to be more lonely on a plane for five minutes. However nothing happened, theres a 200inch HD LED television hanging suspended from a ceiling made of Swiss gold, but still no announcement.

Figures emerge from the distance after an hour of waiting, that’s right it’s the smug speedy bellends being marched back off the plane. Of course I found this hilarious, however neither of us is the king a I guessed that the flight was going to be delayed.




Then it happened, “we regret to inform you that the easyjet flight to Gatwick has been struck by lightening, further information at 6pm”. I know what you’re thinking, what are the odds? However, its definitely true.

While I’ve been typing this, a representative has come over to inform us that the plan got hit very close to landing in five different places, but not to worry an engineering team is checking all the entry and exit points of the strikes to determine safely. Some parts of the plane are burnt due to the lightening, as far as I’m concerned they can take as long as like after looking at the wing outside.




In short the first part of this story was some very shoddy customer service, still better than RyanAir that would have claimed the lightening strike was the consumers fault and made them fix it themselves. Budget airlines have a long way to go in customer service to compare to the likes of the Asian Airlines and British Airways.


Any uneasy flyers now look very uneasy…I knew I should flew to Luton… good old underrated Luton. All of this just to catch the apprentice. It better be good Lord Sugar else i’ll be livid. Safety first though, there’s no tv signal in heaven (or hell) for that matter.




- Cheers for reading,

Kwaz

Location:Route Douanière,Grand-Saconnex,Switzerland