showstoppers

Real-time tweets from CTIA and Showstoppers, 7 October 2009

Julius Genachowski, FCC chair, CTIA keynote, commends ATT, Verizon for opening iPhone to Internet calls, adopting Android.

Four priorities at FCC, spectrum for 4G, remove obstacles to 4G, “fair” rules of road for Internet, empower consumers.

Ralph de la Vega, ATT CEO up now, thanks Genchowski, but warns of danger of interference.

Ralph saying US mobile industry most innovative, consumer friendly in world, damn we’re great.

Ralph descends into ATT sales pitch, time for a nap.… More

Tweets from Showstoppers at CTIA 31 March 2009


We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is Futile.

Zannel pulls together video, photos, text and pushes it to your social nets. Take video on phone, upload to Zannel, push it to Facebook.

Zannel site provides portal for video, photo, text microblogging, can mash it up, for example on map via geotagging.

Supported sites include twitter, facebook, blip, blogger, wordpress, flickr.… More

What the gods would destroy they first give to corporate brand managers


That’s a TikiTag there.

Took a first look at TikiTag. It’s perfect for Santa Cruz. It could put geeks on the beach. If we can save it from the suits.

Saw it at the Showstoppers event at CES last month, and the TikiTag people were kind enough to send me a demo kit.

Technically, it’s simple. The kit contains a USB-enabled RFID reader and ten sticky RFID tags. Download the app from the website, set up an account, plug in the reader, swipe a tag and something happens.… More

Tweets from Showstoppers at CES, 8 January 2009

  • New adult IPTV platform Fyretv.com sez 5K subs at launch a month ago, 27K more signed up & waiting for equipment. STB, basic lineup: $10/mo. Some biz models are recession proof.
  • HD downloads caching on 1GB USB stick on Fyretv roadmap. Subs buy content but store it on Fyretv servers. Miami HQ, headend in Dallas colo.
  • Fyretv OEMs STBs in China: Broadcom 7401 chip, mostly text & menu-based inhouse user interface on Linux kernel.
… More

Live from Showstoppers Media Event at MacWorld 2009

Last to first, realtime tweets from Showstoppers event at MacWorld in San Francisco, 5 January 2009…

  • Advice to Truphone: go ahead, stick it to The Man!
  • Truphone guy sez he’s heard about something called hacking somewhere but doesn’t know what it means. Really..
  • I will try Truphone next week from New Zealand, if I can figure out how to load it on my hacked iphone.
  • Drobo showing usual data back up stuff, it’s good but expensive, now offering a Linux NAS.
… More

Recession Can't Hurt Consumer Electronics Retailers. They're Already Dead.

21st Century retailing will be governed by a new Iron Triangle:

  • Consumer information.
  • Volume selling.
  • Physical presence.

Online retailers have inexhaustible information and limitless volume. Consumers save time and money.

Big box retailers have as much volume, and a physical presence that allows consumers to touch and feel products however they choose, and have the instant gratification of an on-the-spot purchase. Customers stay in control.

Manufacturers can sit back and enjoy the ride, or they can build the value of their brands by combining their ultimate control of information with a physical and/or virtual presence that promotes a direct personal relationship with consumers.… More