Technology to Solve the Problems of Technology #DEMO2012

We're all familiar with the pitfalls of the proliferation of information. Massive quantities of competing programs and platforms leads to an overwhelming over-saturation of media. Battling operating systems and hardware lead to endless issues with connectivity and compatibility. The majority of the new technology being presented at DEMO Conference present themselves as a solution to those woes.  

From data aggregation to seamless functionality across devices, a sophisticated software patch (to over-simplify) may be the only thing we need to eliminate all the hassles that have us pulling our hair out. This is particularly relevant in the social media landscape, where inundation of content is only going to increase until all of our heads explode simultaneously.

Problem Solved?

First off, I'm thankful that brilliant minds are working hard to capitalize on the issues I've described. Secondly, I'm always skeptical that their innovations will be useful enough to justify another download, password and endless series of mandatory updates. Strike that, reverse it.

Among the most promising problem-solvers presented here in the real of social data aggregation are Lifebeat and Zeppelin.

Lifebeat attacks one very common problem head-on: the issue of building multiple contacts across a growing number of methods-to-contact-them. With every able-fingered individual possessing an account or two in email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, SoundCloud, Flickr and more, you may think you're connected to your friends, but really, you're not. Lifebeat intuitively pulls contact information across every medium into one smart portal on your smart phone. It can give you updates, figures out your preferred method of contact for each individual and portends to have no limits on the data it can aggregate.  

Zeppelin exists in a slightly more B2B space (for now), providing one simple, elegant portal of aggregated communication. With smart square gateways resembling floating widgets, you can organize any feed any way you like it and react to any of them across any medium. You can even create internal chats to discuss urgent issues (like, for example, if there's any beer left in the kegerator). The slick, clean, easy-style interface and intuitive control that has been a winner for internet heavies so far may push Zeppelin to the forefront.

Who Will Win?

There's a social element to everything now. 4Sync is a cloud storage company attempting to give Dropbox and Google Drive a run for their (infinite) moneys by providing cheaper storage and, you guessed, integrating a social element. This is exactly why the aggregation of social content is essential. Each outlet has its value and its hardcore users, and we deserve to get every bit of it. But there's only so many hours in the day. While many new companies are attempting to tackle the problem in many new ways, I have to figure there will eventually be a clear winner.  

It should be one that feels like home. It should be friendly, familiar and fresh. It should be intuitive and intelligent. Most importantly, it should be adaptable. It should make room for any new social media fad that comes along. Both of these programs make sure to do that. They may become the singular resource to rule all the resources or they may be arbitrarily trumped by something with a cute picture of a kitten to lure us in. Only time will tell.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Amazon's Kindle Fire 2 and A New Smartphone To Be Unveiled Today

 Amazon will show off its new hardware later, as it tries to capture more of the tablet market, and attract further users to its huge digital market place and store. But, the star of the show could be a new smartphone which could dominate Amazon's store front for Christmas. 

The Amazon Hardware Warrior

Driven by its huge content ecosystem, Amazon will be looking to increase its userbase with more powerful hardware in a wider range of formats at an event in Santa Monica, being held shortly. That includes a new, more powerful, Kindle Fire, a larger version of the tablet (shown off in a TV advert aired during the NFL season's opener between the Cowboys and Giants) and a smartphone to take on the likes of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy range. 

The advert also showed off a "paperwhite" model of the popular Kindle device, showing that Amazon won't leave behind the product that launched it into the gadget market. But, it is the prospect of a more powerful tablet, a larger brother for it and a smartphone that paints a tempting picture for Amazon customers in the run up to Christmas. 

Power of the Amazonites

With all these devices splashed across the front page of Amazon's web stores (and it is highly likely that Kindle Fire will see a worldwide release this time around), the company can bank on massive multiple sales as folks pick them up for friends and family Christmas presents.

With Amazon, there won't be any fuss about new proprietary charging leads (which Apple will no doubt suffer from next week), there won't be any hype about fantastic new camera capabilities, expect a decent specification across the range of devices that will run a modified version of Android to leave as many hooks as possible to Amazon's stores and services. 

Since Amazon can't use Google Maps on modified Android devices, it is likely to partner with Nokia (who launched its own Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 920 yesterday) to provide the high-quality Nokia Maps app. 

We'll have news from Amazon's event as it happens (things kick off at 10:30AM PST):

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

HP Suffers Biggest Loss In Company History, Autonomy Still Requires 'Attention'

If HP investors were expecting Meg Whitman to produce a miracle at HP and turn the company around in 12 months, then last night’s earnings call will have disappointed. The hardware-software giant announced a Q3 loss of US$ 8.9 billion — its biggest quarterly loss in its history with Autonomy dragging on an already poor performance for hardware sales.

HP Job Losses, Write-downs

However, Whitman insists that everything is on track and that what we’re seeing at the moment is the early stages of a turnaround that will see HP back where it belongs in the long term. She warned, though, that it wouldn’t be easy, a fact the 4000 people that lost their jobs in restructuring over the past year will testify to.

Before looking at the information that was given about the performance of its US$ 11.7 billion acquisition last year, let’s take a quick look at some of the figures.

In a pretty weak global economy, HP hasn’t done as well as some of its counterparts, who have also been suffering from weak demand, but have still been able to push the bottom line in the right direction.

The month started badly enough for investors when earlier on HP announced that it would be posting a bigger-than expected charge in the third quarter in relation to its workforce reduction plans. The idea is that 27,000 people worldwide would go, and with four thousand gone over the year, the costs of this look pretty steep, although figures on this are not available.

A further 11,500 are expected to leave the company in fiscal year 2012 — which ends at the end of October — as opposed to the 9,000 that HP had originally announced. Another 15,500 employees will be let go through October 2014.

Also in this quarter — and the reason behind the US$ $8.9 billion loss it announced for the quarter — are the plans announced to take an $8 billion charge to reflect the shrinking value of Electronic Data Systems, a technology consulting service it bought for US$ 13 billion in 2008.

Third-Quarter Revenues

Overall, revenue for the third quarter fell 5 percent year over year to US$ 29.7 billion, US $500 million less than analysts had expected. Without the write-downs and other once-off costs, though, HP did OK in a very sluggish market.

Profits without these costs would have been US$ 1.97 billion, down 9 percent year over year, but in keeping with what’s happening in the wider global market as businesses in many geographies hold off on spending until the direction of the global economy finally becomes clear.

Another highlight was that software sales rose 18 percent to $973 million, driven by last year's acquisition of Autonomy, even if licenses grew by only 2%. Software-related support revenue was up 16 percent and software services rose 65 percent.

The PC market also remains weak, with PC revenue down 10% year-over-year, driven by this weakness and an aggressive pricing from competitors, Whitman said. She added:

The reality is we're locked in serious, competitive battles, but we're determined to win. We will fight to sustain our leadership position, particularly in the Commercial space, while remaining focused on profitable growth. To this end, we are executing targeted marketing and promotional programs to support the business in Q4.”

Autonomy, HP

For information management professionals — and for the financially bloody-minded — the real interest in these figures was what has happened with Autonomy; after all, while HP did spend a huge whack of money to buy it, it did buy one of the more interesting products in the information management space with IDOL.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com