What’s Hot
Yammer is Twitter for companies. Can anyone please tell me why they won the main prize at TC50? I don’t see any innovation in this product at all. It is like making a new kind of coke.
Companies I did like at TC50:
Payoneer – Of course, best company ever.
Flyscreen – Go Itamar
Any additions?
-Aryeh
Apple’s main theme in this past event was music. They launched a new service called Genius, in which with the click of a button you get recommendations to similar songs, and the iPod or iTunes automatically populates a playlist inside your own music collection. The request goes to some fancy algorithm cloud, and it is supposed to all be anonymous. What they don’t tell you is that you need to open an iTunes account in order to use the service. In order to open an iTunes account, you need to provide a US billing address and credit card number.
It’s just so backwards that they claim that Genius is anonymous, but they still need our private details. Ok so they don’t gather info on our song preferences, but rather all the private information that they can easily get from the credit card companies. Bad concept and dumb feature. I’m not going to use Genius.
-Aryeh
Microsoft has to start rethinking its policies on the Zune line . It is a bad sign when a company designs a product according to what its competitors are doing or not doing. Let me explain.
The Zune has no real appeal as an MP3 player, the iPods are superior in every way. So what has Microsoft decided to do about this? They are looking at what iPods are lacking and adding those features into the Zune. In theory, this would not be a bad idea, it ends up being good for the consumer because Microsot will “outdo” Apple with the addition of a radio or wireless syncing, and Apple will be forced to enhance their product to compete with the Zune.
Just one problem with that theory. Nobody in Apple pays attention to what Microsoft is doing with their Zune line. Why should they? The iPod has a 73.4% market share and the Zune is behind Sandisk with a 2.6% market share.
If Microsoft wants to make a difference in the personal media player market, they are going to have to do something differently. Maybe a little thinking out of the box. Then again, if Microsot thought out of the box, they would not be Microsoft.
– Hillel
The New Zune, Not a Bad Looking Machine
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New iPod Touch
Well, yesterday I did something for the first time ever, I preordered a new Nano from Amazon. The new iPod lineup does not dissapoint. When I first encountered the Nano 3rd generation, I truly did not think they can make it any thinner, the thing was like three pieces of paper.
Well, not only did they make the new 4th generation thinner (now it is like two pieces or maybe even one, it is ridiculously thin), but they now offer a 16GB version of the Nano. I have an old 4th generation iPod (maybe if I had a few more readers, Apple would send me the new iPods for review) that is around seven times the size of the new Nano, and it only holds 20 GB, and this thing holds 16? That is just nuts.
They added this new “Shake to Shuffle” (do I have to explain what that is? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the name says it all) feature, which is kinda cool, I guess. However, the huge enhancement for me, is the addition of the accelerometer. How did they manage to get that inside such a microscopic machine? It is really amazing. And those colors, I mean, I am generally not into colors, but you got to admit, those are some nice colors.
The new iPod touch does not dissapoint either. It is also thinner, and it has the whole Nike+iPod chip built in, which once again, leads me to the question, how did they get that into such a thin machine? The iPod Classis remains the iPod Classic, a little thinner and more memory, nothing huge there.
The one big thing that Apple just announced in the Nano, the Touch, and iTunes is this new Genius feature (you gotta love the names that Apple comes up with, makes me wonder if there is someone within Apple that sits around and comes up with these names). Basically, you can select a song and with one click, creat a similar playlist. I am not sure I would use this feature, but let’s wait and see how well it does.
All in all, after watching Steve Jobs’ keynote, the first thing I did, was call Amazon and order a new Nano (granted it was for my younger brother, but if I could afford it, I would buy the new Touch), so suffice it to say, I was impressed with the new lineup.
– Hillel
New iPod Nano Colors
Interesting ad, what do you think?
There have been many attempts at enabling us to truly access the Web from our mobile devices like we do at home. I think it is safe to say that most of them have failed. There have been many surveys conducted about how many cellphone users use the Mobile Web, none of them displaying very impressive numbers. The reason the technology has not developed, is not due to the lack of speed. With HSDPA or WIFI, you can access the Web at speeds that are similar, if not higher than your home connection.
The reason Mobile Web is not a huge success is because Mobile Web does not live up to its name, it is not the real Web on your mobile. It is hard to use, not user friendly, and generally does not provide users with what they get on their home PCs. I think this is one of the primary reasons for the IPhone’s incredible success.
Well, all this is about to change. A new startup has just introduced a revolutionary product that will transform Mobile Web into what it was intended to be. Just imagine viewing your email inbox or your Facebook in real time, without the headache of accessing that annoying mobile browser on your phone. You know that sleep screen that shows you the time, when you are not using your phone? Wouldn’t you want to have your email update itself there in real time? Wouldn’t you want to be able to add any widget there, that can update regularly displaying you information on sports, social networks, stocks, or anything else you choose?
Studies have shown that most users access the Web on their phone for the same things over and over again to see any new updates. Things just got a whole lot easier with Flyscreen, take all those things you like to surf to on your handset, and add them to your phone’s sleep screen. No more mobile surfing needed.
Cellogic can really shake things up in the mobile world with their new product, Flyscreen, and it seems that someone over at Techcrunch agrees, Cellogic was just launched in the Demo pit.
Anything that enables me to stop using my annoying mobile browser is a huge plus for me. I for one, am very excited to see how this product does in the real world.
– Hillel
Jonathan Strauss, VP Business Development for Cellogic
Check out the TC50 live stream
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Nokia recently released a new handset as an upgrade to the previous E61i. I had a chance to play with the new E71 today and I must say, Nokia seems to have outdone themselves. With amazing specs like 10mm thickness, 2.36 inch, 16 million color display, and a whopping 10.5 hour talk time, I was sure there was a catch, and I thought it would come in the form of a sluggish OS. I was very wrong. The E71 seemed extremely responsive and contrary to some previous Nokia handsets, it actually moved very fast. Another thing about the E71 that is very different than other Nokia handsets, is that it is a very nice looking phone. It shares that Iphone-ish (I am sure that is a word by now, no?) chrome look around the edges (seems to be the new trend, with phones like the new Blackberry Bold and the IPhone).
The E71 feels great in your hands, a very solid build, and its keyboard is amongst the most comfortable QWERTYS I have ever used. The only thing I could think of, that would prevent someone from getting this phone, is a lack of built-in memory, but in today’s day and age with 8 and 16 GB Micro SD cards, does it really matter?
The E71 offers you pretty much anything you would need in a phone (OK it does not have a 5 or 8 megapixel camera). It has blazing fast HSDPA (fast internet access when not in a hot spot), 802.11b/g (the fastest wifi around), A2DP (stereo bluetooth, something the IPhone lacks), built-in GPS, and a nice 3 megapixel camera (do you really need more than that?).
Seems like Nokia took my advice!
– Hillel
This is totally pathetic. It makes no sense at all. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Today I downloaded Chrome along with the rest of the world, and am pretty impressed with the speed and design, but I am looking forward to the plugin capabilities similar to that of Firefox. I need my plugins to block the adverts, my social bookmarking tool bar, and tab management. If you watch the Google press conference about the program, they blabber on about tabs and about their design etc. but where the hell are the settings to change the functionality of the tabs? I want anything I type in the address bar to open in a new tab, not the same one, is that too much to ask? Overall it needs work, but its fast and it works great with Google Reader and Gmail, so I’m happy, but not going to use it as an everyday browser.
I also download IE8 today, come on Microsucks… which moron came up with this browser? They are regressing in their design. They want to integrate their own StumbleUpon into the browser, which is totally unnecessary because StumbleUpon already exists, and if people choose to use the program, they will. Internet browsing needs to be simple and clean, and if people want to make it complicated, they can choose to do that themselves with plugins. On to the installation… Ok this is the story, I downloaded Chrome and within 2 minutes, I was browsing. On the other hand, I download IE8 and it takes a good 5-7 minutes to install and to the run the installation, and then I need to restart the computer??? Its an Internet browser not an operating system, why the heck should I need to restart the computer to install a program? Again the largest computer company in the world can not figure out how to install a program without rebooting, its pathetic. Noting really new or innovative with the new IE8 and I’m not surprised.
-Aryeh
I dont want to be almost there just install the freakin program!
Addition:
This just proves my point. Look how heavy IE8 file is:
