Expecting more from LinkedIn
I got an invitation to take a survey from LinkedIn this morning and since I recently upgraded my account, I figured I’d give it at least a moment … though when I clicked through I discovered this ridiculous first question:
As someone who works in the marketing field, it’s rare that you get to complete surveys like this, but LinkedIn actually knows not just who I am but where I work and my full work history making it pretty easy to filter this from even hitting my inbox.
Robotic Driving Assistant Learns Your Driving Habits
Imagine an even more powerful Google Now plugged into your car and capable of adding contextual value to every journey …
via PSFK.
most interesting linkedin contact request I’ve seen …
Let’s just say this isn’t something you see every day … Education is unique, but it’s the activities and societies that caught my eye.
The tech behind Felix Baumgartner
Like millions of people earlier today I enjoyed watching the live jump of Felix Baumgartner as he lept from the edge of space to break multiple world records. Extremetech has a nice overview on the tech behind the scenes.
I should also note that while I really don’t care at all for Red Bull’s products I really love what they are doing for sports via their intensive sponsorhips.
Amazing …
via The Verge
Why Social TV Is Failing
This post on TechCrunch by the CEO of Miso is well worth a read.
While it’s easy to get excited about the prospects of the second screen, it’s too hard and complex compared to the simplicity of twitter (or fb updates) … which is the default behavior. Until there’s a consumer benefit and real value equation things are likely to continue trudging along …
Great, but …
I’d have to agree. Solid, but I’m left wanting more.
But theres also another segment of the market, of which I consider myself a part. That segment thinks that theres still a lot of work to be done in mobile devices; still a lot of innovation to come. And thats not innovation for the sake of innovation. I mean real innovation in the way we use our phones, in the flexibility of those operating systems, in how those devices become an extension of ourselves. For that segment, I think the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 fall short. Theres a lot more work to be done, but right now Apple seems to be in a holding pattern, too comfortable or too scared to take real chances.
via iPhone 5 review | The Verge.
No Early iPhone 5 Upgrade for You … or Me
Like I’m sure many people did yesterday, I checked the upgrade availability for the new iPhone 5 on Apple’s site, but I was surprised to see that unlike previous years, there is no early access. Instead, what I found was that I am “eligible” for the unsubsidized price until May which is obviously disappointing.
I have no intention of paying $649 for the 64GB phone or even $449 for the 16GB option. I can’t imagine I’m the only one in this situation as I bought the 4S when it was initially released. Not sure what this might do to those anticipated holiday sales, but it’s likely to slow a large portion of the potential upgraders into next year as a result.
Now would be a great opportunity for another carrier (hello, VZW, Can you Hear me now?) to swoop in and offer a competitive switch opportunity. It could generate a great deal of good will, brand love and of course a new base of recurring payments on the network. This is common in car sales where a competing brand might offer a dealer incentive to get you out of another car’s lease early. I don’t believe there is any precedent in wireless for this, but hey no time like the present!
When the cloud works
I’m just starting a vacation with my family in an area with fairly limited connectivity. This isn’t a bad thing in fact it’s quite nice on many levels. The house we are renting has an incredibly slow but functional Internet connection which is essentially a satellite point to point from across the lake.
We’ve rented the same place a few times and this year found an AppleTV here which I’ve logged into for streaming music to the stereo, (very) slowly browsing Netflix and as I’ve just realized / remembered streaming a good portion of our home music collection via iTunes Match. We’d beamed some Spotify earlier while prepping dinner but it’s quite nice to have access to what’s yours as well. This is the first time I’ve connected my iTunes account on a new / random AppleTV and it’s quite excellent to see it in action.
At this point only Google an Apple offer such tightly knit systems. Amazon has much of this to provide as well but like Google lack the tightly connected hardware like AppleTV – even in its current hobby state – to make things this simple. Now that I’m logged in we can easily (bandwidth limits aside) stream “anything” on our collection purchased or not. The only restriction with Apple’s solution I’ve encountered is they do not sell an advanced package to upload / sync very large collections. Google Music seemed to enable my collection to upload but it’s nowhere near as easy to stream on a stereo here – or at home.
These services and general consumer knowledge of them are still pretty limited in use – compared to the more mainstream use case of an iPod plugged into a stereo though it’s not a hard concept to grasp … I’d love to even see guest access pop up as a feature … I guess that’s part of the Nexus Q when that makes a return. Could be an interesting fall …