Well, it appears that the smart phone wars that ramped up over the last six months have bursted into the first live battle of this war.  Apple is suing HTC over patent infringements for it’s new Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile phones.

Personally, I find the suit more interesting from a market perspective than from any legal wranglings.  It is interesting that Apple choose HTC and not Motorola (maker of the Droid), Google (Android OS and Nexus One partner), or even Microsoft (MS Windows Mobile OS).  The look is that Apple went after a very prolific yet smaller company in hopes of making an example of them.  If they tried going toe to toe with one of the big boys they really might be in for a fight.  Given, Apple is a large company but they would definitely be picking a fight with more seasoned and prepared adversaries had the picked one of the other brands.

Apple is trying to slow the attack on the iPhone.  They are trying to slow down the Android and Windows Mobile surge and protect their cash cow.  Not saying that they don’t have patents… they do.  Some of their patents are kinda silly though.  I truly believe that technology is pushing the limits of what the patent system can handle.  Not all ideas should be considered novel enough to patent.  Amazon tried the same game some years back with their “1-Click Checkout” patent.  It wasn’t really a unique thing but they patented it and then fought about it in court.  The patent laws were designed in a time when things didn’t move quite as quickly, markets weren’t globalized, and information was as free-flowing.  The system probably needs to have a serious review in light of the circumstances that exist in today’s market.

I truly believe that if Apple views this as a strategy for limiting competition they are going to run into the same tidal wave that the record industry has been trying to swim against.  In the world of technology and the Internet, the waves are very powerful.  They are hard to contain.

We’ll see if Apple has any success with this method.

What say you?

Recently, this question has come to mind.  One of the current projects that I am looking at is looking at creating a type of social media structure.  Of course there are many tools out there that “help” you to create social media web sites.  BuddyPress is one that appears to add social media type functionality to WordPress installation.  That definitely peaked my interest.

Being a huge fan of WordPress, BuddyPress is something that I need to further research for this project.  BuddyPress appears to offer most of the common tools: Activity Streams, Profiles, Groups, Friend Connections, Private Messaging, Discussion Forums, and of course WordPress blogging.  That would be most of the functions that any social media type site would require.

Another huge factor to consider about BuddyPress is the fact that it is a set of plug-ins for the WordPress architecture.  That means that you can also implement from the wealth of WordPress plug-ins.  This should allow you to have many pieces of functionality right at your fingertips.

Over the next week, I am going to install an instance of WordPress and BuddyPress and start taking a look at the functions.  Hopefully very soon I can report back my findings on BuddyPress.

Have you used BuddyPress?  Let me know what you think

Google is planning to invest in providing ultrafast broadband (1 Gigabit) to several thousand citizens in the U.S.  They are currently running a contest where communities can sign up and then prove their interest in order for Google to consider their bids.

Here’s an article with more info: Google dangles ultrafast broadband and cities leap

Also see the Google Fiber for Communities site.

I personally I am going to root for the area that I grew up in and give a shout out to the Google Twin Ports crew.  Twin Ports is the area around Duluth, MN.  This would be a boon to one of the coolest small cities on the map.  It would cause their economy to explode and would provide many jobs in that area.

Best of luck to the Duluth, MN/Twin Ports group in winning this contest.  Please head over and check out their site.

photo credit: Peter Rivera

Every day we hear more and more about shopping locally.  Whether it’s for environmental reasons or simply to help out people in your community during rough economic times, it is something that people are thinking about.

Now, there are even payment methods that support the shop local community minded concept.  The method that I recently read about is called Bling Nation.  The idea is to provide all of your customers with RFID tags that attach to their mobile phones.  Then when they shop at the associated merchants that can simply swipe their phone and walk out with the product.  One of their current pitches is to community groups.  The community group sets up the service with multiple local businesses.  This provides the local customers with an easy way to shop at the local businesses while the big out-of-town businesses in the area don’t have this perk.  The hope would be that people would value the service enough to mostly shop local.

Here’s a good article that Forbes did about this service: Leave the Credit Card, Take the Cell Phone

What do you think?  Will this actually encourage people to shop locally??

Well, I was doing some reading the other day and happened across an market that I didn’t even know existed.  The market is peer-to-peer Internet lending sites.  I had heard of Kiva.org before but I didn’t know that there were for-profit sites like this.  After reading a couple of posts about how people are making money doing this, I decided to read a little more about some of the entities.

The general premise is quite simple, you invest money, someone borrows it, and you get paid a portion of the interest rate.  Sounds kinda like a bank huh?  The big difference is that the sites don’t take 3/4 of the profit and give you peanuts.  The sites take a fairly small amount and provide you with a larger portion.  Of course, you also take some of the risk as well.

Here are some of the sites that I found

Zopa (http://uk.zopa.com/)

Prosper (http://www.prosper.com/)

Lending Club (http://www.lendingclub.com/home.action)

Virgin Money (http://www.virginmoneyus.com/)

In case you don’t know about it, there is also a site called Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) that allows you to lend to micro-entrepreneurs in third world countries.  This is designed more as a non-profit situation.  You are lending to help these business getting off the ground and in time to build up the third-world countries.

This concept is very interesting to me in today’s world.  We are seeing the banking industry having serious troubles.  The industry has lost some of the public trust over the last few years.  Is this the beginning of an evolution in the “banking” industry?  Will concepts like this change the marketplace?  It will be very interesting to watch this occur over the coming years.

My company (Borea Systems) just launched a new web presence for American Government Solutions.

We are utilizing WordPress as a base that was customized to fit American Government Solutions’ needs. We had the opportunity to create a couple of custom widgets for the needs of this site.

Would like to thank my partner Mark at Plum Design for the excellent assistance on the graphics and layout.

For other recent projects please click: Recent Projects

photo credit: J_O_I_D

I’ve noticed that some clients I deal with are sold on the idea of utilizing instant messaging services and some are completely against the idea.  I find it sort of interesting because there are some interesting advantages to using this type of tool.

First of all, I’m not talking about using AIM or GTalk inside your organization.  Obviously this may not be a great option unless your resources are distributed.  I am talking about using Microsoft’s Office Communicator product, Lotus Notes messenger product, or something similar.  Basically an in-house messaging product.

One client utilized the tool quite often.  It was even utilized by business users at times.  It made a lot of sense because the users were distributed across 6 floors of the building.  Of course, the IT department utilized most heavily but many other departments also utilized it.  There was even consideration of tying into the tool in order to send broadcast messages and even system generated messages about queues, etc.

Another client that I dealt with was completely opposed to using a tool like this.  They thought it would cause people to just sit and chat all day long.  Not exactly sure how the chat program would cause that anymore than the phone, coffee machine, or water cooler did.

While working with a client who utilized remote resources, we utilized AIM as a solution for communication.  Most communication between resources occurred via instant messaging.  This proved to be a very effective communication mechanism.  It even provided the ability to go back and look at what you had discussed in the past with someone.

Another client that I am working with is broken apart in a few multi-level buildings and they utilize the IM solution for their IT department.  I would assume that business users could also use it if they were interested.  In this environment, utilizing IM saves huge amounts of time.  You don’t have to wait for email responses and usually can connect pretty simply with the people that you need to communicate with.  Also, with the technology setup you can easily communicate with resources who are working remotely.

Instant messaging is a fantastic tool and should be utilized by many businesses to allow for greater communication between their resources.  It fits a need that isn’t completely served by email or phone communication.  It is something you would want to spend some time thinking through the best solution for you and your business.

photo credit: secretlondon123

Well, I’ve had the Android phone for a couple months now and it’s very cool.  It is definitely light-years ahead of the Windows Mobile device that I had a few years back.  I’m hoping the upcoming Windows Mobile release brings that O/S back.  The more players the better in my opinion.  Anyway, I have been trying different applications and decided that I would just give you a few of the ones that I really like and why.

Astrid - Awesome task management utility for the Android phone.  Is very simple to use and provides great amount of functionality to keep track of your tasks and remind you of certain things you need to do.  I would like to see more integration with online services though to sync your task lists.

Color Notes -I just added this one recently.  It is a sticky note application that allows you to place sticky notes on your desktop.  Sticky notes can either be a simple sticky note or they can be checklists that allow you to check items off.  You can set colors and also can set reminders for the individual notes.

Evernote – What can I say?  I’m an Evernote junky.  Evernote is a fantastic way to track notes, images, files, etc across multiple platforms.  I can add a note on my computer at home and within a minute or so… it’s available on my mobile device.  Must have application.

Facebook – I’m speaking of the overall FaceBook network in this one.  FaceBook is something that I have grown more appreciation for since I got my Android phone.  It is great to get to use the FaceBook functionality on the smartphone.  Currently you have to use multiple tools to access FaceBook via Android.  You have to use the FaceBook mobile website and the FaceBook application. The FaceBook app is probably about a 6 out of 10 app.  Features are definitely missing but the ones that are there are pretty good.  It includes a FaceBook phone directory which allows you to dial your FaceBook friends very easily.  I look forward to Facebook releasing upgrades to their app and this technology maturing.

Gmail – No better way to put this: best application on Android.  It makes the use of GMail very simple.  The push technology is awesome.  Only complaint will be rectified when the update to Android 2.0+ finally lands on my phone: allow multiple accounts.

Google Voice – This makes Voice about 10X more useful.  If you want you can configure your Android phone to use Google Voice for voice calling or texting.  Message alerts are great and retrieval is simple.

Seesmic Desktop – In my opinion, best Twitter app for Android.  Acts a lot like Seesmic Desktop on the PC.  Simple to use, great alert system.  Very little complaint in functionality.

wpToGo – Neat tool for working with your WordPress blog.  Allows you to post and edit your WordPress blog directly from your smart phone.  Great for using while working remotely or traveling.  Excellent toolset.

photo credit: madmolecule

Yes it’s true, I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and write about Buzz.  In case you haven’t read about it yet, Buzz is Google’s push into competition with Twitter/Facebook/etc in the Social Media realm.  Google is definitely trying to get into this market at every turn.  Of course, they are having issues because there are quite a few other options out there.

I really thought that Google was quite smart in making Buzz very easy to connect to.  When they turned it on, it just appeared in your Google Mail menu list.  They then used a couple of methods to point out the new link.  A couple of clicks later… you were using Buzz.  Google made it very easy to start following people that you shared email with, followed in Google Reader, etc.  They also make it pretty easy to search for other people.

The integration between Google Reader and Buzz is pretty cool.  If you like or share an item Buzz reports that to your followers.  It’s also quite simple to have Buzz pull in updates from Twitter.  The integration is very simple.  Apparently you can easily add Flickr and Picasa as well (not a big user of either so I haven’t tried it.

Apparently, there are already apps for Android and iPhone.  Unfortunately my Android phone hasn’t been updated to 2.0+ yet so it’s not fully supported.  I think is another required piece for Buzz to be successful.  Social media will absolutely explode in the mobile realm in the next few years.

Personally, I would like to see Google work on creating a messaging dashboard.  I want to be able to see GMail, Voice, Buzz, and Wave (once they fix it up) all in one place.  That way I can simply go to my messaging dashboard and see everything going on.  I truly believe that is how Google will really be able to take over in the Social Media realm.

All in all, I think that I like Buzz.  I am interested to see how many people adopt Buzz.  Will it take away people from Twitter?  Will it pull interest from other avenues?  Those are questions that will be interesting to watch going forward.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

First question, what is this decade called?  The 2000-teens?  Hmm… maybe discussion for another forum.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I had a post reviewing the last decade.  Well, I think the next decade is going to be explosive for technology.  We really haven’t seen anything yet.  Isn’t it amazing to consider that fact.  It seems like we’ve seen so much.  But it’s all just foundation for the coming decade.  I’ll pull out my very clouded crystal ball and let you know my thoughts.

Wireless

First of all, wireless is a huge part of the next decade.  But, one thing has to happen first.  Wireless companies need to realize that they aren’t phone companies anymore, they are data companies.  They are really no different from cable companies.  Cable companies are data companies.  Once these companies realize that fact I think that things will really start moving.

Over the next decade, we are going to see a very rapid migration to wireless access from wired access.  The foundations of the technology are there and are being expanded.  Look at the current 4G push in the United States today.  Phones such as the iPhone and the current generation of Android will push this technology to it’s current limits and demand much more.  With tablets like the iPad coming very soon, the demands will be increased.  I believe that the current competion in this market will cause this market to have an innovation explosion over the next few years.

Cloud Computing

photo credit: Nicholas_TWe’ve all heard all the promise of cloud computing.  We will see the benefits of this technology in the next decade.  It will begin to revolutionize the Internet further.  It will change the way businesses look at technology.  Businesses will begin to view outsourcing their IT infrastucture to cloud provider as a no-brainer.  The cloud idea will truly be implemented and the benefits are going to be realized.  This is going to revolutionize the industry as well.  It will assist in so many things.  It could even remove the phrase “Disaster Recovery” from the IT vocabulary.

Social Media/Networks

Well, what can I say?  This is the future of the net.  This is a cat that is out of the bag.  It is going to change.  Some of the networks are going to merge and some will die.  Only a few will probably survive the next few years.  On top of that, we are going to see a huge explosion of capabilities and functionality that the networks will offer.  It will remain extremely social but it is going to become much more integrated into our everyday lives.  As an example consider the location services out there today.  Today the systems report where people. They report what movie you just got from NetFlix and what you thought of it.  The new Boxee device is going to allow you to directly integrate your watching habits with your networks.  This trend is going to boom over the coming years.

Telework

Telework is going to become a very common setup in the coming decade.  It has been tested extensively during this last decade.  It is time for it to fully emerge.  The technology has brought us to the point where it can be feasible for many employees.  The research is showing that it can be enormously effective.  Gas prices have drastically changed over the last 10-15 years and I think few believe that we are headed for lower prices.  Environmental consciousness has become a priority.  Efficiency and productivity are required in business to compete today.  All of these trends are creating the perfect storm for telework.  This decade will see a dramatic paradigm shift in this area.  We are going to redefine the office environment.

Will Desktops remain?

photo credit: Extra KetchupThe desktop computer has been with us for roughly four decades… can you believe that?  Given, it’s really only been the popular thing for the last 2 decades.  Will it be around in 10 years when we’re doing a review of the decade?  I believe that it will still be here but only lingering in dark corners.  The desktop is beginning to look like the mainframe of old… big and antiquated.  With the move toward mobility and smaller form factors I think that desktop will finally be relegated to the programmers and administrators out there creating and running things.

See you in the future

We have only seen the beginning of this wave.  It is picking up speed and momentum.  The technology around us today is merely setting the stage for next great leaps.  We are going to see some of the big names dwindle while some small names will be all around us over the coming years.  We are going to see technologies emerge that make our lives better and more efficient.  As we step in, just keep in mind how each of the technologies can potentially make things better in the future.