2007 March | Mark Evans

We’re Talking Tech

March 23rd, 2007 | No Comments | Posted in Main Page, Podcasting

Another week, another Talking Tech podcast with Mark Evans, Kevin Restivo and Duncan Stewart. The tech landscape was dominated this week by an alliance between NBC Universal and News Corp. that will apparently be a challenger to YouTube. (Mike Arrington has a lengthy analysis that suggests YouTube has littleto worry about - at least in the short-term). Duncan and Stewart both believe that while the to-be-named joint venture’s prospects uncertain, its creation is yet another attack on the YouTube empire. Duncan adds he’s intrigued by the fact no one has jumped on the legal bandwagon after Viacom’s copyright infringement lawsuit was recently filed.

Of particular interest to Duncan are Motorola’s financial troubles, which could the mobile device market is quickly becoming a low-margin, low-profit commodity. After all, if you can buy a Razr - the coolest phone in the world not so long ago - for US$49, the margins can’t be that healthy, right? For us Canadian commentators, the obvious question is whether the Blackberry will also fall victim to the commodity trend. The answer - for now - is probably not because most Blackberrry purchases are businesses willing to pay for its reliability and security.

Finally, we take a look at why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called Google’s growth plans “insane”. Does Ballmer have a point given Google’s habit of tossing out new services that failed to gain much, if any, traction. Or his statement simply a reflection of Microsoft’s growing concern about Google’s inevitable march into the office productivity market - and perhaps the browser and OS markets?

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Promises, Promises…Ha!

March 23rd, 2007 | 7 Comments | Posted in Main Page

Ever get one of those tele-marketers from Rogers or Bell call you just when you’re having dinner? Usually, I ignore them but for whatever reason, I decided to see what Rogers had to offer recently. First, they wanted to put all of my bills (wireless, high-speed Internet and home phone) on one bill. Okay, that sounds alright. A win-win.

Then, they wanted to move my home phone service from Sprint (analog) to Rogers’ cable system because Rogers wants as many customers as possible to its digital network. So what’s in it for me? Well, they were willing to offer it to me at the same price. That’s good. But what else are you doing to give me? How about making all the phone jacks in my house work? Done. What about running a phone line into my converted garage/office? Done. What about putting a second line for our tenant downstairs? Done. Well, that’s great customer service so sign me up, I’m in.

A few days later, the Rogers technician shows up, and I’m as excited as one can be when the cable guy shows up because my house will be totally wired and I’ll get a second line. Actually NOT. It turns out the cable guy’s work order has nothing on it other than putting digital phone service in the house. What happened to my package of goodies you were offering a few days ago, which made it alright to waste 30 minutes on the phone. Well, there was nothing the cable guy could do so I sent him packing. What a waste of time!

Technorati Tags: Rogers

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How Much of a Cut Does AdSense Give You?

March 22nd, 2007 | 5 Comments | Posted in Google, Main Page

Chad Randall, b5media’s director of sales, got hammered for a guest post he did on Darren Rowse’s blog about why he hates Google AdSense. After getting stitched up, he took another crack at his thesis today. For all the gory details, check out his blog.

One particularly valid point that Chad raises is how much - or how little - of AdSense revenue actually goes to Web sites and blogs. Chad contends it’s very little compared with suggestions Google gives away 70% to 80%. (Personally, I think it’s closer to Chad’s estimate). The problem is no one really knows the extent of Google’s generosity - or lack thereof - because it’s not something the company discloses. You figure with all the investor scrutiny on Google, there would be more information about the AdSense split. Then again, Google isn’t the most public of publicly-traded companies when you take into consideration things such as its refusal to provide financial guidance.

Unless something changes soon, the AdSense mystery will be right up there with the Caramilk Secret, how the pyramids were built, and why it’s been 40 years since the Toronto Maple Leafs won a Stanley Cup.

Note: Check out this New York Times story from January 2006 that claims Google pays out 78.5% of AdSense revenue to publishers. David Airey weighs in on Chad’s claim AdSense makes your site look “unprofessional”.

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Windows Better than Mac

March 22nd, 2007 | 40 Comments | Posted in Aside

If you’re looking for a way to rile the Mac-ites, suggesting that Windows is more secure than Mac is a sure-fire way to do it. Symantec claims, however, this is true after completing a research report that found that Windows had the fewest number of patches and the shortest average patch development time of the five operating systems it monitored last year.

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Is it Time to Kill “Citizen Journalism”?

March 22nd, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in Main Page, Media

I was on a panel this morning about “Citizen Journalism” at the ICE conference in Toronto. One of the most interesting topics is whether “citizen journalism” is a credible and/or accurate way to describe the activity of people who are not, in fact, journalists. Are these people “correspondents” or “stringers” or “reporters”? And does it really matter?

At the end of the day, the “citizen journalism” story is really about the willingness of people to share their what they see through vehicles such as blogs, podcasts or Web sites such as NowPublic and Orato. Michael Tippett, NowPublic’s co-founder, described the “citizen journalism” debate as “pedantic” and as useful as arguing how many angels fit on a pin. He also mentioned that NowPublic doesn;t use “citizen journalism” even though it’s widely seen as a leading “citizen journalism” site.

It may be that “citizen journalism” will continue to be used because it’s an easy - and perhaps catchy - way to describe a fascinating phenomena where the publisher is the audience and the audience is the publisher. (Much like people like to use Web 2.0 to encapsulate all the new services being developed these days). However you want to describe it, it is changing the world and business of journalism, which is the most important issue.

Update: Joe Thornley has a summary of the panel

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The Blogologist is in the House

March 21st, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in Aside

It’s always interesting to blogs with interesting and/or different names. Michael O’Connor-Clarke, for example, has a nice one with Uninstalled. Another one that caught my eye is Alister Cameron’s Blogologist, which he created as a way to describe all the blog-related things he’s involved in: optimizer, designer, writer, evangelist, strategist, consultant. Cool.

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I Want My, I Want My Apple TV

March 21st, 2007 | 5 Comments | Posted in Apple/iPod, Main Page

It takes a lot to impress the Wall St. Journal’s Walter Mossberg, whose role as the world’s highest-profile and probably most influential reviewer makes his a tour de force within the tech industry. Well, if you’re an Apple employee or investor, Mossberg is your best friend today with an effusive review of the much-anticipated Apple TV. Here’s a small snippet of his praise:

“We can easily recommend it for people who are yearning for a simple way to show on their big TVs all that stuff trapped on their computers. We tried it with various combinations of Windows and Mac computers, with movies, photos, TV shows, video clips and music. And we didn’t even use the fastest wireless network it can handle. It performed flawlessly. However, it won’t work with older TVs unless they can display widescreen-formatted content and accept some newer types of cables.”

As a recent convert to Mac-nation, my initial impression is I want Apple TV (and no, this isn’t a shout out to Apple Canada for a demo unit). With a MacBook on my desk and a 50″ television about 15 feet away, the idea of having a well-designed product to easily connect them would be amazing. As Mossberg points out, Apple TV is far from perfect (40GB drive is too small, for example) but it’s a small price to pay if it works as well as advertised.

For more, check out Live Digitally, who doubts Apple can dominate the living room like they’ve done in the MP3 market, as well as Thomas Hawke, who has a top-10 list on why the Apple TV (he calls it the iDongle) is not for him.

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, Walter Mossberg

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What Would Weezie Think?

March 21st, 2007 | 3 Comments | Posted in Main Page, Wireless

In Canada, the major wireless carriers don’t compete on price and there’s sense confusing consumers abou the merits of CDMA vs. GSM so the battle for consumers comes down to marketing. Of the Big Three, Telus has consistently done a top-notch job creating and selling the brand. Rogers does fairly well while Bell continues to struggle to find its identity.

It should come as no surprise that of the three carriers, Telus appears to be the most aggressive when it comes to taking advantage of the recent launch of wireless local number portability, which lets consumers keep their telephone numbers if they want to switch carriers. Telus’ WLNP marketing efforts caughy my attention last night with a TV commercial featuring the theme song from “The Jeffersons”, the popular 1970s sit-com featuring George and his wife, Weezie. You remember “Movin On Up”, right? If not, here are the lyrics but don’t blame me if you find yourself singing it all day.

“Well we’re movin on up, to the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up to the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Fish don’t fry in the kitchen; Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin’ just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues. Gettin’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby. There ain’t nothin wrong with that.

Well we’re movin on up to the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up to the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

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Google Rocks Ad Biz

March 21st, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in Aside

Google’s dominance of the online advertising market has taken another interesting twist with the launch of a new program called pay-per-action, which sees advertisers only pay if a customer visits their Web site and does something like make a purchase or fill out a form. TechCrunch has a detailed analysis but it isn’t good news for Yahoo, Commission Junction or Linkshare.

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