Happy (belated) Birthday IBM : 100 Years Old

IBM, a name we don’t hear much anymore. Not in the feeds, not in the tweets. IBM, the mighty Apple-killer… I have fond memories of how I traded in my Apple II compatible for an IBM PC compatible. I wrote a blog post today about it - which is now published on BrightSideofNews.com (BSN*) - reflecting on its past glory, a gentle reminder that the movers and shakers of today - Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Nokia (this one might be on the way already) - could be the grandpa’s of tomorrow.

Have you also once had an IBM PC back then? Did you also totally miss this 100 year old birthday? Can’t be bothered? Feel free to share your thoughts, and memories about it. Comment here, or Twitter @AddLikeFollow

Happy (belated) Birthday IBM : 100 Years Old!
IBM had its 100th birthday yesterday, and I missed it. I did see the news flash by yesterday in by daily news watch, but I was just too busy to write about it. It wasn’t on my to-write list, not on my agenda and disappointingly not on my social media birthday calendars which I have come to rely on. Facebook, Skype, MSN, LinkedIn, iPhone, you name it… noone reminded me of his birthday, shame on you. In fact, probably the only reason it is being news’ed about is because a publisher is pimping the book IBM 100 Years! If IBM has become so off-center in our worlds today, why then do I feel compelled to write about it? And felt it was worth writing about a birthday a day late? … read more here …

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2011/6/17/happy-(belated)-birthday-ibm-100-years-old!.aspx

Lovers Spurned #1 : Facebook & Apple

Earlier this month, Apple announced and showed off “deep integration” of Twitter in the new iOS 5. Meaning wherever an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch goes, Twitter is there - the hot new celeb couple in town!

News (and gosh leaked photos too) is circulating in the feeds showing Apple’s ex-lover to be none-other than Facebook – Twitter’s archrival. The circulating pictures of unreleased betas are showing that same “deep integration” with Facebook, exactly where Twitter is now. After all Facebook is the undisputed king of social media, many times larger than Twitter.

How did that Apple and Facebook relationship run into the rocks? Is it a clash of egos? Jealousy? Who ditched whom? Some say the cracks started with the Apple’s Ping social music network which was supposed to be a service with “iTunes on Facebook”. Some say it’s because of Facebook being in bed already with Microsoft in Windows Phone 7.

Whatever it is, Apple’s jumping straight into bed with arch rival Twitter is surely not making things smoother. So, skip the “let’s be friends” politeness, and get straight into the cat fight of spurned lovers. meowwrrrrrr.

Facebook attacking Apple with HTML5 App Store for iOS devices
Coming soon Facebook’s very own App Store for your iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch. Seriously. Currently the only way to get apps are through Apple’s iTunes Apps. Facebook is determined to break that monopoly and shift Apple users onto Facebook’s own ecosystem. The project is still in development, a pure coincidence that it is being leaked now, right after the leaks of the Apple-Facebook integration.

Apple Game Center in iOS 5 mirrors Facebook gaming
An amazing 53% of Facebook users play games on Facebook. Based on the latest numbers of 700m Facebook users, it means Facebook Games has more than 350m gamers! Far far ahead of the last September launched Apple Game Center with 50m subscribers. So to compete, Apple is launching new look and new features in iOS 5 that makes Game Center more like Facebook’s Games page!

Actions of a spurned lover? Or root of the break-up? Watch out. Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned.

Xbox Live = Microsoft’s cloud ecosystem?

Microsoft recently showed a new Xbox Live dashboard that is very similar to the user interface of Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8. Add that to their confirmation that Windows 8 will feature “deep Xbox Live integration”.

The intention is to use Xbox Live as the center of entertainment where PCs, Notebooks, Tablets, Phones, Xboxes connect to. Users will be able to enjoy that same games, same content, same app services across different platforms, different devices. Sounds like a cloud to me!

Xbox Live + Windows 8 + Windows Phone 7 + Xbox360 = Cloud Ecosystem?

What’s going for Microsoft in this strategic move to use Xbox Live as the center of gravity is that Xbox Live already has a 35m userbase. The significance is that these are not just casual register-and-forget subscribers, but actually subscription-money paying users focused on consuming games and entertainment. That is a strong powerbase uniquely different from that of Google and Apple. Furthermore, Microsoft’s Xbox360 already has a place in the living room putting that TV screen in its ecosystem, while both Google’s GoogleTV and Apple’s Apple TV has flopped and not (yet) been able to gain any foothold on the TV.

In the war of ecosystem, the headlines have mainly been peppered with Apple vs Google. But do watch out for Microsoft, it´s moves with Bing + Social Media, this Xbox Live integration, shows Microsoft is hardly asleep. With it’s artillery room full of product weapons, all it needs is that right synergy and marketing to center itself again as the dominating cloud ecosystem.

Dumb and dumber is more numbers

Before you jump to conclusion, this post is not about the movie dumb and dumber, although it is in the field of entertainment – games, phone games, social games to be precise. We play games to entertain ourselves and sometimes to socialise – traditionally it would be a game of cards, chess, hide and seek, or even table tennis. That brings me to Pong, the forefather of electronic games. Since then computing power and hardware abilities has grown massively in one direction. Each new game machine delivered more, faster, higher def. With more processing power crunching more graphics, the games got more high definition, more realistic, more complex, more sensational. Games started to look and feel like Hollywood, and costs more to produce and even more to buy.

Well that is until Nintendo’s Wii came along a couple of years ago, totally reversing the trend. With less development resources and less money to risk, Nintendo could not take on Microsoft and Sony in the game of biggger badder hardware and epic game developments. Cleverly, Wii went back to the basics, simple, fun and enterta( ining. You don’t need to spend hours building up your character, or understanding the plot. Not only Pa and Ma can play, even Grandpa, Grandma and baby sis can play too! Now that´s numbers!

The runaway success of Wii has proven dumber is more numbers! More fun, simpler to play, more people can and will play.

So what’s next? What is dumber than Wii games… yup… phone games, social media games. Even shorter, even simpler, even more no-brainer so you can simply stop thinking and just play. Game over? Try again. Try again. I swear just one more time. The popularity of Angry Birds just knows no boundaries!

This is the article I came across last week that started me thinking about simple mindless games – Apple’s Game Center outnumbers Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Fact is, Apple’s Game Center (think iPhone/iPad app games) has hit 50m members in just NINE months, overtaking Xbox Live’s 35m members which has been running much longer. The picture used in this article is the introduction of Apple’s Game Center just September last year. 50m in just this 9 months!

iPhone/iPad games, Android games, Facebook games… even Skype has joined in with Skype game. I wonder what will a Twitter game look like (edit: hitting that ReTweet button 5ox a minute is NOT a game). The days of dumb and dumber games has just started. Well as the saying goes in marketing, Keep It Simple and Stupid. Watch the numbers grow!

Battle of the Clouds Apple, Google & Microsoft

It’s raining Clouds. These recent days has seen the 3 major movers and shakers of technosumer world (Apple, Google, Microsoft) each busy stealing the thunder from the others’ clouds. Cloud computing is not new per se, it has been a key technology development shaping the professional computing world (data warehousing, corporate services etc). But now it has gone into a frenzy of world domination as each fights to be the cloud that is everything and everywhere for every of you… get ready for the Battle of the Clouds.

So what is this Cloud in the consumer world? It stores all data private and public in a huge common virtual space, where each person’s data is separated only by an ID and password. For common data (eg. music), there is only one copy of it in the cloud and you (and everyone else with access) co-share it with your ID/password access. And since it is in virtual space, any device would have access to that one data via the internet, and would update the same copy. So your phone, tablet, computer, netbook, office computer will all have the same content anywhere, everywhere.

Apple’s iCloud was officially announced on 6 June, coming to you this fall, built into iOS 5. With one sync update every single iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch could be iClouded in no time. Apple promises seamless integration of iCloud in all your existing and new apps since it is built right in the core of iOS 5. Take a photo with your iPhone and that photo will be everywhere in all your devices (Apple of course).

Google’s Cloud (or rather Clouds) is currently a 4-prong force = Google Cloud Music called Music Beta active trials in USA (for all your music everywhere), Google Cloud Print (print to your cloud printer from any device anywhere), Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office (to steal your office documents away from Microsoft’s Cloud), Google Apps Cloud Service (conveniently hip-ping Apps with Cloud). You don’t need to be a weather man to see more cloudy skies at Google – coming soon to ChromeOS for Chromebooks, Android 3.1 phones and tablets and Chrome 12 browser.

Microsoft Windows Cloud is Microsoft’s answer to its rivals. Having the most corporate footprint among the 3, it has already been actively clouding with its corporate clients – Microsoft Cloud Services, Microsoft Cloud Power, marketed with Microsoft Cloud Experience events. But those, as mentioned earlier, are the corporate clouds. In the hype to cloud the consumer world, Microsoft has been the least clear and and least vocal. Windows Cloud seems to be a hastily patched together marketing answer adding Cloud to existing services to [insert cloud icon] Create, [insert cloud icon] Connect, [insert cloud icon] Share with Windows 7 and Windows Live. Microsoft marketers also have to think of how to re-hip the un-hip Windows Live Mesh (seriously which non-tech consumer gets that name) which is essentially a cloud, just not hip. Or wait it out with Windows 8 (recently announced and demo’d), Windows Phone 7 (o dear) and Internet Explorer 10 browser.

Cloud, Cloud, Cloud and more Cloud coming your way. In the Battle of Clouds, music of thunder will roar and flashes of lightning will strike as advertisements, offers, online sentiment swaying and other tactics will come your way to convince and grab you into their cloud. Don’t be afraid, don’t let them cloud your judgment – just pick that one soft white fluffy cotton-like cloud and frolic in consumer content heaven… i.e. until one dominates and then changes the rules (don’t they always do? remember the nice Microsoft as an underdog?). Enjoy the coming happy clouds while you can  : ).