Years ago, it was Microsoft - who had the better home computer OS?
More recently, it was Adobe - was Flash worthy of the iPhone's greatness?
Now, it's Google, and the stakes are higher than ever.
Reason one: Android OS.
Google's relatively new operating system, Android, is a smash hit. The mobile platform is used on a variety of smartphones spanning several different brands. This choice in hardware brand is an option that Apple can't offer with its iPhone (or RIM with its Blackberry line, for that matter). The operating system is smooth, efficient, and capable, on par with all its competitors but evolving faster. Apple's OSX must not take the 'Droid lightly.
Reason two: Google Chrome.
Many Apple users remained with Safari even when Mozilla launched FireFox. But Google Chrome, like Android, became a smash hit for both personal and office computer use, on both PCs and Macs, as Chrome incorporated the sleek simplicity of Safari with generally superior performance and capabilities. Safari hasn't yet dropped to Internet Explorer-lows, but it's often the last major browser to catch up on the latest tech trends (such as third-party extensions).
Reason three: Openness versus secrecy.
Steve Jobs is about as tight-lipped as CEOs come. With the volume of secrets he keeps tucked in the sleeves of his trademark black turtle neck, you'd think he ran a nuclear war company in the Middle East. Google, contrastingly, engages its users with open betas, public announcements, and a general philosophy that they don't have much to hide. This style of business management is winning more and more hearts in a social media-dominated world where consumers demand corporate transparency. If Apple keeps its blinds shut and doors locked, Google's forthcoming rival services may out-brand Apple's established counterparts.
Reason four: Acquisition pace.
Apple likes to grow and evolve organically, which has worked well for them, but it can make forays into new services difficult (and Apple certainly doesn't celebrate failures like Google does). But the purchase-happy Google averages one full acquisition per month, generating a constant in-stream of new talent, fresh perspectives, and innovative outside technologies. This can lead to huge and rapid leaps, where Google can go from knowing and doing nothing in a certain field to suddenly becoming a legitimate contender - which leads to the next few points.
Reason five: Forthcoming music store.
Google plans to launch a service similar to iTunes around Christmas time that is apt to give Apple a run for its money.
Reason six: Forthcoming TV service.
Google also plans to launch a service similar to Apple TV by the end of this year (U.S.) and throughout next year (globally) that is, again, apt to give Apple a run for its money.
Reason seven: The "everyday essential" factor.
Most people can live without Apple. Few can live without Google.
This is the "everyday essential" factor. Many people search the internet on a daily basis, but most don't just "search," they "google." And aside from some antiquated Mapquest users, most people without portable GPS systems plug in address in Google Maps regularly. Want some images? You probably use the newly revamped Google Images. Like to stay on top of certain news topics? You probably use Google Alerts.
Google has constructed an empire not with massive product lines or revolutionary services, but with everyday, household and office staples. Apple offers some sleek hardware that neatly packages smooth-running software, but people don't rely on its existence like they do Google.
So when Google launches Google Music and Google TV - and who knows what else - Apple better not underestimate the threat. Because Adobe's Flash controversy will be the least of Apple's worries in 2010 when Google is through with them.
Google's only downfall is perhaps its core revenue stream. Advertising brings in more than 95 percent of the company's revenue. And while it's currently extremely lucrative, having only one effective way to profit may be crippling in the long term for Google, with Apple generating cash flow from a diverse range of hardware and software.
Adobe helps people and businesses communicate better through its world-leading digital imaging, design, and document technology platforms for... [more]
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. As a first step to fulfilling that mission,... [more]
Set your ideas on fire. That is the slogan of Burnkit, a design studio nestled in the heart of Railtown, just blocks away from Main and Hastings in Vancouver. They are an ideas studio. Technical wizards and skilled graphic designers showcase their talents under the leadership of Josh Dunford, founder and director. 2010 marks their tenth anniversary of business and if you aren’t familiar with their work, you should be. Visit their website and take a gander at their clients: PlayStation, Kodak and Bensen to name a few. Take a tour of their studio or just have fun messing around with the website’s engaging interface. Their unique vision and uncompromising quality is clearly evident, from their portfolio to their dynamic homepage.
I recently sat down with Josh Dunford and Owen Ingraham, Director of Technology at Burnkit, to discuss the company’s vision firsthand and how they’ve seen the company grow. Relaxed and humorous, Dunford began our discussion at the very beginning. “Originally, I was in school for biology. However, I realized my passions were in photography and graphic design through the process of working on a yearbook. After graduating in science, I freelanced for a summer and that’s when I worked on a couple of key side projects that were crucial to getting me where I am today."
Dunford developed on an online magazine, worked on interactive projects with a Lower Mainland firm and created videos that were picked up by Windows Media, garnering over two millions views. And this is all pre-YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. “If you’re graduating and you don’t yet have a portfolio,” explains Josh, “you likely have a lot of time and energy on your hands. It’s a perfect opportunity to work on side projects that may not make you a lot of money but will give you crucial project experience.”
In the late winter of 2000, Burnkit was born. “I started the company with a friend who was a landscape architect. He had limited experience in graphic design, [but he picked it up quickly].” Today, the company boasts eleven full-time staff and each year they host hungry interns who want to cut their teeth with the design world’s best. Burnkit has done it all: websites, short films, logos, interactive installations, environmental graphics, printed matter and things that have never been seen before, as stated on their website.
A defining project for Josh was the full redesign of the PlayStation website. “That was a highlight project because it was the largest we’d done up to that point. It was the culmination of starting with a very small project and earning their trust, building it over the years and having it culminate in the full redesign of Playstation.com in 2007.”
To celebrate their tenth year of business, Dunford is throwing a party. A massive party. “We’ve always thrown an annual party. After the summer, it’s the perfect time to have it. People are coming off summer vacation and going back to work. They need something to do. The timing is perfect.”
Happy birthday, Burnkit. May your next ten years burn even brighter.
Photo: insidevancouver.ca
Imagine a small group of thinkers, dreaming up fresh new ideas for carefully chosen clients. Working as a team, listening and debating...... [more]
If you or your company are involved in producing apps for BlackBerry, you won’t want to miss out on the upcoming Edmonton BlackBerry Developers Group meeting on September 15th.
The meetup will take place at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald’s Wedgwood Room, and will be highlighted by a presentation from RIM’s director of developer relations, Mike Kirkup, who will present insights on the future of app development.
As a bonus, all attendees will be entered into a draw for a BlackBerry Torch 9800.
To be a part of this event, RSVP to Joanne Kelly at joanne@pureinbox.com.
BlackBerry (Research In Motion) is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile... [more]
Being a part of the technology industry often has us caught up in the latest and greatest – be it gadgets, innovations, or research. And I’m sure we all take the simple things in life for granted, especially when our biggest concern is, “What’s Apple going to come out with next?”
The devastating floods in Pakistan were a reality check for many of us. Leaving over 21 million people without homes, the flood’s destruction exceeded that left by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake – combined.
A ResponseTek employee initiated the internal challenge to raise money for flood victims. About ten years ago, they had the opportunity to travel to Northern Pakistan; the area most severely hit by the floods, and they remembered being amazed by the beauty of the landscape and the kindness of the people, despite their humble surroundings.
Taking this challenge seriously, we, here at ResponseTek, were able to raise $2,180 as more than 75% of our employees participated. Management at ResponseTek matched our number to create $4,360, and the Government of Canada matched our final company number. All in all, we sent over $8,720 in actual aid to help the flood victims in Pakistan. And with our help, World Vision will be able to provide aid and support to over 140 families and their children in the affected areas.
And now it’s your turn. This is a challenge to all businesses in the technology industry in Vancouver, and we know there are some big ones here – how are you going to get your company to support the flood victims?
ResponseTek is a leading global provider of on-demand customer experience management (CEM) software. Our Feedback Management, Market Research and... [more]
By now, everyone should be familiar with Google’s predictive search queries; you know, you start typing what you’re searching for, and Google predicts what your query actually is, hoping to speed up your Internet searches.
Well, Google has announced that they’re taking that idea one step further. They’ve developed an “instant” search function that actually makes searches as you type. Google hopes this new technology can shave two to five seconds off of every search made.
Although Google Instant, as it’s being called, isn’t fully available yet, you can test out its functionality here.
And for a quick laugh about how absurdly wrong Google’s search prediction can be, check out Autocomplete Me.
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. As a first step to fulfilling that mission,... [more]
Global fashion label Armani Exchange is a delivering highly interactive shopping experience to online consumers using technology developed by the Ottawa-based company Overlay TV.
So what's Overlay TV? It's clickable video, akin to what you might see in some new, creative YouTube videos.
The initial concept for Overlay.TV came about when the wife of one of our founders was watching a notoriously popular fashion-themed television show. She commented to her husband that she loved the shoes sported by the diminutive star but, alas, did not know where to find them. It was then that her husband had an epiphany - what if you could click on stuff while you watch it and find out more about it?
In that moment the idea for Overlay.TV was born.
Overlay TV was founded in 2007 in Ottawa, and now Armani Exchange is using its technology to take online shoppers to the next level.
In the "How to Wear it" section of the A/X website, users will be able to engage with videos embedded with clickable hotspots, which can link shoppers to more details on garment pieces. While this sort of ambitious technology would be considered too technically advanced for some fashion labels, A/X targets a demographic highly familiarized with social media, YouTube, and the like - making this foray a relatively safe leap and logical evolution.
"Shopping online and offline is still very much a 'social experience,' so giving our customers a chance to see new trends, get style tips from industry experts, and share this with their friends is an easy and natural extension of their online behavior," says A/X Brand Director Patrick Doddy. "It's important to us to evolve our site to meet the expectations of our demographic. Our online marketing and merchandising tools must be easy to use, work with our target customer base, and be flexible and effective, and it must be fully integrated with the MarketLive platform. The ability for us to get to market quickly and without managing multiple tools was a big advantage for us."
"There's no question that clickable video is going to be one of the strongest forces in ecommerce in the coming years," says Rob Lane, CEO of Overlay TV. "Making content that's compelling, clickable and sharable moves online video down the funnel from marketing to direct sales, with measurable benefits at each stage."
E-commerce platform MarketLive is also involved in this project with Overlay and A/X.
"We're thrilled to have Overlay TV as a strategic partner," said Ralf VonSosen, vice-pres of product management at MarketLive. "They're a leader in what they do, and their focus on using video to increase sales and reduce costs falls right in line with our philosophy.
In addition to A/X's work with Overlay and MarketLive, they're now producing online 3D videos to promote their products, and offering free 3D glasses - both in stores and by snail mail. Unsurprisingly, they're sold out of 3D glasses by snail mail in North America, but stop by their stores on Robson Street in Vancouver or Yonge Street in Toronto for a free pair.
Overlay.TV is an interactive media company that provides an online video platform. This platform enables users, content owners, and e-commerce... [more]
The RCMP will be following of the lead of their American counterparts by pressuring Craigslist to shut down its erotic services classifieds.
Several state attorney generals in the U.S. successfully removed the section of the website last month over concerns that it was an easy advertising medium for prostitution.
According to the RCMP, this initiative ties in nicely with the government’s new efforts to curb human trafficking:
“The RCMP Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre has partnered with Craigslist and has met [with Craigslist officials] on several occasions trying to implement some measures in Canada,” Sgt. Marie-Claude Arsenault said at a news conference in Winnipeg.
“There's already some measures in place ... not all the ones that are in the U.S. at the time, but we are speaking with them and trying to bring these measures in Canada.”When asked directly if the RCMP wanted Craigslist to shut down adult sections on its Canadian website, Arsenault said: “These are the kinds of measures we are looking at in Canada.”
Craigslist has been firing back against allegations of social irresponsibility. Take a look at this August 18 blog post from CEO Jim Buckmaster:
craigslist is committed to being socially responsible, and when it comes to adult services ads, that includes aggressively combating violent crime and human rights violations, including human trafficking and the exploitation of minors. We are working intensively as I write this with experts and thought leaders at leading non-profits and among law enforcement on further substantive measures we can take. We are profoundly grateful to those offering us their expert assistance in this regard.
...
craigslist implemented manual screening of adult services ads in May of 2009. Since that time, before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney licensed to practice law in the US, trained to enforce craigslist’s posting guidelines, which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of. More than 700,000 ads were rejected by those attorneys in the year following implementation of manual screening, for falling short of our guidelines.
Buckmaster further claimed that since Craigslist began manually screening ads, unmonitored classified websites like The Village Voice Media’s backpage.com have seen “erotic service”-style ads increase by a factor of five to ten times.
Startup Weekend Toronto is a community building startup event whichis talking place at Ryerson University the weekend of September 24.
Featured speakers will include Grindcentric's Tim Smith, Mike McDerment of Freshbooks and Sprouter's Sarah Prevette among many others.
Startup Weekend celebrates the startup culture by "recruiting a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and others to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. It is an amazing opportunity to connect with other passionate and skilled individuals, and perhaps even find a co-founder or two to transform your idea into reality."
As the media sponsor for this tech community event in Toronto we are excited to offer our readership the opportunity to win a free pass for the entire weekend. Here's what to do:
Just comment below on why you are going to attend Startup Weekend in Toronto. Please include your name and Twitter handle or website address. On September 20th we will draw for the pass. Good luck!
For ticket information please visit their Eventbrite page. For information on the event please visit http://toronto.startupweekend.org.
The GROW 2010 technology conference took place in August at the Vancouver Convention Center, and Techvibes was on location with an on-site studio conducting video interviews with a selection of speakers, sponsors and attendees.
Here, Techvibes' Michelle Sklar interviews British Columbia Technology Industry Association President and CEO Pascal Spothelfer and learns more about the Association's community building efforts. Spothelfer hints at a new BCTIA initiative that has not been announced yet that will specifically provide services to entrepreneurs and sounds a lot like an business incubator.
Thank you to KPMG LLP who was the exclusive online video sponsor for Techvibes' GROW coverage. Stay tuned for continued GROW 2010 coverage.
As the largest and most influential association representing BC's technology industry, BC TIA is dedicated to fostering growth and development in... [more]
Mayor Gregor Robertson may be taking heat in the local media for his $120,000 trip to China to promote green businesses in Vancouver, but local tech companies aren’t going to miss out on the opportunity to promote their business internationally just because of some bad publicity.
22 Vancouver companies make up the Vancouver Green Capital Business Mission, which will be promoting Vancouver as a viable destination for high-tech and green business investment dollars.
The Vancouver Sun’s Marke Andrews has interviewed some Vancouver digital media companies that highlight Vancouver’s representation:
“We're looking to send service [to China], but also to partner with Chinese companies doing animation there,” said Trevor Bentley, president and partner of Vancouver animation studio Atomic Cartoons, who has lined up meetings with five Chinese companies.
“We're seeing some fantastic properties and animation coming out of China,” Bentley said. “It's a matter of doing our due diligence and making some connections. If we're going to send projects there or ask someone to invest in our projects or partner with us on something, we have to meet face-to-face.”
Warren Franklin, CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment, hopes to build on momentum his company created by making a short animation for the Canadian Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, as well as a film shown at the B.C.-Canada Pavilion during the 2010 Winter Olympics here.
“We're hoping to leverage that [pavilion] work for some new projects and business. The opportunities in China are enormous, and there's a lot of potential for co-productions between Canadian and Chinese companies in the animation and digital media area,” stated Franklin.
The Vancouver Green Capital Business Mission began exhibiting Wednesday, and will continue to showcase what the city has to offer until Sunday.
Vancouver based Rainmaker Entertainment is an industry leader in CG animation. Established in 1993, the company has generated more than $300... [more]
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