‘Tis the time for new year resolutions. And if I spot the trend correctly, snap tag campaigns are on most marketers’ lists for the next year. We talked about the the QR code and it’s challenges in the last post. Now, snap tags seem to have captured the imagination of the social media savvy marketers after QR code. It’d be presumptuous to say that snap tags will take over or challenge the budding QR code industry but it is an interesting alternative. (more…)

This post was prompted by our unsuccessful attempt to use QR code in place of paper tickets to watch Tom Cruise in MI4. Yours truly bought tickets on Fandango to check it out over the weekend. Now, since we are a highly mobile and social bunch, we prefer a bizarre looking digital code anyday over paper tickets or printouts. So we had a QR code on our phone which could be scanned by the doorkeeper in place of tickets. (more…)

The season is merry and all tech companies seem to have shifted into a low gear as far as big bang product launches and IPOs. So In the spirit of the holiday season, we continue with our gift lists. There are, of course, tons of new gadgets that get introduced everyday but I have left out the purely “fun to have” ones like interactive t-shirts, nerdy gift wrap and guitar bag (a bag with strings that you can play on), and instead picked ones that I thought I could use and still feel “cool gadgety”. These are some I found which could be great gifts for gadget lovers. (more…)

While most of the tech websites are filled with gift ideas for loved ones, we thought we’d come up with a list of ‘great app gifts for yourself’. Apps are cheap, useful and they go a long way in making your phone your own. The kind of apps you have on your phone can tell a lot about the kind of person you are. So here is a rundown of apps picked for your type of interests.

iBeers Pro, iPhone, $3.99

For the beer lover

This app is more like a reference guide for the beer connoisseur. It will let you pick the right beer for you from a collection of 2700 beers of the world. When you are unsure which one to pick, sift through details like ingredients and user rating- a handy tool when you go to the next Oktoberfest. With a price tag of 3.99, it isn’t cheap (relative to a price tag of “free”) but worth it for a true beer lover.

Peak Finder, iPhone, Android and Nokia, $3.99

For the hiker, climber, adventurer

The peak finder will let the climber/hiker get a glimpse of the mountains on his phone. There is a functionality that lets the user update information on a regular basis. The beauty is that panoramic image rendering works offline. This app works in sync with GPS and it will be an excellent addition to an outdoor lovers’ smartphone. No more losing track on the next adventure.

Kobo eBooks, iPhone, Android, free

For the bibliophile

The great thing about Kobo ebooks that not only does it have a vast collection of free eBooks but it has a beautiful and easy to use interface. The app allows the user to set and view recommendations. It also tracks your reading habits to sync with recommendations. Along with other stalwart apps like Google books and Apple’s iBooks, this one will be sure to please a book lover.

Shopkick, iPhone, Android, Free

For the shopaholic

It is hard for me come up with a reason NOT to download this app. It rewards you merely for walking into a store. Once you’ve downloaded this app, you can start accumulating so-called ‘kickbucks’ by checking in at select retailers, including Macy’s, Target and Best Buy. Once you’ve racked up the kickbucks, you can trade them in for gift cards, movie tickets and other goodies.

Petminder, iPhone, free

For the dog lover

Having trouble remembering your dog’s playdates? Try Petminder.  This app helps keep track of everything you need to manage care of your dog. Never miss grooming and training sessions now that you get email reminders from this App.

Follow Aditi on Twitter: @aditibhide

The death of Flash

In what could only be a confirmation that HTML 5 will be the future of mobile video, Adobe announced recently that it will stop developing Flash Player for browsers on mobile. The company has said that it will not completely halt the development of the software but it will continue to develop it for desktops. I remember talking to a friend of mine a couple years ago whose major gripe with Apple devices was that they don’t run Flash. But as it turns out, it is Flash who has to go not Apple who needs to adapt. In one particular blog written by an Adobe employee, he mentioned that Adobe has been a fan of HTML5 for a while. Rather than devote time and energy to working on a platform that 1) needed to be tweaked for different OSs and hardware configurations and 2) would never be as widely-used as they would like, Adobe decided that those resources would be better spent furthering HTML5 development. (more…)

Why FB wants integration with OS

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with news of a new Facebook-HTC phone codenamed “Buffy”-yes, named after the vampire slayer which may launch in the next 12-18 months. This is Facebook’s second attempt at having its site integrated with the OS. The last one, the HTC Status, had an integrated Facebook button which made sharing super easy. But it failed miserably. It is not surprising that Facebook wants to integrate with an OS. Look at Apple and Twitter. When Twitter was integrated with iOS, the Twitter user base grew exponentially. Google also integrates Google+ with its OS. (more…)

If you are getting ready for Black Friday, this phone, unfortunately, couldn’t be on your list. That’s because the release date for this device in US is now confirmed to be in December. But it has already been launched in the UK and so we have sneak peek of the awesome new hardware from Samsung as well as the much hyped Ice Cream Sandwich OS that runs this phone.
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I recently worked with a Silicon Valley based entrepreneur who is launching his company in the collaborative consumption space. This project was my introduction to the world of collaborative consumption and the fertile field of ideas that emphasize access over ownership. We have spoken about Airbnb earlier in this blog and that is one of the early successful sharing economy ventures. There is now a growing number of startups based on the idea of sharing. It could be extra space, cars, things, time and bathrooms. Yes, that’s what I said-bathrooms! (more…)

Wow! I didn’t think I’d be writing another post about Nokia so soon. I would have waited a few weeks and maybe had a post about Nokia Lumia’s progress report. But here we are! Within the last couple days, an awesome video of Nokia HumanForm concept phone hit the Internet and what I saw was pretty amazing not to share. After this post on bendy phones which are impressive enough, HumanForm from Nokia appears to be the next step. This too, is a kinetic device, meaning you can control the phone by bending it outwards and inwards. Nokia bills the HumanForm concept as “a visionary solution beyond touch screen and voice communication where technology becomes invisible and intuition takes over.” The coolest feature that I thought this phone had, was the tactile display. So if you were to take a picture of a furry animal, you’d be able to feel the texture of fur on your phone. The flexible display lets go of the touchscreen and makes your whole phone an interactive screen. Inside a soft plastic shell, there are hard segments containing circuit boards connected by ribbon cables. The multi-segment structure lets the device flex while still including some inflexible parts. Another exciting possibility is to have these phones charged by kinetic energy. If this becomes a reality, maybe one day, we will no longer have to deal with “batterygates”. . (more…)

What is Eric Schmidt’s top priority these days? To convince regulators that Google is not monopolistic. I wrote this post earlier about Google’s quest for world dominance and truly, I was not exaggerating when I said our online and offline lives will eventually be tangled in the web of Google. But at this point, Google is trying hard to prove that it has some real threats to its search business and among the newer ones, it is Apple’s Siri. Some bloggers went as far as to say that Siri could be a Google killer and Eric Schmitt wouldn’t immediately counter that-not at least when he is being questioned. (more…)

Internet marketing is one of the biggest grey areas in terms of what works and what doesn’t. I’ve learned through trial and error that the quickest solution isn’t always the greatest, some of the Internet’s most basic tools can give you an edge you never thought possible. One of the earliest things I learned in trying to promote my work effectively was that the browser you use can have a lot of impact on how well your marketing tactics reach. Both Firefox and Google Chrome are a marketer’s dream come true when it comes to extensions to make the job easier. Here are a few extensions I’ve used to help make my job easier in Chrome.
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Picking up on the last post about the Nook, I thought it would be timely to assess the overall direction of B&N.The business world is far too rational and money-minded to believe in karma. But looking at B&N, is it fair to say that what you do unto others may eventually be done to you? When Barnes & Noble changed the face of book retailing in the 1990s, with its aggressive rollout of hundreds of superstores nationwide, it drove hundreds of independent bookstores out of business. So, to see the book giant struggle to stand its ground when the juggernaut of Internet takes over the paper books industry makes you think of the karma boomerang theory. Presently the only bright spot seems to be that this company has avoided the fate of Borders which went bankrupt early this year. (more…)

A few hours ago, erstwhile brick and mortar Bookseller Barnes and Noble announced the launch of its first tablet, the Nook tablet in the United States.

The launch came a few months after arch rival Amazon came up with a similar device – the Kindle Fire. For those of you who have already decided on the Amazon Kindle Fire, we are sure that the arrival of the Nook tablet would put you in two minds. Here’s why.

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So why do you need a bendable phone?

Let’s say you live in a really cold area where winters will see sub-zero temperatures.And let’s say you have warmed your hands with those fancy black gloves you just bought. And say the phone rings. Wouldn’t you like to keep your hands firmly in the glove and not bare your hands to the weather to touch the screen of your phone? Viola! That is why you need a bendy phone-where you just have to bend the phone to answer it. But this is just a simple application. Read on to find out why I call it the “future” of mobile phones. (more…)

Lumia-Nokia’s light

For long, Nokia investors have hoped for this phone. CEO Steve Elop calls this phone as Nokia’s do or die product. And now it is finally here. Meet Nokia Lumia- the candy bar style designed, unibody, Windows based Smartphone that might be Nokia’s best chance at making an entrance at the Smartphone party- a party it is actually quite late for. And what’s more, it has chosen the un-cool, un-exciting kid the Windows OS as its date rather than someone like Android. Read this post if you want to be up to speed with the Nokia story so far. At first glance, I am impressed by the attempt. But it remains to be seen if consumers will embrace this cute, colorful device from a company that has almost no mindshare when it comes to Smartphones. (more…)

Continuing on with our three remarkable hot new startup stories, this post is about speculating on their potential success or lack of it in future.

Is it all rosy for Dropbox?

The Dropbox story is a great example of entrepreneurial foresight and true grit on part of the founder Drew Houston. Read an interesting story about Dropbox’s success here and you’ll know why. Having failed to acquire Dropbox, Apple introduced a similar feature in iCloud with overlapping functionalities. You may also be wondering –“Don’t I have Google docs which will store my stuff the same way Dropbox does”? And in the same line of thought one can speculate on Amazon being a big contender for cloud storage. As cloud becomes omnipresent, why bet on Dropbox which in future, may easily be replaced by these other players? (more…)

What’s on the startup radar?

Apple and IPhone dominated the blog bandwidth for quite some time over last few weeks. So I thought it was time to give some attention to some new companies that are Silicon Valley favorites and on every investor’s radar. The three I list here are involved in different lines of businesses. While Dropbox solves our fragmented storage problems, Quora brings a social component to questions and answers service and Airbnb is the flag bearer of the hottest new trend for startups-collaborative consumption. The journey so far has been quite impressive for these hot new startups but there are quite a few challenges for them in future. Some challenges that may be the difference between staying alive and going bust. More on these in the next post.
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Siri 101

Siri being funny

I had my first encounter with Apple’s Siri last weekend. And I was impressed. I bet the record breaking sales of IPhone 4S can be largely attributed to the smooth talking, sassy Siri. With disregard to many of us bloggers who gave half hearted reviews to the IPhone 4S, Apple’s new phone has broken records and sold millions just after its launch. Trust Apple to re-invent an old technology and make it look cool so that a million followers instantly lap it up! (more…)

Season of rethinking

Did you shake your head in frustration when you heard Netflix killed Qwikster even before it started? I know. It is hard to say what is going on inside this once loved company. It seems that the price hike will remain in place and the streaming focus is still a priority but it’s just the spinoff that has been cancelled. Remember this post about Netflix? And then, news came in this week about another company going through some turbulent times-HP. Meg Whitman, who is now the new CEO of HP, is rethinking spinoff of its PC division. I don’t mean to write a smug “Didn’t I say it’s a bad idea?” post referring to my earlier posts, because, as of now, this is just being thought over. (more…)

The term “Gamification” has been thrown around on tech blogs, websites and tech media enough times to give you a hint of how trendy it is. “The reason why gamification is so hot is that most people’s jobs are really freaking boring,” said Gabe Zichermann, organizer of the “Gamification Summit” conference held last month in New York. Games have been traditionally thought to be a big waste of time but there is no denying the engaging power they hold over the players. Social media and mobile have taken the gaming element to the next level and that is why we have the buzzword gamification. It was only a matter of time before someone spotted an opportunity and now we have a slew of startups in the “gamification” space. These companies are employing technology, behavioral science and innovative ideas to incentivize certain behaviors or make mundane tasks more fun. Aside from the corporate environment, sky is the limit to possibilities of gamification. It looks like a lot of areas could use some fun. I am sure we will soon see the gamification idea being employed in areas like education and political campaigns (if it has not been used already). The variety of applications that now are being offered is growing every day. (more…)

How the blogosphere was betrayed

So it was the tech bloggers like me who had their search optimized posts ready for the IPhone 5, who were most dejected by the missing IPhone 5. Instead, what we got was a stop-gap device –the IPhone 4S with some cool features but nothing that knocks our socks off! (more…)

Apple IPhone5 is here

*Well, it turns out I posted this just an hour before the world found out there is no IPhone 5 only IPhone 4S.*

As I type this, the twitterverse is abuzz with the Apple Store being down and the signature sticky note tacked on the webpage. Apple enthusiasts on Twitter seem to be short of having a seizure from the excitement of Apple’s new IPhone 5. (which will now be officially launched any minute). For being a tech enthusiast, a tech newshound and an Apple lover (in moderation), I have to admit I have not lost sleep over something like a new phone. The Apple PR department manages to pull off a Hollywood thriller like buzz and excitement before every product launch-with the shroud of secrecy, the prototypes being strategically lost in bars and the rumor mill that is relentless. I also heard a story about a guy who got mugged for his new IPhone 4-back in the day, and in the fight that ensued, lost his fingers for something that he later said “will be junk in a few days”. One thing you can count on is that in tech world, like Facebook’s updates, Apple’s IPhones and Google’s acquisitions, there is always something new “coming soon”. So my advice to all Apple crazies is calm down- It is only a phone. (more…)

If you don’t know that Amazon revealed its new Kindle Fire announcing its entry in the overheated tablet market, well, where have you been? When Jeff Bezos officially announced the launch of $199 “Fire” in NY, many touted it as having the best shot at being the IPad killer. I was struck, particularly, by the way this product launch was orchestrated. Bezos walked the stage talking and presenting at the same time that reminded me so much of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. (more…)

Sure, there is an app for everything these days but is there an app that finds out intuitively what apps you will like or need? I am convinced that someone, somewhere is working on that but meanwhile I thought I’d share my list of top 5 that I found either cool, fun or useful. I have not added my favorites like Write-which de-clutters my writing experience, Spotify which I recently started using, and, well, Grisly Manor (Google it if you are curious). The list here is a general interest list. (more…)

The story so far….

This may not be the best season for IPOs. Fifteen companies decided to call off or postpone their IPOs last month, according to Dealogic. One company among them is the daily deals giant Groupon. After raising speculation that there may or may not be an IPO anytime soon, last week Groupon announced that its IPO is on track and may happen sometime in November. Remember when Groupon CEO Andrew Mason rejected a cool $6 billion offer to be acquired by Google last December? The daily deals company was in its prime then but I wonder if Groupon now thinks it’d have been better if it had accepted the offer. And the sagging economy may not be Groupon’s only concern.As far as I remember, it may have been around May/June this year that the excitement around daily deals started to die down. (Groupon continues to increase its revenues every quarter but it is also losing money). (more…)

How does a company, within a span of couple months, go from being one of the most loved to most-loathed? Here’s how:

1. Announce a 60% price hike for customers

2. Fail to communicate it clearly and fail to explain the rationale behind it

3. Few weeks later, bring out an apologetic statement from the CEO announcing re-branding and spin off (of DVD business) under a name like Qwikster that reminds one of companies destined to be sold off

4. Still fail to address price hikes (more…)

In a follow-up to an earlier interview, on Sunday radio personality Jeff Isaac talked about his iPad cracked glass miracle repair and invited a staff member from San Diego PC Help back on his show. He also commented on the remarkable practice of businesses that go out of their way for customers – in an age when service is declining in America.

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Posted by Aditi Vyas, September 16, 2011

The image you see on the right is a QR code for this blog. It contains the URL for this blog. Don’t be surprised if you start spotting similar images on business cards, receipts, packaging, brochures, sides of trucks and vehicles and even name tags. If you are still wondering why all this raving about QR codes, read on. (more…)

Posted by Aditi Vyas, September 13, 2011

Success of Angry birds

Just yesterday, at Techcrunch Disrupt, the creators of Angry Birds confirmed that they are going to launch the game for Facebook. They have also confirmed in the past that an IPO is something definitely on their mind. Angry Birds is talking IPO. Who knew that a few little birds and some pigs could together be valued at over millions of dollars? But such is the magic of this game that according Wired magazine, every day, users spend 200 million minutes — 16 years every hour — playing the mobile game. In the competitive app market, how does a slingshot game sell over 12 million copies and go on to become the award winning app at the world mobile congress? There are angry bird cakes being made, t-shirts for young gamers, and even onesies for babies. Not to mention millions of plush angry bird toys! (more…)

Our Googlified world

As I typed the title for this post, I came upon a realization that I may have accidently invented a word called Googlification. Now, since I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, I decided to verify it. So I did what any normal person would do. I Googled it. And no surprise, I found quite a few sites that had already used “Googlification” and in the exact sense that I had imagined the word will be used. Google, it seems is yet too humble to accept its impact on our lives and thus our vocabulary, and it asked me if I meant “Glorification”. (more…)