TechBait

According to this post at Network World, Best Buy is requiring a certain level of Twitter expertise in order to qualify for an “Emerging Media” executive role.  The funniest thing is that the company’s CEO, while having an account, barely would qualify to work in his own marketing department.  You gotta love that.

Twitter is a mixed bag.  For a long time I didn’t see the value in it.  Now I see value, but I also see a lot of useless chatter.  It is a VERY useful PR tool for celebrities to plug their agenda.  It’s a great marketing tool.  It is an awesome market research tool.  Twitter is like putting your pulse on the Internet.  I posted something last night about Microsoft adding value to their Bing search engine with some nifty Twitter tools.

So, back to Best Buy.  Yeah, sure, why not?  I think it’s great that senior management at these large companies are getting with the times.  It’s actually a sign of the times.  As the older boys bow out, the newer generation takes with them the tools of the modern age.  I would still rather that Best Buy do a better job with it’s floor staff.  I laugh every time I see commercials where they are putting up some alleged floor person who went above and beyond to help out a customer.  I wish that they would ship some of them over to the Best Buy store in Paramus NJ on Route 17 north, where you could all but keel over with a coronary before any of them notice you.

According to many articles, including this one, Apple tried to have Microsoft stop running ads touting how expensive it is to buy an Apple notebook.  The ads showed a frustrating shopping trip of a twenty something who wanted a laptop for under $1000.  She was frustrated at the Apple Store, and ended up buying an HP Pavilion running Windows for $699 at a local electronics store.  Well, I have to back that up.  Apple’s products are expensive.  Now, many Apple fans will say that there are good reasons for that, and there are.  This doesn’t alter the fact that the average consumer sees things in dollars and cents, pounds and pence, euros and whatever.  I really can’t believe the nerve of Apple, though.  After running those commercials where the pudgy facsimile of Bill Gates, representing the PC, was constantly bested by that pretty boy who was in Galaxy Quest, they had the gall to complain about Microsoft running ads that were ACCURATE vis a vie pricing?  Give me a break, Apple!  Apple should be touting WHY their machines are priced higher.  You know, their OS is tailor made for the hardware and that there are less driver issues and incompatibilities because they have a closed system and control all that stuff.  If Apple freed up the hardware and just marketed the OS, then Macs would be on the shelves for PC prices, but Apple is not MS and would never be viable enough without their hardware business.  It is a slightly different business model.  It has worked for them and I do not begrudge them this.  I do begrudge them crying “No fair!” to what amounted to accurate Microsoft advertising.

Apple, you are better than that.

Microsoft has developed a system, “BingTweets” where users of their Bing search engine will be able to see live Twitter feeds related to the search topic at hand.  Brilliant!  You actually access this through the BingTweets.com URL.  This will not only return search results, but offer a kind of up to the minute buzz or pulse of the search topic.  You are not logged into Twitter at this point so you can’t interact with the feed.

Microsoft's BingTweets service

To make up for that lack of interactivity, there is a “Share This” feature which let’s you email, tweet, or post the results to social networking sites.  Also present is a box for trending topics, which gives the user access to people, places, and products.  This presents Twitter in a whole new way, and dare I say, adds another tool in the arsenal of those researching hot trending topics for marketing or PR purposes.

Microsoft’s COO, Kevin Turner, is claiming that Microsoft is going to open a chain of retail stores right next to Apple stores in the Fall.   Turner also claims that Microsoft has hired a retail team to implement the plan.

Wow.  I smell a big flop coming.  Why does Microsoft need it’s own retail stores?  I can understand the sporting spirit in taking on Apple (as if they didn’t already have their hands full of Google and the Chrome OS and browser, not to mention search, and advertising, and…), but all I foresee in these stores is overpriced Windows and XBOX stuff.  It will be fun though, and I welcome this move by Microsoft because you know, they keep this industry entertaining.  I also endorse vigorous competition between technology behemoths.  The consumer usually wins when they duke it out like this.  I just hope that the stockholders don’t get left holding the bag.

The Internet online version of the Office 2010 apps will be available at no cost ala Google Docs.  Windows Live account users, Microsoft hosted Office Web apps, and customer hosted Office Web apps for Microsoft Software Assurance enterprise customers will all be free.  SMBs who decide on Office 2010 web apps instead of purchasing regular packaged (non online) Microsoft Office will have to pay  Estimate is perhaps a $50 price. We don’t know the price but like I said that is a guesstimate.

Office 2010 web apps will be a bit stripped down as compared to their full software versions, but they will be useful for many.  Let’s face it, honestly, how many of the features of full blown MS Office to you actually use?  I thought so.  One great feature of the Office web apps is their integration with SharePoint 2010, providing it with a full backend data store to organize and access Office files, and a SharePoint portal to boot!  Office web apps give SharePoint a clear edge when compared to many other competing Wiki solutions which rely on basic forms submittal and lacking in the rich applications interface.

Microsoft is offering a robust set of installed apps with web versions, SharePoint integration, a free Windows Live version.  Customers can even shoode a Microsoft hosted option or choose to host it internally themselves. Google’s office apps can only be hosted with Google, and they do not offer a SharePoint equivalent.  Microsoft’s web office will work under Firefox and Safari, in addition to IE, but NOT Google’s Chrome. (unsupported)

This is heating up to be an all out multi front war betweeen Microsoft and Google.

I like this!

The Google Calendar Apps has it’s own Labs settings and they are adding an API so that developers can add additional features, according to this Washington Post article.

According to the article:

Background Image (now you can change it)Attach a Document (to an event)World Clock (see what time it is for the person you are trying to schedule a meeting with across the world)Jump To Date (quick time-based navigation)Next Meeting (shows how much time is left before your next one)Free or Busy (shows the status if your friends and co-workers)

If you haven’t tried Google Calendar yet, I suggest that you do.  It is great to have an Internet calendar that can notify you of events and offers many features that I got used to in a corporate environment.  It integrates well with the free and very useful GMAIL mail service.  I use Calendar to remind me of imporant dates like peoples’ birthdays, upcoming events, and also to set personal productivity reminders.  I like that Google is extending the functionality of this useful web app.

This story from ABC News explains how a Staten Island teen feel into an unattended open manhole cover while she was too engrossed in using a mobile phone to notice that there was a hole in her walking path.  She is okay, but was mildly injured.  Her family is thinking about suing.  Ka-ching!  But really, I can’t tell you how many times I still see other drivers using their handsets while driving, even after New Jersey introduced a law where the police can pull you over and fine you for that alone.  The fine is several hundred dollars.  It seems that many are unaware of the law or don’t care.  Now we have an army of drone teens who are so addicted to texting that they miss open manhole covers in their path.  She could have easily walked into oncoming traffic, and the outcome might not have been as favorable, or profitable, for her.  Food for thought you phone addicted texters! (sticking tongue out at you)   At least when I am Twittering, Googling, or otherwise Internetting, I am at a computer and not walking around blissfully unaware of the danger coming my way.  This might change as more portable networked computing devices, such as the ones where the screen are in the visor, come online, but we’ll save that for later, shall we?

Apple Computer is denying rumors that it is working on a machine to tackle the low cost laptop, or “netbook”, market.  Steve Jobs himself has tried to squash rumors of such a device in the works.  Well, in the same way that the government denying the exisitence of ET craft just spawns further rumors of such, denials by Steve Jobs does the same.  The difference here is that with Apple and Jobs, there are sources like the China Times that say not only does Apple have something in the works, but it is going to be a touch screen machine more like a giant iPod Touch, and sell in the neighborhood of US$800., which is about $300.00 north of some current netbook pricing.  This makes sense.  Leave it to Apple to redefine what is cool in the low cost computer space.  Netbooks are cool, but iPods and even giant iPod touch screens are COOLER.    This will also be a tablet form factor, not a clamshell design like traditional laptops, notebooks, or netbooks.  The screen is also rumored to be a bit smaller than the 10.1″ netbook standard, closer to 9.7″, as per the China Times.  The device is slated for a possible October 2009 release.

I might just want one of these suckers.  Why can’t HP, Dell, or IBM have done this?  That is because Apple has something the others don’t have enough of, creativity.

Now, I would be lining up to poo poo this thing if all it was was a spiffier Apple netbook, but if this indeed comes to fruition, then this is another Steve Jobs coup.  Okay, potential coup.  Even Steve Jobs is capable of producing a stinker from time to time, but this thing has potential.  Some might say that it’s too big to be an iPod so then it’s not cool.  I don’t know about that.  It will tackle the market that really wants an Apple desktop type machine, running that uber cool operating environment, but it also remains uber portable as well, and can probably store many more tunes than any iPod ever made.  The screen is also big enough to make watchig movies that much more enjoyable.  It’s not an iPod, but a hybrid.  I like the idea, but I always was a gadget freak.

I really hope that this device is in the works and will release just before Christmas.  Maybe Apple can make the expected depressing holiday retail shopping season exciting once again.

I didn’t get the news from Gizmodo, but they are reporting the same thing.