The Blog of an African NERD

How will Panera Bread handle being an office space?

Over the past few months, the surge in laptop users at Panera Bread seems to have increased 10 folds. It was only when I saw someone whoop out one of those cisco land line voip  phones   did I realize that Panera Bread has been transformed to an office space. Combine this with people losing jobs by the boat load, don’t be surprised if you go to Panera next month and every table has someone working on a laptop. This presents a business opportunity for Panera. Since I have been running a virtual company for about 3 years now, I have been a frequent user of Panera’s free wifi. But am not sure how they can sustain this unless the duration people use the wifi is offset by the food they purchase. While most times I don’t buy a lot, there are days when I get their early in the morning and essentially have breakfast and launch there. But even with this, there could be an opportunity for Panera to create a premier membership for people who are working their. Maybe something like for a monthly membership fee, workers get a faster broadband and free complementary drinks and snacks.  Who knows, am interested to see how this plays out.

It's all on the line

For those of us that have stood by Palm with hopes of revival and even held on to our Palm Stocks that are now pretty much worthless, Jan 8, 2009 will seal our fate. How ironic is it that in Vegas, Ed, Ruby and Co. will be putting all the chips on the table. While am no Ed Werder, some unnamed sources tell me Nova won't disappoint, so the question now is: How FANTASTIC is it?

Jungle Disk is off the chains

This is some amazing stuff. I have been looking for a real time online storage and backup solution for a while but never really found anything that seemed great till I tried Jungle Disk. We are currently working on a huge social app that will run on Facebook and thus we began looking as Amazon Web Services( S3, EC2 etc) to host and scale what we think will be a massively popular app. Doing research on S3 was when I found Jungle Disk ,which backs up all your data constantly to your S3 storage. This thing works super sweet.
Their client side backup and monitoring app is just so well done that you will have total confidence within minutes of using this thing. You name it, auto backup, logs, complete reports, its all there. They even throw in a network drive that lets you access all your backed up files like you do in Windows Explorer.

Am really surprised Amazon let this company slip by and be purchased by Rackspace. Amazon could have purchased Jungle Disk and be reaping tremendous revenue by selling this as a yearly subscription.

Thoughts on Apple allowing users to put custom ringtones on the iPhone using Garageband

As the Project Manager for iPhoneRingToneMaker, I really take pride in that we were part of the reason that forced Apple to do this. While we were not the first to release a custom ringtone solution, we were the first to release a commercially viable custom ringtone making product that was drop dead easy to use and allowed users to create as many custom ringtones as they wanted. Then iToner came along and many other developers came up with some neat ways to get ringtones on the iPhone. All the above got Apple’s attention and they proceeded to release updates that essentially foiled the functionality of iPhoneRingToneMaker, iToner and other methods. However, Apple did not realize that it is really hard to kill a mosquito and within weeks, we and these other developers had found ways around the roadblock Apple had put up.
Things were fast becoming a cat and mouse game, with Apple releasing updates( sometimes hurriedly) and us burning the midnight oil trying to get iPhoneRingToneMaker working again.
Then all of a sudden, Apple itself starts allowing users to put custom ringtones on the iPhone using Garageband.
So did Apple throw up the white flag and realize they can’t stop us all from finding ways to put custom ringtones on the iPhone? I would say no. Upcoming updates will show if Apple is still tenaciously intent on foiling custom ringtone apps or if they are tired of playing this cat and mouse game. One thing has been clear though. iPhoneRingToneMaker and iToner have been huge successes with tens of thousands( could be in the hundreds as I don’t know iToner’s numbers) iPhone customers purchasing these apps and should Apple intentionally foil them, there could be another heavy dose of animosity and complaining by iPhone customers towards Apple, further alienating many of these customers, who are still simmering from the iPhone 1.1.1 debacle.

With Apple allowing users to now put custom ringtones with GarageBand, it means we need to innovate, get creative and introduce new features that make the ringtone experience better.  We have started doing this with the latest release of iPhoneRingToneMaker, which now allows you to shuffle your ringtones.  This is a pretty cool thing if you have many ringtones and you just don’t know which one to pick. This is only the beginning. Barring any new cat and mouse games with Apple, we should hopefully be introducing even cooler things you can do with ringtones on your iPhone.

In summary, without iPhoneRingToneMaker, iToner and other tricks by other developers, Apple would have had a free run at making a bazillion amount of dollars from selling ringtones at the expense of giving users the freedom to put any ringtone on the iPhone, while feeding us this baloney about why there needs to be drm on ringtones.

What a difference 5 years makes

It was just over 5 years ago when as a College Senior I was in California visiting my sister. I was reading in the newspaper about this so called macworld event. Since I did not know much about macs I decided to go. It was pretty overwhelming seeing all the cool new sunflower iMacs.  So I decided to go to the balcony and get a better perspective of things. While I was up their, two men were approaching the same area I was. One was in  jeans and a black turtle neck shirt( if my memory serves me right). As they got closer, it was apparent they were coming to the balcony to get the same view I was getting. It became clear that one of them was Steve Jobs.  I stupidly ignored the other guy, and proceeded to be awestruck of being in the presence of Steve Jobs. Say what you want, the man has the “Presence”. I proceeded to shake his hand and if I recall I did not let go cause well, I was in awe. By the way the other guy I was ignoring happened to be Jonathan Ives.

Now here I am today, being a nasty little mosquito in Mr. Jobs’s plan to make a bazillion dollars off ringtones and of course they have apparently tried to squash us with the change to the syncing method of iTunes, thus causing minor problems for iPhoneRingToneMaker.

Never in my wildest dreams when I met him face to face would I think the day would come where I would be issuing a press release touting how my product is better than his.
What many don’t realize is that the ringtone business is a billion dollar one. So don’t let Steve Jobs’s casual demonstration of Apple’s ringtone offering fool you. The man knows big money when he sees it.
So to think just like yesterday I was in awe and today am a disruptor of the multimillion dollar ringtone scheme of Mr. Jobs is kind of mind blowing.

Note: while I conceived and spearheaded iPhoneRingToneMaker, it was only made possible by our talented team of coders, ui artists, web designers etc

CEOs that all of a sudden sound really retarded

The big buzz in the tech world today is how the iPhone supposedly outsold all the crap Palm, Blackberry and all these smartphone device makers have out there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL0432369320070904

I could not help but go back and look at what the “Wise and Intelligent” CEOs of these other smartphone device and software makers had to say pre-launch of the iPhone.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
“Fivvvveee Hundred, who is going to pay $500 for a phone?”

"That thing is the most expensive phone out there! $599 for a phone?? It wont even sell enough to break even!!"

Mr. Ballmer, I suggest you focus your energy on delivering us a Vista that works and reducing the failure rate of your Xboxs

Verizon’s Head honchos

CEO Ivan Seidenberg
“A phone is only as good as the network it is on”
“"I don't think it changes the game plan for how we approach the market.”
"The iPhone will add excitement and stimulation to the market.If we have done our job, then we will be a beneficiary.”

And the best of the best
“The new BlackBerry is flying off shelves”

Jim Gerace, a VZW VP.
“We said no."
“They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat ... on hardware and service support"

So how good is the front seat on the craptastic 700w or p ?

COO Jack Plating
“I have no doubt that those customers who want a reliable service for their phone calls as well as a multimedia device will come to Verizon Wireless."

"yet another attempt to stay competitive with us."

Saving the best for last :) :)

Mr. Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm
Lets hear what our favoriTEST CEO of all time, Mr. Ed Colligan was saying pre-iPhone launch

"I just would caution people that think they're going to walk in here and do these.... I don't think it'll be so easy as everybody thinks. It's a tough space...I'm not trying to be cocky about it. It is a tough business. We've really struggled through that." "We struggled for years figuring out how to make a decent phone."

Well shoot, they just did. And you suckers are still struggling to make a decent phone. How many generations does it take to get to a stable Treo?

“Right now, all the iPhone is at this point is vaporware”

Am paraphrasing with this last quote but the only thing that might become vapor is Palm, particularly with the releasing of the uber stupid product named the Centro. Men, Palm is really pushing the moronic boundary limit with this new Centro.

And finally yours truely, after all I am the CEO of Gx5 and Efiko Software. And like the smart guys above I had my fair share of stupid statements

Apple wants me to pay $600 for a wi-fi device that does not stream. Now that is plain stupid. Why should I pay $500 for 4 gb version or $600 for 8gb version when I can pay $400 for a smartphone with wi-fi that streams all the media content from my PC.
yeah, and i was one of the first in line at the kansas city apple store on the 29th.

ya dig this?

Virgin America’s Big Mistake

When I first heard of Virgin America and their in-flight entertainment system, like everyone, I was pretty amazed. However, the more I think about it, the more I think Virgin America made a Gigantic mistake and wasted a ton of money because the type of people that will be flying this airline will carry all their entertainment with them. Think about it, your iPod, iPhone, Treo or whatever gadget you carry is already loaded with a ton of entertainment. Just yesterday, I purchased NFL film’s America’s Game, the 1992 Dallas Cowboys for my iPhone. Now, if am flying Virgin America, why would I even bother about their entertainment system when I can watch the ever loquacious Michael Irvin. In addition, the fact that these gadgets will very soon be able to wirelessly connect to your home computer and stream all your media, you come to the realization that you have access to your complete media library and with VA soon offering internet, then I would have absolutely no use for their entertainment system when I have full access to mine. Add on top this the fact that these gadgets and getting better and better accessing online entertainment, information and social websites( YouTube, FaceBook, etc), it further renders their entertainment system useless. So really, with all this hoopla surrounding Virgin America, if Southwest can provide wi-fi and an electric outlet, you can bet I will still be trying to be the first in the Group A line, all for that First Class like exit seat.

VMware IPO

My Sister, who works for VMware, gave me some details about their planned IPO process party over the weekend. It was only today when I saw all the buzz did I realize just how big this was.
The future really looks bright for this company. Am starting to get tired of Microsoft’s crapware, and I think many people will soon be. Since am not ready for an immediate switch to Mac or Linux, VMware fusion could be the answer. Everyday, am continually intrigued by Macs and now that we are developing software for the iPhone and iPod, I will most likely will be getting a mac soon.

A titanic shift in the music industry?

Some of you might have heard the rumor that Jay-z  is starting a new music Label with Apple and Steve Jobs. For the fun of discussing, lets just say it is true.

Just as online flight purchasing rendered the travel agent obsolete, sooner or later, online music purchase will render music stores obsolete and with iTunes already the 3rd music retailer, they are well poised to become the leader in this new realm.

From Apple’s perspective, this could be perfect timing because within 3-5 years, except about 100 million people to have iPods/iPhones which can wirelessly purchase music over the air. So, not only can the user purchase music from iTunes, but they can purchase on the go. With Apple owning a label it gives them the ultimate flexibility in how they expose you to artists and how they get you to buy. This is something they are extremely good at. However, the only problem is getting artists to go completely digital. Enter President Carter.

With Jay-Z running the label, you have someone with unmatched credibility and clout to not only convince new artists to go all digital but also bring in already established artists. If fact, I think this benefits the artists more for a few reasons. Apple does not care much about music sales. Their money is from selling these devices. For example, on the iPhone, Apple makes over $250 from every purchase. You get 10 million buyers every year and you are making a quarter of a billion per year. So with this, am assuming they will be willing to give artists better deals than current labels do which will even convince more artists to go digital.

So as strange as this may sound, this rumor actually makes sense. And if you think Jay-Z is not used to hanging out with people like Steve Jobs, take a look at this pic.

Palm’s Q3 Financial Results and Investor Day – What I make of it

Say what you want about Palm, but the bottom line is this. They have survived and thrived. We in the tech community ( including me ) consistently criticize Palm about it’s thick bulky phones running on an ancient OS. But like Jay-Z said, “Men Lie, Women Lie, but the numbers don’t lie”.
So while everyone is hailing super thin devices like the Q which are actually total Busts, the fat and bulky Treo is selling at record highs.

Sure Palm is facing a horde of competitors and many half retarded analysts continue boasting these devices will take a large market share from Palm. However, the last time I checked, the Q was still a bust, the blackjack’s battery life was so awful they are giving away free additional batteries, the nokia e-61 and 62 are not making a dent in the U.S. market, and as for the iPhone; who the hell is going to pay $600 for a phone that will not appeal to a majority of current smartphone users and too expensive for your regular mobile phone user.

Here is a quick question for you. The last time you walked though the airport, just what phone were damn near all business travelers using?  When you watch hit tv shows like 24 and major Hollywood movies, you see guys like Jack Bauer and Russell Crowe using Treos .  I just came back from the NSBE conference, and the Treo, to my pleasant surprise is a huge hit among Young Black Engineering students.
Sorry if this makes you all mad, but those ugly Treos have the most brand appeal in when it comes to SmartPhones.

One thing that also caught my attention during the Investor Day meeting was the emphasis Ed Colligan placed on patents.

As noted from Treocentral

“Palm also emphasized their strong patent position, noting that they currently have been issued over 270 patents and also have 370 pending patents.”

So the question is, did Palm patent threaded SMS? And if so, you should already know who their first target will be. For some of you, it might sound like a trivial patent, but just ask Apple how trivial it was coughing up $100 million to Creative Zen for infringing on the menu system design the ipod uses, which if am correct Apple utilized the help of Paul Mercer to build, who is now working at Palm. Small world aint it!

Also, with the acquisition of Chattermail, they get Marc Blank, who now will have access to resources to take the Chattermail vision to the next level . Now only if they would come to their senses and acquire pocket tunes, maybe we can one day see a killa multimedia Treo.

Finally,  I don’t watch many investor day meetings but there was an emphasis placed on “Palm's Strong Management Team”.  Sounds like a group of guys and gals getting all defensive from constant lambasting. But what the heck, lets give credit where credit is due.  With an all but dead OS, having to transition to windows mobiles, reclaiming the dead OS, all while having record sales.  Big round of applause.