Dvir Reznik | The (old) Blog

Archive Page 89

Palm to big for your palm?! and Google goes offline

Published May 31, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: google, offline, palm foleo, smartphone, sync, treo

I Read yesterday Palm’s latest announcement, of Palm Foleo, a new appliance, which is basically a very small factor laptop, 1.3 Kg (2.5 Pound), with a 10-inch screen.
The Foleo serves as an external display, with larger keyboard, and syncs instantly with smart phones using Bluetooth technology. An update made in your smart phone will instantly appear on Foleo, and vise-versa (giving both products are in Bluetooth range). Why? because ‘sometimes you need a bigger screen’, according to Jeff Hawkins, Palm’s founder. Will that reason suffice? not sure. In my opinion Palm are taking a big (and costly) step in entering a flooded laptop market, with a product that is inferior to most others, and only advantage being its ability to ‘always sync’ to smart phones.
In an era when everyone are seeking smaller, faster, do-it-all gadgets (like Nokia N95), I’m not sure if adding a 2nd product to a person’s bag is really the correct way… Even now people are trying to minimize the amount of gadgets they carry: mobile phone already serves as a camera, email client, mp3, calendar and address book, GPS and more.. so why go against the trend? And you have to carry both products, your smartphone and the Foleo in order to enjoy the benefits they offer..
If Palm would offer their always-sync technology as a 3rd party software, that would be interesting – and an interesting way to expand your market, with current products, but new technologies.

Google goes offline
Imagine reading your rss feeds in reader, checking your Gmail and editing a Google Docs document – offline. No internet connection needed… This is cool. In an on-going trend of making software as a service (SaaS), that requires an internet connection, the next logical step is making SaaS-O (Software as a Service – offline).
Google Gears should do just that. Announced today, Gears is still in Beta and an Open Source application that allows the community to do some testing and mock-ups, while improving its abilities to accommodate their needs.
If you plan on testing this new application, pay close attention to the install instructions..

Back to Lotus Notes 8 (Beta 3)

Published May 30, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: collaboration, lotus connections, notes, notes8, sametime

I’ve been with IBM for 6 years now, and Lotus Notes is the email client I’m used to, although I do work with Outlook at home from time to time. How do you know if someone is a Notes user? if he uses the phrase ‘new memo’ instead of ‘compose’ or ’email’…

I wrote 2 months ago about my recent upgrade to Notes 8 client, but the early beta was too heavy for my laptop, and slowed down performance, so I rolled-back to 7.
Now I’m back. The new Notes 8 Beta 3 (see demo) is available for some time now internally at IBM, for early adopters, but now it’s also available for customers.

The beta 3 Notes (and Domino server) are much more faster than before. In fact, there’s hardly any different from my previous 7 version.
New interface is much better now, with clear icons, in a web 2.0 style (rounded style with cute animation), there’s an improved calendar and address book, built-in Sametime (IBM internal messaging application) and collaboration tools and also a support for Office documents – you can create and edit ppt/doc/xls files directly in Notes, and even run your presentation (slideshow mode) directly from the client. There’s also an interface to Lotus Activities, a new web-based workspace for virtual teams, still under beta testing, and internal only.

Needless to say that Notes 8 was built and designed on top the recent innovations in collaboration and communications, and is an excellent platform for organizations who has information sharing and managing in mind. You can start today – download the beta code now.
You can also read and view a visual tour of Lotus Notes 8,recently conducted by Computerworld.

Pictures courtesy of Ed Brill, available in Flickr – check out ibm.com/lotus/getn8now

Men are different – thank god :-)

Published May 28, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: advertising, magazine, men, sexy

There are times I’m happy to be a man. Now you’re probably wondering when I’m not happy to be a man… caught me there.. but, living with a psychologist, I know when to shut-up and say nothing.. What would Freud have to say about that?

Anyhow, part of being a man is enjoying those guys’ things, that no matter how old you are, you always feel connected to them – like baseball, basketball, video games, arcade arenas (especially this air-hockey thing – love it), Playboy – it really doesn’t matter how old you are, you’re always drawn to them in some way. In the past I had a subscription to Blazer Magazine, a magazine for Israeli men, where ever they are. The articles were insightful, but with lots of pictures, mostly people of the opposite sex with little (or no) cloths on. Now I ‘read’ it on the web…

Why am I telling you this? Well, in my endless wondering of the www (world wide wait.. 😉 I came across this site, adsoftheworld.com, which has a huge collection of ads (surprise), from around the world (another surprise), including print, media and web.
And there I found this print ad, to Che’ Magazine:

You see, it doesn’t matter to us, guys, what the ad is selling – we’ll buy it!
It’s really the killer duo for us: a girl (preferably with sexy lingerie) and a video game.
That’s all.

The creative is brilliant.. but again, the demographics aren’t that hard to satisfy, they have (relatively) low standards.. (see my 2nd paragraph).

Ohh.. last comment: adsoftheworld.com have RSS feed.. :-))

Hottest trends and my Ego

Published May 24, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: analytics, dvir notes, google, marketing, trends

Google Trends
Google are providing some cool tools for the average user to analyze his/her activities on the web. On top of the Reader Trends I’ve commented in the past, there’s now even an upgraded Zeitgeist, Google Hot Trends, which tells you couple of times a day what people are looking for right now.. right now!
Now you know what people looked for every single day, 4-5 times a day…
Here’s the Top 100 for Wed, May 23rd 2007:

American Idol being in the #2 place is not a big surprise, but what the hell is going on in Minneapolis with the weather (#50)?

My Ego (a.k.a Google Analytics)
Anyhow, I was looking at another Google tool, Analytics, with a new and improved interface, which illustrates your data in a more graphic way.. It’s also pretty easy to set up: just enter your url, put a JS code and you’re done.
So, obviously, all bloggers have Ego, and I wanted to know just how big mine is… 😉
From the initial analysis I’d have to say – not bad Dvir!! 190 page views in a month is not high, compared to Engadget or GigaOm, but it’s good enough for me.. and the more important figure is that over 60% of my visitors are new visitors, which means new ‘business’, and that’s always a good thing.. you know, showing growth along with the market…

There’s also a break-down by region, by source (search engine, direct, links, etc), by content and much more… try it out..

So, I do hope this post has increased my new readers, while of course maintained my loyal crowd. Shout back, so I can hear you.. 🙂

How it all began

Published May 24, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: george lucas, lucas in love, star wars, start

I found on the web this great video, entitled ‘Lucas in Love’, an 8 minute short film (don’t know who made it) outlining how Star Wars started… You can see “young” George Lucas, still in university, and he has 3 days to finish his script otherwise he won’t graduate..