Alltop and Retweets

This week on net@night, Leo and Amber spoke with Guy Kawasaki about a barrage of issues dealing with tech. One issue to start off was the announcement from twitter to incorporate a “retweet” feature. This would allow for twitter`ers to simply click a button to retweet something from another person. This would eliminate the various formats that had been developed by the users of twitter. The retweet function was not something that was not designed by the twitter creators. Rather, the online community developed the lingo and the concept of retweets and twitter is following through by adding it into their program. Guy Kawasaki is an amazing techie that is the creator of Alltop.com, a website that compiles all the great tech news throughout the internet. Kawasaki has a great business model using twitter to post interesting tweets that direct them to his website, Holy Kaw! Kawasaki has ads to other related items and links to the topics that he is discussing. This generates revenue by selling personalized ad-spaces as well as links to websites which I’m sure he is drawing some revenue off of. This concept is very interesting and appears to be working, thou he does admit that he is not making Leo Laporte money.

Homepage Advertising

What happens when you see companies doing something that is not expected by the users? A user who always uses google as his homepage was very suprised to see google putting a advertise of a Verizon Driod phone in their homepage. Google typically are innocuous about advertising their product. However, putting out an advertise in the homepage seems very sleazy from the company like google.

We know all companies have advertisements in thier home pages. It is normal but this is one of the rare moments that google has been found to be doing. It is probably a new marketing strategy from google. As time passes by, google might continue to this and it may not strike as sleazy anymore.

emails and privacy

The conversation was about how secure are the emails as a means of communication. A federal judge said that emails do not get the fourth amendment protection of privacy rights. Most people perceive emails as a secure means of communication as mails or telephones. In reality, the ISP people could look at the emails if they want to while they are flowing in the channel. ISP also has to let the law enforcement people look at the emails if they have a valid warrant without letting the email senders know about it. The reason the emails have no privacy protection is they say because they are not at the people’s house or domicile. They are online or at the ISP’s servers.
The idea behind this topic is that people should not use emails as their private and secure means of communication or there should be a change in the law. There are few people who use IMs, facebook, or twitter as their means of communication but there are lots of people who genuinely think that emails are one of the most personal and secure tool for communication. As such, we could see people not using emails too much for their private talks and a possible law change about this issue.

Woopra! (10.20.09 - 10.27.09)

On this week’s episode of net@night, Leo and Amber dive into a new analytics website called Woopra. Woopra is a very interesting program in that it allows users to view their blog or websites statistical data in real time. Most analytical software acts as a historical guide for the website, but Woopra allows for users to see how many people are on the site, the country they are in, the type of web browser, even the OS system that each is using. This can be a huge tool for those in marketing in that it shows what every person is looking, how they are finding, and where they are going on your website. It also makes a history of how many times a user have been on, where they go each time and other data like that. This software allows for marketing and advertisers to cater to the needs of those on their blogs. Users can also send personalized messages to frequent users, given people a sense that there is someone listing responding to them. While the service is free for personal users and those who get less than 30,000 page views per month, there is a paid service that is offered for businesses or those in the 30,000+ view range of $5 per month. This can easily fit into the must frugal adverting budget and will be something that is unique to your site and make your customers feel at home. Though it does have a silly name, this little bit a Java Script has enormous potential.

Get it delivered or go to the store?

Twitter has warned the users not to change the user name and password currently. It has been the week of outages and they have asked the users not to change their information until they would solve the problem. If we would try to change, we would be locked out of the account.
Changing password is a good way of securing your account but just would not be able to do it now. If somebody gets the password or if you get hacked, you would not be able to change the password. If they try to change the password, you would be locked out of the account too.
The other interesting news is Amazon launching “same day delivery”. If Amazon has a wide variety of products on its warehouse, people might not go to the local malls, and stores to shop. They would be providing this service initially to seven cities that include New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Boston, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and Baltimore. The service would be extended to Chicago, Indianapolis, and Phoenix soon.
The cut-off times are different for different cities and ranges from 11 am to 1 pm. This service has been possible because of the Amazon local warehouses in the cities. This service is not available to the buyers from any third parties who sell through Amazon. The delivery is said to be done by 8 pm.
The Amazon prime member has to pay six dollars for this service which the normal users have to pay fifteen dollars. Prime members are the ones that pay $72 per year and get free 2 day shipping from Amazon.com

Oct. 10 Blog

The Buzz Out loud Podcast today talked mostly about a shocking problem T-Mobile is having with your Sidekick. Believe it or not your personal information in your Sidekick could be lost forever. It is rumored that Microsoft was updating their storage network and did not make backups of the information before making changes. This is a problem because everytime you turn off your Sidekick the information is sent to T-Mobile and stored with them. The information you put on your Sidekick like calendar dates, contacts, etc... is not stored on your actual Sidekick. So, if you turn off, reset, or remove the battery to your Sidekick all of your information will be lost forever. The Sidekick is not a smart phone so important company business won't be lost, but a lot of younger people use the Sidekick. If you have a Sidekick your options are to never turn off your phone, never remove the battery, never reset it or to get a third party to backup your data. Third party backups cost approximately $30.

GDGT.com -- Gadgets, Gadgets, and more Gadgets (9.30.09 - 10.07.09)

This week the net@night gang was talking with Peter Rojas, co-creator of the new website GDGT. GDGT is a website that’s all about gadgets. New gadgets like the Zune HD, iPhones, and the iPod touch, to ancient products like the Nintendo® NES. Gadgets that you have, gadgets that you had, and gadgets that you want. The creators of GDGT wanted to design a site where techies can go to talk about the technological gadgets and do-dads, give reviews, explain features that other may be missing, and recommend products to other techies. It acts as a gathering place and a data warehouse of information about the latest technological breakthrough. The site, itself is very interesting because users can create a profile where they explain the tech items they have and compare it to items that other have. The site has very little moderation (mainly just to keep everything neat and organize) which allows user to fully control the conversations. Co-creator, Peter Rojas, mentioned how he had a problem with his G-1 and posted a question about the battery cover. He said that after only twenty minutes of posting, he had numerous responses to his inquiry confirming that other had the same problem. Another interesting side-note is that not only are users involved in the website, but many companies are as well. Companies like Sony frequent the site to ensure accuracy. While it wasn’t mentioned, you can be fairly certain that the companies may also offer tips and hints of their own. The final interesting tid-bit (perhaps the most unique) is their on site advertising. Rather than being just an ordinary ad, the site allows for users to discuss the product in the ad, rate the product, and actually buy the product. This would be a dream come true for any technological designers because it not only allows for potential buyers to see their products, but it gets people talking about their products, a big advantage for any company.

Microsoft word web app. vs Google Doc. and Cellular radiation (Sept. 16 - 22)

Friday sept. 18 (BOL)
Various topics were covered in this episode.
One interesting topic was about Microsoft putting office on the web to compete with Google doc.
Detailed analysis was done and it was clear that Microsoft’s office web version is far too inferior to that of Google’s. Microsoft office web app. needs lots of improvement to compete with Google. Apart from being slow, the worst part about it was about its poor sharing feature and ability. Users had to create a folder, invite a person to share and change their status to edit. This is a way too long complicated process. They have to focus on web more. 70-80 % features found on the desktop version was not there.

However, the good thing about it was the desktop document could be viewed perfectly in the web. A very fancy and giant power-point presentation looked just as good on the web as on the desktop.
Hurdle is its performance. If Microsoft has to succeed with this app it cannot afford to make it as an extension of the desktop, just like add on. It needs to be convenient and have the features like their successful desktop version do.

The next discussion was about the possible effects of the radiation from the cell phones. Technology geeks seemed to be annoyed by this topic. One of them even said that if you don’t want radiation at your home, turn-off your TV! People are coming up with the ways to capitalize with fear and make money out of it. No thorough research has been done that proves that radiation is damaging. There has been preliminary research that says yes and other says no. There was some kind of metal available to be worn on the clothes that could block the radiation.

Sept. 14 week

The Buzz out loud podcast had several different topics discussed and criticized. There were a few topics that seemed to rise out of all the items discussed. One of the prevalent topics was about Twitter.

Twitter has expressed they may introduce ads to their site. They have not made an official announcement, but are "leaving the door open for exploration in this area” (paidcontent.org) This option, the "money maker" option, has pondered the minds of many as to whether twitter would ever explore this option. The co-founder Biz Stone publicly said he is in no rush to add ads to the site. It seems as if twitter is trying to make money first with the premium accounts and maybe later with the ads. Twitter is in the first phase of producing premium accounts to bring in $140 million next year.

Twitter has mixed feelings on the ads because there are inconveniences on the user if ads are introduced to the site. Many users don't like ads covering everything across the screen or a new pop up ad plastering the screen every time they click or point on something. And they definitely don't want the random e-mails and phone calls that may result in "showing an interest" about something online. This option could be a great business practice, but it could also be a great business plummet. Only time will tell. Prediction: if twitter does well with the premium accounts there will be no ads introduced. If that happens its a win-win for twitter and its users.

Weekly Tech Assignment for 8/31/09 - 9/6/09

This week on net@night Amber and Leo had a dry week for tech news. Of course the biggest news this week is the sale of Skype. The gang at net@night criticized how short minded it was for these companies not to buyout the patent that makes Skype, well Skype. Speaking of patents and trademarks, apparently Apple is trying to be the big bully on the block and claim that everything is there’s. From glossy chat bubbles on the iPhone apps, to a school logo that uses the same fruit, Apple is slowly taking over the world. But all this aside, the main topic for the night was about a new internet service called GigPark. GigPark operates how many of us do when we need a specialized task done. We ask someone to recommend someone. Something that has been going on for centuries and GigPark has managed to cluster all recommendations into one place. While this is still a fledgling company, it really has room to take-off by linking up to other major sites like Facebook, Twitter, and the major Canadian directory, Canpages. While the creators admit that right now the site only works well in Canada, the potential to spread into the U.S. and around the world will be simple. There are already pockets of areas all over the world that are linking up to the site and adding their recommendations. This site also gives business the opportunity to, more or less, advertise their business through testimonials about the business. Each time someone talks about their business, it is added under their testimonial page where everyone can easily see all their reviews. But this site is slanted towards the positive side. Every posting about a business starts out with “I recommend.” This keeps a positive attitude about the site and keeps hate mongers at bay. Cause as we all know, we can always find bad reviews about everything, but the only ones that matter are the good ones. Well that wraps up this week’s post, until next time beware of the world domination of Apple. And to those who listen to the Buzz Out Loud podcasts, remember to stay healthy and stay fat.

Weekly Tech Assignment for 8/31/09 - 9/6/09

BOL -- Episode 1053 8.31.09

This episode of Buzz out Loud discussed several tech. topics. The apple are conducting a show this fall in which they would talk about the apple tablet. The hosts were however suspecting that Apple would again talk about their new iPod rather than the tablet.

They also talked about Wikepedia adding color coding to text editing. This feature is available through the wikipedia plug-in called wikitrust. It would color code the recent edits. There would be different color coding for texts edited by trustworthy source and different for the ones which are not from a reliable source, This feature seems to help users in determining the reliability of the information they are seeking for with relative ease.

The hosts also debated about the preference of the users of the advertisements to be shown in computer games. Massive incorporated would feature the tech that will continuously collect anonymous information from the users, send it back to database for analysis and send you advertisement of the game based on the analysis.

"find my phone" feature of Apple iPhone finally paid off, as this feature helped in the arrest of three muggers. These people robbed a Pennsylvanian and did not turn the iPhone off. Through the find my phone feature these three criminals were arrested quickly.
They also discussed iPhone cover made up of non-newtonian device. This cover would protect iPhone from a drop of two story building and even a hard throw at a wall.
A Japanese company is coming up with a high-tech wheel chair. This wheelchair would operate 4 hours per charge. The amazing thing about it is it can detect obstacles near it and also navigates through joystick. Also It's shape is designed in such a way that people do not need to turn around to sit on it.

Hence, August 31st episode of BOL covered the topics about current devices and technologies in the market except for the wheelchair that has not been affected by technology so much.

Weekly tech news assignment!!

net@night podcast for 8-28-09
This week’s net@night podcast was dedicated to the launch of Magma, an online video service that is fairly unique. Magma acts as a database for online videos that are scattered throughout cyberspace, and brings them all to a very convenient and easy to navigate page. The idea behind the project is to keep users updated with the most current and popular hit clips of the internet by using popular sites such as YouTube, Hulu, Dailymotion, and many more. It also keeps track of videos that are recently gaining popularity so that people can stay in the loop. It does this by monitoring these several websites. If a video is gaining popularity on one, it adds to the page, but it goes much further than that. It will search the other video engines to see if the video is gaining popularity anywhere else, thus trying to find the most popular video on the internet. This can be a very useful tool when people need just the right video clip for a presentation to make a forceful point, or just for a really good laugh. Magma also has another unique feature in that it features picks from the Magma staff themselves. As Amber MacArthur said on net@night, this is just like going to your neighborhood video store and asking what they suggest. Amber also makes another note that Magma has yet to implement a feature that she so desire. Clip Length. Though not something that is absolutely necessary, it would be a nice feature to make this website great. So to the creator Andrew Baron, great job on the site and congratulations on its future success.