A merry Christmas to all, and I wanted to share with you the Wordle analysis of the Christmas Carol. This is a great tool for business use also if you have to visualize a lot of text for a slide.
Analysis
7
Dec 10
A story about telling stories with presentations
For those of you who took my class on presentations and PPT, here’s a new resources to refresh some of the ideas we covered: The Presentation (the book).
22
Mar 10
Waiting for ebooks
Let’s count the ways we have to wait for a better tomorrow on ebooks:
1. First the iPad, of course. But the wait is almost over, they tell us.
2. Then there’s Blio Reader (software), which went into radio silence after CES. They’ve been “coming soon” since then… we’re still waiting.
3. Barnes & Noble, not to be outdone, let us and their investors know that they wouldn’t miss the iPad train and would launch their app. Soon.
4. Finally, Amazon pre-announced their Kindle for Tablet, any tablet as long as you can touch it. Very soon.
B&N, Blio and Amazon have found themselves forced to react to the iPad ebook business model, and demonstrate how their own business model would survive the iPad onslaught. But for the moment, all these announcements feel a lot like vaporware – or is it ebookware?
16
Feb 10
Plunge into history – online
Microsoft has released a technical preview of streetside photos, a Bing service which will overlay Flickr photos into Bing Streetview – including historical photos.
For all lovers of history, this means that you’ll soon be able to enter 3D renditions of historical landscapes, and walk through them – like a Star Trek holodeck without the characters (yet).
Try it: visit Seattle’s Pioneer Square
Think of the possibilities: Stroll through the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris; visit Dresden before the bombing; follow Allied troops landing on Omaha Beach. This will be yet another way to make history relevant.
3
Feb 10
The other way ebooks prices are changing
Amazon’s troubles with publishers have focused mostly on how the publishers want Amazon to charge more for ebooks. But what about when the $9.99 price is too high?
Take a recent bestseller for instance: The Da Vinci Code
I foresee Amazon increasingly tweaking prices in this way – in the meantime it’s you can find other $9.99 Kindle versions competing with a cheap used copy, and look for more used book price arbitrage opportunities.
22
Jan 10
Cultural differences in mobile phone usage
Here’s a review of how cell phones are used in different countries – interesting background for those of us in the wireless industry.
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15172850
6
Aug 08
Demonstrating brand decline with Google Insights for Search – Treo Example
Google’s Insight for Search is going to be my favorite research tool. Take, for example, a search for the word “Treo”: http://google.com/insights/search/#cat=&q=treo&geo=US&date=&clp=&cmpt=q
The Treo peaked in 2005, and is currently experiencing a small revival.
You can also demonstrate cycles, such as this search for “christmas Cookies recipe”: http://google.com/insights/search/#cat=&q=Christmas%20cookies%20recipe&geo=US&date=&clp=&cmpt=q
I just found a huge analyst cookie jar…
3
Aug 08
Gmail predictions 2009
Here’s what Gmail will gain in 2009 – these fall mostly in the duh category:
- Image search – returning results just like Web Images search (although with the added challenge of limited context for search)
- Image gallery – show all image in your gmail account as a gallery
- Image slide show – show image attachments as a Picasa-style slide show
7
Sep 07
Amazon’s amazing remodel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/events/gno/002-8547268-6055232
Sweet, sweet UI from the UI gnomes at Amazon
