Archive

I know the site has been quiet lately, my apologies! I am excited to announce that I’ll be writing a 12 part series to highlight the semifinalists in the Rocky Mountain region for Cleantech Open - a clean technology accelerator. First up, Pure Enviro. Click the title to read more.

The new Withings Activité smart watch is beautiful, unlike many of the other entrants to the market.

The first thing that stands out to me is how clearly different the approach to creating this product must have been. If you take Samsung, LG, or even Pebble (I’ll talk about Motorola in a moment) it is pretty obvious they started with a list of features and built the watch around it. Withings has undoubtedly started with a simple and timeless watch design and added intelligence to it. These two approaches are worlds apart.

Throughout the switch from a Microsoft based solution (Outlook, SharePoint, Office, etc.) to a Google based solution, I witnessed a great deal of frustration, anxiety, and even anger. Why? A full generation of people have never used anything besides the Google solutions, and it works just fine for them. It is clear to me that there are two fundamental considerations - what is the problem, and how do we solve it? This applies broadly beyond technology, but I’ll leave that part to the philosophers. 

News broke (subscription required) over the holiday weekend that Apple is rumored to announce a home automation solution and/or platform at WWDC this year. Of course, rumors like this are to be taken with a grain of salt, but John Gruber’s reply of “I’m pretty excited for next week.” is classic Gruber-speak (albeit not a sure thing) for “this is happening.”

News broke (subscription required) over the holiday weekend that Apple is rumored to announce a home automation solution and/or platform at WWDC this year. Of course, rumors like this are to be taken with a grain of salt, but John Gruber’s reply of “I’m pretty excited for next week.” is classic Gruber-speak (albeit not a sure thing) for “this is happening.”

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the fascinating and (potentially) fast-approaching addition of Internet connectivity to just about everything. From your blinds opening for you as you get out of bed to your fridge telling you you’re low on milk. The Nest thermostat is one of the first highly successful IoT devices and it has shown how great the potential is in this space.

So what’s the trouble?

In short: data and money, but let’s break that down.

Time Machine and Backblaze team up to make a really robust backup configuration for any Mac user. They offer features to exclude particular directories from the backups, but what happens when those directories are inside of a “package” such as your iMovie or iPhoto library? If you use the UI to do this, you’ll never be able to omit a subdirectory of a package, but luckily  there is a very easy solution.

I wrote a piece yesterday after news broke that Apple is near closing on a deal that would make them owners of Beats for a bit of spare change, $3.2 billion. I highlighted a few reasons why this doesn’t seem to add up, and those are still valid.

Reports seem to be hinting more and more strongly that this is legit, but it still isn’t quite settling right for me. In one camp, you’ve got those that believe the headphones are the primary driver for the deal (Ben Thompson for one). In another (perhaps larger) camp, you’ve got those that think it is for the music streaming service.

As reported by the Financial Times (subscription required; MacRumors link for those without) Apple is allegedly in talks to purchase Beats for $3.2 billion. Beats makes headphones and recently launched a music service to go head-to-head with Spotify.

Apple could use some help with iTunes Radio, though for those simply looking for radio it isn’t too shabby; Apple certainly loves nice hardware and hardware design and it is no secret that Apple’s EarPods, though improved, could stand to be improved upon. However, this still doesn’t add up. It isn’t the money, it’s the principle. 

The first, and by far the strongest, reason that Apple might not be in a rush to deploy a mobile payment/wallet solution is that the margins are extremely low. They’re even lower if you’re paying with a credit card since those companies already take a cut.

Google Wallet hasn’t exactly taken off. Square is growing in larger cities, but it is far from ubiquitous. So why would Apple bother? If there isn’t much money to be made and previous attempts are less than successful, what’s to be gained?