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Posts Tagged ‘Hammer’

“Problematic Wi-Fi Access”: Apple Bans Augmented Reality App Sekai Camera

More and more apps are stricken from the App Store as of late, for a variety of reasons. Today, the Apple hammer hit Tokyo-based Tonchidot whose augmented reality app Sekai Camera was removed without warning.

The free app, which made its – memorable – debut during TechCrunch 50 in 2008, intends to help users “tag the world” by imposing information (text, pictures, video and audio) over images in the iPhone camera.

Sekai Camera uses GPS to locate the user and measure the distance to objects in the vicinity. The problem for Apple: in places with weak GPS signals (i.e. within buildings or underground), the app relies on PlaceEngine, a technology that makes it possible to determine a user’s location via Wi-Fi. Once it’s installed on a device, the PlaceEngine client collects Wi-Fi signals from nearby access points and sends the information to a server, which then estimates your location.

PlaceEngine provider Koozyt says on its Japanese website Apple changed their policy regarding “the way apps access Wi-Fi devices”. Not only Sekai Camera, but a number of other PlaceEngine-powered apps were kicked out, too (including Yahoo! Maps for the iPhone). Details are still unclear at this point, with Koozyt saying they are currently looking into the issue.

More information on the peculiar ban are available at The Register.

Tonchidot itself cites “issues regarding the App Store review process” as a reason for the ban of Sekai Camera version 2.1.1, adding the app will make a comeback in version 2.2 “soon”. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see PlaceEngine get scrapped altogether.

In Japan, Sekai Camera is the most downloaded iPhone app to date, and it was elected “Best App in 2009″ by Apple Japan late last year (it was released worldwide in December).

We reached out to Tonchidot for a comment and will update this post when we have it.

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Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Tim Hickman of Hard Candy Cases

Filed under: Macworld, Hardware, Macbook Pro, MacBook

We also chatted about their iPad cases, and how you design and produce retail cases for a device that you haven’t actually seen in person yet; apparently they took hundreds of pictures of the iPad keynote, measured the iPad dimensions up against a real-life wristwatch, and even “obtained” some manufacturing plans from somewhere in China. Very interesting stuff — give it a watch above.

TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW interviews Tim Hickman of Hard Candy Cases originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple seizes 16 domain names from squatter

Filed under: Internet, Apple

Apple dropped the hammer on a domain squatter the other day, reclaiming sixteen different domain names in one fell swoop. The company filed a complaint a while back against a guy named Daniel Bijan, who didn’t bother to fight his case at all (not that he has one), and the result earlier this week gives them the rights to all of them. They run the gamut from iphonecheap.com to macbookpro.com (how did Apple not own that one?), and as of this writing, we couldn’t find any that were actually being used by Apple yet — they all seem to point to either a blank Apache page or a simple domain placeholder.

And as you may have noticed, there are no secrets here — macfriend.com is probably just a stab in the dark on the part of the domain squatter, and ipodsbaratos.com means “iPods cheap” in Spanish. Just Apple reclaiming some of their rightful web space.

TUAWApple seizes 16 domain names from squatter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jake Easton’s Better Mousetrap leaves no country for old mice (video)

If Cormac McCarthy was an inventor of gadgets instead of words then this better (measured in awesome) mousetrap might have been the result. Instead, honors go to Jack Easton, a man known to kill ordinary mice using compressed air. No, really. The device above feature a pneumatic cylinder that brings down the death hammer with a strike force of 102 pounds after it senses a nearby pest. Poor fake mouse: delivered a fortune that was not his own. See all the fun after the break.

Continue reading Jake Easton’s Better Mousetrap leaves no country for old mice (video)

Jake Easton’s Better Mousetrap leaves no country for old mice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung responds to Symbian claims, says it’s still supporting it
Contrary to popular belief (and reports from yesterday), it seems that Samsung actually isn’t planning to ditch Symbian anytime soon — or at least it’s not prepared to tell the public. Shortly after announcing its own Bada OS, rumors began to fly that Symbian support would fade in the near future; according to a company representative speaking with Mobile Burn, however, that’s simply not true. To quote:

“Samsung is an initial member of Symbian Foundation and continues to cooperate with Symbian Foundation. At the same time, Samsung supports various existing open operating systems including Symbian, Linux, Android, and Windows Mobile. To provide more choices to meet consumers’ many different tastes and preferences, we will continue our ‘multi-OS’ strategy.”

‘Course, just because it’s “continuing” to support Symbian doesn’t mean that the hammer won’t fall tomorrow, but at least for now it seems the Big S is safe from seeing one of its own jump ship. Phew.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Samsung responds to Symbian claims, says it’s still supporting it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Email + CRM + LinkedIn + Twitter = Hustler’s Power Drill

Those of us who make a living by making things happen (i.e. who hustle) know that it is a people game. All of the tools in the world won’t beat the chemistry and aligned motivation that come from creative win/win deal-making. The tools are like a hammer for a carpenter. You have to have them, but carpenters are not defined by their tools. However, something substantively different is happening online at the tool level, thanks to social media.

A good carpenter with a power drill will beat a good carpenter using muscle alone. A bad carpenter with a power drill is, of course, just a dangerous maniac! But we don’t really have the equivalent of a power drill yet. We can see bits of it, but it is like having a drill, motor and battery that no one has put together. The pieces that make up this hustler’s power drill are: email + CRM + LinkedIn + Twitter.

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“Hi, I Just Sent You a Wave. Can You Check and Respond”

Standards matter. In five years time, we may all be using Google Wave, but for now the Wave beta testers get voice mails, emails and other messages saying, “Hi, I just sent you a Wave. Can you check and respond?”

That does not help productivity (understatement alert).

Whatever is wrong with email, one thing about it is totally right. It is a standard that almost everyone uses.

So, email is the drill. It is the basic component. Don’t even think about working without it. You can use email to close a deal and to get a phone and/or face-to-face meeting.

Keep a Good Record of Who Said What in Those Emails

My personal CRM system of choice is Relenta, precisely because it is so email-centric. Many other people prefer to unlink these and use Gmail (or Outlook for the late adopters) and then integrate a separate CRM system. I still use Gmail as my back-up service.

But CRM has lagged behind the social media wave. Most CRM systems do not record the conversations that take place outside of email, the ones that happen on LinkedIn, Twitter and Skype (or, for those who like it, Facebook: for what it’s worth, I never caught the Facebook bug and see no reason to start using it now; I aim to be the last person on the planet not using Facebook).

The messaging fragmentation caused by these alternative proprietary messaging systems is a significant productivity drain. (”Heck, which system did I use to talk to Bill about the discount code?”)

Add LinkedIn for “Who Do I Know Who Can Connect Me To…?”

LinkedIn serves two essential functions:

1. It is a self-updating Rolodex. Once I have added someone on LinkedIn, I know I will have their updated contact details whenever they move to another job.
2. It answers the age-old hustler’s question, “Who do I know who can connect me to so-and-so?”

But I do not view LinkedIn as a destination site. I avoid communicating via its messaging system whenever possible and I don’t check it. I simply want access to the data: my updated contacts and their relationships in my power drill. That is not LinkedIn’s business model. It has been accused of being a roach motel. So, it may end up disappointing me, and I may have to find a service that does something clever with my Gmail contacts file.

What I want in my CRM system is something that shows:

1. For individuals, what recent status updates have they sent out?
   Note, this is “Just-in-time,” not real time. I do not want to be pinged every time every one of my contacts does something. I might look at that stream occasionally when I am in flow mode; but when I am in hustle mode, I don’t want the distraction. But when I am about to email or call someone, it would be great to be able to scan recent updates about them. (”Hi, Bill. Congrats on doing [whatever cool thing Bill just did]. How does this impact what we are working on?”) And I want this stream from whatever service the person actually uses: LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Services already exist that aggregate these, but that would be yet one more destination site. What I want is that stream integrated in my CRM.
2. For companies, who else do I know at a certain company, and who else do I know who knows important people there?
   If I am pitching the CIO about something that relates to marketing automation , who do I know who knows the CMO?
3. The strength of my relationship with second-degree contacts.
   LinkedIn is useful for second-degree contacts (”Who do I know who knows so-and-so?”) Anything further out on the social graph is practically useless. But even second degree is useless if your LinkedIn contact database has been polluted by a lot of casual contacts. If I want connect to Fred, trying to do it via Bill is probably not worth it if I had only a 30-second email relationship with Bill 18 months ago. But my email and CRM systems know the strength of my relationships with contacts, or a reasonable estimation thereof, based on the frequency of my email interaction with them.

Add Twitter for Flow

Hustle and flow. You need both. Hustle is directed, focused activity (e.g. contact so-and-so and get them to commit to doing x, y or z). Flow is a relaxed state of ambient awareness that alerts you to new opportunities. (You could also add “Create,” giving you: Hustle, flow, create. In create mode, you “switch off all electronic devices.” But that, as they say, is another story.)

CRM and LinkedIn are about hustle. Twitter is about flow.

I avoid using Twitter DM. Twitter is great for flow, but lousy for hustle. Twitter DM only adds to messaging fragmentation and has been polluted by spam. For now, @bernardlunn mode is useful, but methinks spammers will ruin that soon, too. But the basic Twitter service is perfect. I follow until I decide to unfollow. No one can spam that.

It is a great research tool. Find someone who writes well on a subject, and then see who they follow. New services will take this basic idea to the next level. The one that might do this best is Aardvark.

The integration we need is not another Twitter client for people who live in the Twitter flow. It is integration of this flow with the traditional hustle tools of email and CRM.

Specifically, I want to see in my CRM system the Twitter flow of my contact, what they are writing about and who they are communicating with. If they have DM’ed me, I want to see that in my CRM.

Discuss

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Ice-T repairs a Mac, his way

Filed under: Hardware, Humor, Hacks, Cult of Mac, MacBook, Found Footage

I don’t think this is anything I would have ever asked to see, personally, but now that it’s here, I can’t look away. Above, you can click through to see a NSFW (language) video of the star of stage and screen, Ice-T, doing some “repairs” on a broken PowerBook — the kinds of “repairs” you can only do with a clawhammer. As he says in the video, “if any of you people out there really have a love affair with Macs, this’ll be hard to watch.” In Apple’s defense, that Mac gives him quite a bit of trouble… until he really starts swinging the hammer.

Ah, the Internet. Where else can you watch B-list celebrities destroy expensive electronic equipment? Everybody have a great weekend!

TUAWIce-T repairs a Mac, his way originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft/Yahoo Search Deal Today? Not So Fast

There is absolutely no doubt that Microsoft and Yahoo are in the final stages of some sort of search/search marketing deal. And lots of Yahoo’ers are buzzing that the big announcement is today along with Yahoo’s quarterly earnings report after the markets close. But our sources are saying that while the deal is imminent, it won’t be announced today.

But Yahoo sure is being secretive about what they are announcing today. Some people who usually have access to the earnings call script are out of the loop, our sources say. Yahoo has been one of the leakiest companies in the last couple of years (remember this?), and CEO Carol Bartz may finally be trying to put the hammer down on some employees suspected of facilitating those leaks. Is something unusual being announced today? Perhaps, say our sources inside Yahoo. But they can’t say what it is besides speculation about a Microsoft deal.

But back to those Yahoo/Microsoft negotiations – sources say that a search deal is imminent. But they are also saying that Yahoo continues to push for an outright acquisition. Microsoft, after pulling their acquisition offer last May, never again expressed any real interest in buying the company. The search deal is the next best thing, and Yahoo has to take it. With Google unable to partner with Yahoo over search, there’s no one else ready to step in.

The Microsoft/Yahoo search deal would apparently put Microsoft’s new favorite child, Bing, behind Yahoo’s search product, which has a much higher market share than Microsoft’s. The deal would supposedly see Yahoo get paid $3 billion upfront, as well as pretty much all of the revenues (after traffic acquisition costs) that its searches provide over the first few years of the deal, 24/7 Wall Street reported the other day. There is also talk that Yahoo’s relatively strong display advertising business would be put in place for both companies.

We’ve previously written about what a deal like this could mean for both companies, but things have changed a bit since Microsoft completely revamped its search product. It’s still too early to tell if Bing will make any meaningful inroads against market leader Google. (And in fact, it looks like Bing may be stealing share from Yahoo, rather than Google.)

But the general consensus among users seems that they at least like Bing — something which cannot often be said about consumer-facing Microsoft products. And that has to be seen as good news if Microsoft can combine its search product with Yahoo, giving it nearly a 30% market share.

There are no shortage of rumors flying around today given Yahoo’s earnings, but remember that Microsoft also announces its earning on Thursday after the market closes. Yahoo’s stock fell 1.5% during regular trading today, but has already fallen another 2% in after-hours trading leading up to earnings. Their call is set for 2PM PT, we’ll be listening in.

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