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I took this picture at Wood Green tube station yesterday morning. I was able to travel all over London for free due to a systems crash with Oyster computer systems. However, according to a few sources there seems to be massive amount of fraud taking place with the system. Either that or Osyter was hacked and down for more than four hours yesterday. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen.
It’s less than five hours until the start of of the new year. I thought that it would be prudent to blog my predictions for 2008 before the end of the year, and here are my predictions:
Social Media
Seesmic will be huge.
Twitter will open up a lot of new, unprecedented opportunities for marketers.
Video Blogging will become a normal form of communication like IM conversations.
FaceBook will become a tedious fad.
Follow Up! will gain a huge following.
Technology
AlienPants Ltd, will innovate in existing and new markets.
Apple will release a new iPhone with 3G and video capabilities.
Apple will continue to innovate and increase its market share.
Google will lead the way with eco-friendly technology.
Microsoft’s Zune will fail in Europe, that’s if it ever launches over here.
Gaming
EA will acquire Ubisoft.
Haze will fail miserably.
Massive Entertainment will have great success with new IP and World in Conflict on the Xbox 360.
Microsoft will release a new Xbox 360 with a built in HD-DVD player.
Microsoft will release the actual amount of subscribers using Xbox Live.
Xbox Live will work without any problems.
Other
The North American Union (NAU), which comprises of Canada, Mexico and the United States will gain momentum.
Gareth Williams will grow a couple of inches.
Adam McCann will actually launch a product on time.
I’ll sell a billion copies of The Book of Games Volume Two - I wish but I’m actually aiming to sell over a million by the end of the decade.
I’ll be wasted by midnight.
I’m in a great mood and I’m feeling really upbeat about 2008. I’ve got a good feeling that 2008 will be an amazing year.
Anyhoo, I’ve got to get ready to go out, have a great New Year.
I’ve haven’t had a chance to meet up with Loïc but I’ve had a few conversations with him via Twitter. I’m following the developments of his latest venture; Seesmic, and I’m really impressed with the way he has gathered so much attention to the product without the public having access to it.
Oh yeh, Loïc mentioned via twitter that the FT has published a really interesting article, I recommend reading the article in full but I quite like his ten rules for business success:
* Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
* Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
* Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
* Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
* Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
* Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
* Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
* Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
* Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
* Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.
He’s hosting LeWeb during the latter part of the week. I was hoping to attend the event in Paris later this week but due to a few other commitments I won’t be able to attend the conference. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend LeWeb in 2008.
Prior to the iPhone’s launch in the UK I was keen to buy one. I blogged about iPhone’s official announcement and explained the reason why I wouldn’t buy one and Steve posted his reasons for not buying one as well.
I just read a news report about iPhone activations in the UK and the number is quite low considering the hype, twenty-six thousand iPhones have been activated since the device went on sale. While the number of units sold is low, the actual amount of money Apple and o2 are making from iPhone sales is pretty good.
The iPhone costs £269 and you have to take out an 18month contract which is priced at £35, £45 or £55 per month. If you do the maths, then you’ll notice Apple and o2 are making a killing. 26,000 iPhones @ £269.00 is nearly £7Million pounds, while 26,000 activations @ £35 per month works out at just over nine-hundred thousand pounds per month. That should, at least keep the Millennium Dome branded in o2 colours for a while…
There is A LOT of speculation on the internet about a second-generation iPhone and if these rumours turn out to be true, then I’ll buy an iPhone.
If Apple is working on a second-gen iPhone then I really do hope they release the iPhone with 3G, video recording capabilities, removable battery, 5Megapixel camera and a larger touch-pad – it is VERY EASY to make typo’s. Oh, it would be good if the new iPhone was enabled with a mobile wallet… I think that’s it, if I can think of any other additional features then I’ll update this post. What features would you like and want in a second-gen iPhone?
This morning, executives from Apple and o2 gathered at a press conference in London and finally announced the release date of the iPhone in the UK.
Obviously, I was interested in the iPhone and have waited for this news with great anticipation. However, I’m currently on a Vodaphone contract and own an N95. If I wanted to buy an iPhone, I would have to buy-out my Vodaphone contract, purchase an iPhone and sign up for a fresh 18month contract. That alone would cost the remainder of the Vodaphone contract, and the cost of the iPhone with new contract.
Although I have the cash to buy it, I doubt I will. I never waste money. I’m not keen on downgrading to a new product that features old technology. I’ve become accustom to 3G and use it every day. Unless an upgraded version of the iPhone gets released in the near future and features 3G then I’ll reconsider but until then, no iPhone for me.
A few days ago, Apple announced a revamped product line for the iPod. The new iPods look much better than the current iPod line up. When I was browsing the product pages on Apples website I had a look at the iPodTouch and while it’s a cool product, and considering the fact that the new device has video, photo storage capabilities I can’t help but think the iPodTouch is a lacklustre product i.e. the design is similar to the iPhone, yet it doesn’t feature a camera for recording video or taking photos — I think this is a massive mistake on Apples part and I won’t be buying one due to the lack of camera. However, the iTunes Wi-Fi online store is interesting but it still doesn’t justify the price tag.
Last Thursday I ordered a very cool HDTV via Amazon.co.uk. The estimated delivery date was set for the 21st August. It’s Wednesday 22nd and it hasn’t arrived, yet.
I just called Amazon and they made me laugh. Apparently, City Link (the couriers) have lost the 37inch TV in the post and a replacement is going to be sent to me. Hopefully, it will be here in time for the weekend.
I started using Windows 3.1 in the early 1990’s, I’ve had Windows 95, 2000, MEH, oops I mean ME, XP and more recently Vista installed on my computers over the years. While the latter version of Windows is big leap forward over previous incarnations of the operating system I cannot help but think OS X is slightly more advanced. Windows Vista and Office 2007 are installed on my work PC and my laptop has Windows XP and Office XP.
For the past couple of years I’ve thought about buying an Apple Mac and spoken to a lot of people about Apple’s computers. I never got around to buying a Mac until a few days ago. My sister picked up a white MacBook a couple of weeks ago and I decided to get one on Friday due to the work computer dying. When I’ve fixed the work PC, I think the Macbook is going to be the main work station and the PC will be a gaming computer – fully optimised for all the latest DX10 games.
My MacBook arrived on Saturday morning. I opened up the box and configured the settings. OS X Tiger takes some time to get used to but it’s certainly has the “Wow” factor. I’ve started to enjoy using the computer again. The system is VERY, very cool. I like Windows Vista but Tiger is a big leap forward. I’m really looking forward to Leopard now!
I’ve installed a few applications such as Windows Live Messenger, Skype, NeoOffice - Free open source software which has full compatibly with Microsoft Office documents – and some other applications. I was able to connect the MacBook to my wireless network within a few seconds and I’m writing this post in the garden because it is way too hot inside the house.
So, who else owns a Mac and finds it a joy to use?
I was reading Robert Scoble’s blog via my N95 RSS reader and I noticed an interesting fact - there are now over 17,000 Microsoft employees signed up to Facebook. Bill Gates, Ray Ozzie and Steve Ballmer all have profiles. If you type the following keywords into google “Is Microsoft buying Facebook?” you’ll get hundreds, if not thousands of news posts covering this news. Apparently, Microsoft is going to buy Facebook for $6Billion dollars. If this does turn out to true then it would be quite interesting for the numerous Live gadgets and widgets because you’d be able to add those types of apps to your Facebook profile.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 platform is the biggest social network around TV and has 7million subscribers to Xbox Live but the company hasn’t revealed how many of those accounts are actually, active. Acquiring Facebook could and would be beneficial to Microsoft’s portfolio but I’m surprised they haven’t developed upon MSN or Live to create their own social networking platform. So, I guess the question of the day would be if Microsoft brought Facebook would you carry on using it?
I know a few people that are currently developing, launching and/or running social networks for the video games market but what strikes me is that none of them have a good understanding about social networking. It is all fine and dandy creating a social network of online usage but why are they ignoring mobile users? If they carry on ignoring mobile users then they do so at their peril as well as their profit margins.
Finally got a MacBook and its pretty nifty, the smart portable computer runs Apples latest operating system as well as Windows Vista. It is connected to the Home Network and that was relatively easy to do. It joins two Windows XP laptops, one Windows Vista desktop PC, two Xbox 360’s, a PS3 and a few portable devices.
After playing around with the MacBook for a while I’m wondering whether I should cross over to Apple for all my computing needs - the only reservation I have would be the cost of upgrading everything but Apples computers are sweet!
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