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Mark Evans

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Archive for September, 2006

Inside the Voodoo-HP Deal

If you're a serious gamer, Voodoo Computers is the PC industry's Rolls-Royce with cool-looking and powerful systems (albeit at a premium price). Earlier this week, the Calgary-based company said it had agreed to be acquired by Hewlett-Packard for undisclosed amount. So why rush into the arms of HP rather than raising venture capital or doing [...]

Blogging 101: Building Brand vs. Traffic

I received an e-mail yesterday from someone asking if it was alright if they included my blog posts on a “content collector” that offers people access to a wide variety of Canadian blogs, Web sites, podcasts and video. While it's flattering (and I appreciated someone actually asking for permission), I'm of two minds about the idea. On one hand, getting more [...]

Mark Cuban Rocks

You have to love Mark Cuban, who says it like it is. At a conference yesterday, he said only a “moron” would buy YouTube. “They are just breaking the law,” CNet reported. “The only reason it hasn't been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue.” Cuban's no-lawsuit theory may be [...]

Courting New Pearl Users

While Research in Motion's strong fiscal third-quarter performance and stock option review are in the spotlight, an interesting theme from yesterday's conference call with analysts was the idea carrers will unveil pay-as-you-go or lower price, consumer-friendly packages. It is based on the idea you can increase the number of high-margin Blackberry users by making price [...]

Fun With Numbers 1, 2, 3

During the dot-com boom, everyone (investors, media, the guy on the street) was mesmerized by the large traffic numbers posted by new players - many of whom based IPOs on dubious metrics such as eyeballs and page views per visitor. Today, the numbers game is still alive and well, although the tools to analyze traffic, [...]

Attacking Trash with Tech

In Toronto, the city recently spent a whack o' cash (estimated to be as much as $500-million over 20 years) to buy a landfill site a couple hours away. Amid the growing controvery over the financial terms, it struck me there has been little or no talk how technology - both high-tech and low-tech - can [...]

The Perfect Geek Gift

This is just a hunch but the must-have gift this holiday season maybe the Nabaztag. What's a Nabaztag? It's a “smart” rabbit featuring moving ears and lights that uses wi-fi to connect to the Internet. This lets it do everything from reading the news and Web sites to providing weather reports and the time. It can let [...]

Zip.ca Going Big

In Canada, entrepreneurs never seem to dream big enough. They want to be successful but few of them talk about conquering their markets. Zip.ca, which aspires to be Canada's NetFlix, appears to be an exception to the rule. The Ottawa-based company wants to raise $25-million to enhance its marketing and advertising programs, as well as [...]

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Tom Keating has a post recounting his efforts to cancel his Vonage service. It's pretty funny but insightful into Vonage's customer service and competitive challenges.

Pearl Now or Pearl Later?

The BlackBerry Pearl is getting rave reviews (Walter Mossberg, the NYT's David Pogue, Mark Evans :), etc.) and sales have been extremely brisk (some stores apparently sold out in the first week). That said, I'm wondering if news about a Pearl-like BlackBerry with a QWERTY keyboard (called the Blackberry 8800) will take some momentum out [...]

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