Link: Boston-New York Rivalry Expands to Encompass Apple Stores.
My latest TechTreasures blog posts looks at the opening of the newest Apple store in Boston as the latest salvo in the on-going NY-Boston rivalry.
I just posted my latest TechTreasures entry, Google Friend Connect Puts Social Networking Tools Within Everyone's Reach. Google Friend Connect is a new tool from Google that makes it simple to add social applications to your web site. Since I can't post video on the TechTreasures blog (yet), I'm posting the video that explains this tool here, but please check out my view of this new tool in TechTreasures.
I published an article in this month's EContent Magazine called Traveler's Insurance: IRM Protects Your Documents Wherever They Go (only available online with a subscription).
I looked at information rights management (IRM), which is similar in many ways to digital rights management (DRM), except it's aimed at corporate documents, rather than consumer digital content. The idea is to force the document to phone home to a server at pre-defined time intervals. You can define the rights associated with the document and the individuals or groups authorized to use the document. Because the document is linked to a server, you can change the policy if a document is no longer valid or you want to prevent certain users from accessing the content. It can be a very powerful way for companies to maintain control of certain sensitive (or time-sensitive) documents.
I spoke to John Landwehr, director of enterprise security at Adobe, Melissa Webster, an analyst at IDC, Chris Schneider, who is senior product manager for Microsoft Office, Ed Gaudet, senior VP of corporate development and marketing at Liquid Machines, David Mendel, senior product marketing manager for content management and archiving at EMC and Andy MacMillan, VP of product management at Oracle.
I just published my latest TechTreasures entry called What Does the Future Hold for the OS? I discuss what could happen to the operating system as we know it today if more and more of our applications move online.
I published my latest InsideCRM article, 5 Steps for Small Businesses to Get Started with Hosted CRM. I talked to a couple of industry experts to learn best practices that a small business owner should consider when implementing a hosted CRM package.
I have a new article up on InsideCRM called Web 2.0: Your Company's Next CRM Secret Weapon. I spoke to William Band, a Forrester analyst about the potential of impact of Web 2.0 tools on CRM and Sales Force Automation.
The HTC Touch Diamond is quite simply the coolest looking phone I've ever seen. This takes the iPhone concept and visually blows it out of the water, something that is not easy to do obviously because one thing Apple does very well is interface design. One aspect I really think is nice graphically is the email in a virtual envelope. You have to really see it to appreciate it, so check out this video. Word is it will be available in North America later this year. No word yet on which phone company will get it.
In my latest TechTreasures post, Microsoft Plays the Role of Jilted Lover, I take a humorous look at Microsoft's clumsy attempts to get a date with Yahoo!.
'Ladies and Gentleman, start your browsers as we welcome Columbia Recording Artist, Bob Dylan.' Dylan shuffles out onto the stage. You click your applause emoticon. You enter a request for Lay Lady Lay. Dylan looks up from his piano at the screens around him, a little confused perhaps, a little dazzled. He sees your virtual applause and scowls. He sees your request and begins the opening chords as the band joins in behind him. A long way from the Greenwich Village coffee houses where he started, that's for sure.
If this scenario sounds a bit far-fetched to you, it shouldn't. Wired reports in this story, Online Music Festival Takes Interactive Leap, that a company called Deep Rock Live is putting together a concert series that will be completely online. And they even got Pepsi to sponsor it, so all the "seats" are free.
My first reaction is that this company is missing the point of a concert. The beauty of live music is to be there, to feel it, to commune with like-minded fans. You can't capture that feeling in front of a computer screen, but let's suppose you can get past that idea and look at it strictly from a geeky point of view, maybe it's worth checking out. It gives you a chance to interact directly (sort of) with the musician, something you can't do at the live show beyond clapping and screaming a request (which always seems to annoy the artist).
If we look at this as a technological exercise, it could be pretty interesting. If we look at it as a sociological exercise, it could be pretty scary, giving credence to the idea that the internet is isolating us into a society of people sitting in front of individual computer screens, rather than interacting in the world at large, but I'm a technology guy, so I'm inclined to give it a shot and see what it's about. It doesn't have to be one or the other and could be pretty darn interesting.
I just published a new post on TechTreasures called Is the iPod the Gateway Gadget to More Expensive Hardware. I react to a recent Business Week article that suggest that consumers purchasing iPods in huge numbers is leading people to buy Apple computers at home, then demanding them at work.
