Category: Information Technology

I’ll write more about this later, but I wanted to share some notes from the past week at KW Family Reunion. First, modern real estate lives on smartphones. It’s nearly impossible to imagine doing this work without a smartphone. I’m using my trusty Samsung S5 and LG G tablet. The majority of phones I’ve seen this week are iPhones. iPads are prevalent for the heavier lifting begging for tablets. I’ve been surprised, and pleased bug the number of Surface devices (former Microsoftee here). I’m pretty sure that will be my next “laptop”.

So many people crowd the relatively few outlets around the Orange county convention center. Finding plug-in spots provided some challenges. I bought an external battery pack/charger. Wise. Charging my phone waking around, never having to find room at one of the charging stations, nor find an outlet somewhere: priceless!

Just a few lessons for you.

Cheers! 

This morning, like many, upon waking I grabbed my trusty tablet and organized my day. Email reviewed, tasks considered, organized; yet I’m still warm in bed. What an amazing time!

I wonder:  Where do we go from here? Perhaps a Google Glass variant, the Google Contacts, where we do all the above without opening our eyes?

Is there a limit where we just won’t go further? Perhaps a Google Implant will chill us? Or are such things, allowed to simmer a generation or two, eventually a natural notion?

Of such I wonder….

Just read “Karmagate: 3 former Microsoft women discuss Nadella and what should come next” and came away with one key idea. Mr. Nadella has an opportunity for boldness and vision. My respect for him would grow if he publicly acknowledged the painful ignorance of his “Karmagate” faux pas (which he somewhat has done) and aggressively seek to change the inequalities in the tech sector.

I have the deepest respect for those who not only acknowledge mistakes, but use them as leverage points to affect positive change. Nadella has an opportunity to go from good to great. I hope he takes it.

(*my first response is here)

Reading this piece about John Legere and T-Mobile’s marketing drove home several thoughts that have been lurking in my mind. First, creating a unique brand presence in a saturated/commodified market is very, very hard. How do we make these boring items sexy? Working in real estate, I’ve been struggling with that for some time. Having a flamboyant leader, one who doesn’t shrink from the limelight nor controversy is critical.

How does one rise to front of mind in today’s media landscape? Uniqueness is key. A certain eccentricity, and self-love of that, really helps. It also helps having gobs of cash to spend.

I think the next wireless sector winner will be a fierce competitor. T-Mobile matches that.

Reading this piece about John Legere and T-Mobile’s marketing drove home several thoughts that have been lurking in my mind. First, creating a unique brand presence in a saturated/commodified market is very, very hard. How do we make these boring items sexy? Working in real estate, I’ve been struggling with that for some time. Having a flamboyant leader, one who doesn’t shrink from the limelight nor controversy is critical.

How does one rise to front of mind in today’s media landscape? Uniqueness is key. A certain eccentricity, and self-love of that, really helps. It also helps having gobs of cash to spend.

I think the next wireless sector winner will be a fierce competitor. T-Mobile matches that.

In case you missed the announcement, Amazon has launched Prime Music. As you can guess, Amazon is the latest tech animal to enter the online music fray. I downloaded the iPhone app last night and have been streaming music at my desk at work today. For now, the music selection is pretty small for the streaming service. As a heavy Spotify user, Amazon is not going to displace my current habits. Prime looks to be supplementing/feeding their mp3 download service. That’s not where I am, at this point. Key phrase: at this point.

I fully expect that Amazon is “in it to win”. They’re fierce competitors, and I expect that they’ll push this service further. Probably, there will come a point that Spotify’s $9/mo service will seem redundant to my Prime membership fee. Then it will be tough. I’m not keen on giving too much control over my life to one vendor. However, I value my cash. Yeah; tough. Or, perhaps, Spotify will be bought by one of the big players and this will become a non-issue. Always in motion, the future.

Currently, I’m annoyed as heck with my iPhone. The glorious Jesus phone started doing such things as calling random people, after my screen going black. Weird enough, I guess. My usual solution to such ails is a reboot. And, lo, there’s an update to install. So, let’s combine the two. Dear lord, no, no…never again will I make that combination. Stalled installations, resetting to factory defaults, then reinstalling from a backup (glad I’m a bit neurotic about my backups), all making for a delightful night and morning for me. And I’m still discovering weird tweaks: incomplete syncing of contacts the most recent.

Grrrrr…..