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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

100 Things To Watch In 2011

January 4th, 2011

Every year, JWT releases a deck covering ‘What To Watch’ in the coming year.  The last several years, they’ve made some very accurate predictions.  Looking into 2011, I’m pleased to see that they’ve called out Mobile as the ‘Everything Hub’.  That is spot on in my opinion.  Full forecast embedded below.

Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Technology ,

Gartner Releases 2010 Version of Hype Cycle

October 15th, 2010

Summary and Press Release here.  Deeper individual reports here.  Peaking: 3D Flat Panel/TV Displays, 4G Standard, Cloud Computing, Cloud/Web Platforms.  Dipping: Virtual Assistants, Public Virtual Worlds, Consumer-Generated Media (I find it hard to believe that has reached the bottom).  Slope of Enlightenment: Interactive TV, Internet Micropayment Systems, Location-Aware Applications.

Technology ,

Go To School, Get An iPad

March 30th, 2010

How times have changed.  When I was in college (enter anecdote about slogging through 3 feet of snow uphill, both ways) I carried around massive textbooks.  Granted, I was a Science Major (don’t even ask how I got into Marketing – it’s a boring story) and my texts included: Organic Chem, Invertebrate Biology, and Quaternary Vegetation History….but still, today’s students have a much more appealing option in front of them.  Carrying all their textbooks in the very friendly form factor – thanks to the latest brainchild of Steve Jobs, the iPad.

Seton Hall just announced today that they will be supplying each incoming student to their university a 13″ MacBook and a new iPad.  Instead of heading to their student bookstore to purchase texts for their semester schedules, they will be able to download each text for their class load via the iBook Store.  As a technology zealot, I’m appreciative to see our education system (which is usually slow to adopt change and new paradigms) beginning to be on the leading edge of technology adoption.  What a great time to be a student – not only is your backpack lighter, but your institutions are recognizing that they need to equip you with great devices to learn in a revolutionary way.  Kudos to Seton Hall.

Technology

Hello Twenty-Ten

January 5th, 2010

After two weeks away from the blog, and mostly the computer in general – I am back to putting my digital thoughts to digital paper.  Going off the grid is refreshing to a certain extent, although I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot of the year end summaries that are floating around out there.  As such, I’ve done some digging and located a few that I think are important from trusted industry luminaries.  John Battelle always ends the year looking back at his predictions from the beginning of the year.  He’s been a consistent voice since 2004 and does not disappoint with his reflection on ‘How Did I Do – 2009‘.  Here is his outlook for 2010.

David Pogue of the New York Times also does a good job each year of taking a look over the shoulder and providing a succinct recap of what he felt were the highlights from the previous year.  This year, he entitled his post ‘The Pogie Awards‘ for 2009’s best tech ideas.

LifeHacker is a personal favorite of mine and each year I can count on them to do a very robust and extensive review of the content previously released on their site over the last year.  2009’s post does not disappoint.

Finally, straying a bit from the tech theme but a ‘must include’ in this list – Boston.com – the digital home of the Boston Globe always does a fantastic recap of the previous year by recalling the moment in a series of photos.  From the Presidential inauguration to Capt. ‘Sully’ landing a US Airways Airbus in the Hudson River – stunning photos capturing important events from 2009.

If you have links to share with year end summaries that you found useful, interesting, or just fun to scroll through – please pass them along in the comments section.  Looking forward to an eventful 2010.

Technology

Children Are Better Multi Taskers Than Parents

October 14th, 2009

Brilliant image pulled from the New York Times.  The whole article is worth the read, but I found an excerpt that is especially noteworthy:

A recent and much-discussed study showed decreased productivity in adults who were multitasking — or as Dr. Christakis put it, ‘The truth is you don’t really multitask, you just think you do; the brain can’t process two high-level cognitive things.’ What you are actually doing, he went on, is ‘oscillating between the two.’

So are teenagers any better at oscillating?

‘It may be that multitasking is more of a problem for us old brains,’ Professor Hobbs said. Dr. Christakis speculated that teenagers might have some advantages, partly because of their presumably greater mental dexterity and partly — ‘and this is the part we don’t understand,’ he said — ‘because they really have come of age with these technologies.‘”

Dr. Christakis goes on to make a VERY key statement: “Parents are digital immigrants…children are digital natives”  From a technology marketer’s perspective, this changes the game on how you skew your advertising.  Kids have always had a modicum of influence regarding certain household purchases.  With kids becoming more tech savvy than parents, it’s critical to ensure your message targeting includes them – they could make the difference between ‘good enough’ and ‘premium’ when it comes to the household making a brand decision.

Technology ,