Information Delivery for Mobile Workers: A Big Data Need
October 17, 2012
In the beginning of the Big Data craze, there was always the impending potential of tiny mobile devices, tablets and Wi-Fi connections bringing even more data to the table. Now, massive amounts of data repositories from all the user activity on exists, but the question of analyzing it effectively and quickly still remains on the table.
With the consistent boasting of the benefits of Big Data, it is no surprise that the TechCrunch article “Telefonica Wants To Turn Its Mobile Data Into A Big Data Business, Launches Dynamic Insights Unit” states the mobile industry is ready for their piece of Big Data action:
Big data is one of the key building blocks of the digital economy. Approached in a smart and responsible way it has the potential to transform every part of business and society. Telefónica says that Dynamic Insights’ first product will be called “Smart Steps” and will be aimed at companies and public-sector organizations to “measure, compare, and understand what factors influence the number of people visiting a location at any time. Presumably, it will combine not just user numbers over given periods but also track movements at particular locations.
Having access to all that data does no good without a reliable information management platform to allow enterprise wide access to relevant data swiftly and securely. We’ve got our eyes on PolySpot information delivery solutions.
Jennifer Shockley, October 17, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
New App Mila Applies Semantics to Sales
October 15, 2012
The “micro-entrepreneur” movement has taken off in recent years, and now there’s now an app for that. Semanticweb describes how enterprise resource planning company Core Systems has employed technology from Knowledge Hives to craft the new tool in its piece, “Mobile App Mila Uses Semantics to Match Micro-Entrepreneurs to Social Media Customer Leads.”
Mila is free, though premium services are expected to be added later. Unfortunately, the app is so far only available to users in Switzerland. That could change, though, if it proves successful. Besides serving up social media leads, the software also helps users set up their (micro)businesses. Upon registration, entrepreneurs answer a series of questions designed to help the app “understand” their company and products. Writer Jennifer Zaino reports on comments from Mila’s Sebastian Kruk:
“That [understanding] feeds into its social media monitoring capability for lead generation. Currently, it supports only Twitter, but Kruk says other social outlets will be on the way. ‘Whenever we see there is some potential interesting lead or tweet, we try to find the companies in our database that sell that product or that are in categories that match the lead, and then send the lead to the company,’ says Kruk. Mila uses natural language processing technology and Knowledgehives’ Civet service, which extracts meaning from text, to help with analyzing the tweets, fixing on their most important keywords and also user locations.”
Interesting. We would like to see some user feedback on how well this process works.
Founded in 2002 and based in Windisch, Switzerland, CoreSystems strives to be the world’s top business app provider. Systems and consulting firm Knowledge Hives makes its home in Gdynia, Poland. Its solutions are underpinned by its semantic Web and social networking technologies.
Cynthia Murrell, October 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Amazon versus Apple: Is Amazon Stoppable
September 26, 2012
Technology News recently reported on Amazon’s presentation of the new Kindle Line and how it may just take over the tablet market in the article, “How Amazon Stole the Tablet Market.”
According to the article, it looks like Amazon is taking a page from Apple’s book and may be taking over the tablet market. Since Amazon is an online retailer it has been able to turn every Kindle owner into a dedicated Amazon buyer. Since Apple and Microsoft are built around the old IBM model where hardware leads and software and service follows, the competition is unable to compete.
Another way that Amazon is schooling Apple, is through its lower price points:
“Once Amazon figured out the benefits of having a dedicated product pointed at its store and knew how much it could gain from such an offering, it had a subsidization model that would work, and you saw the result last week: two 7-inch tablets priced below where Apple likely can afford to sell product, and a 9-inch tablet that is a whopping $200 less than the comparable iPad.
The products actually have better connections to services and content — that is Amazon’s business, after all — and while they fall short on apps, the price savings during a gift-giving time of the year could have Amazon exit the fourth quarter — at least in the U.S. — as the market leader. (The Kindle won’t be much of an event outside the U.S. this year.)”
So is Amazon stoppable? Since the online retail giant is obviously learning from the mistakes of Microsoft and implementing some industry best practices, it seems that the answer is no.
Jasmine Ashton, September 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Reaches New Milestone for Android
September 25, 2012
With the launch of the sixth generation iPhone upon us, it seems only natural that Google would feel a little neglected. So in order to give Google’s Android a little love, CNET News has covered a milestone worth noting in the article, “Google: 500 Million Android Devices Activated.”
According to Hugo Bara, Android’s director of product management, as of September 12, 500 million Android devices have been activated globally. That is 1 million more than the number that had been activated as of June at the rate of 1 million per day.
When looking towards the future of what Google has in store for Android 4.0, the article states:
“Indeed, the transition to Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich is still grinding along slowly, with the earlier Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread still claiming 57 percent share of usage. Gingerbread is looking more and more like Windows XP: an operating system whose wide use means developers will have to support old technology for a long time. Ice Cream Sandwich has 20.9 percent of usage, now finally increasing steadily after months of little movement following its 2011 debut. Jelly Bean is at 1.2 percent, according to Google’s measurements.”
We are interested to see what Google has in store for the next generation Android, but for now we will just congratulate them for achieving this feat.
Jasmine Ashton, September 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Menu and Hours: A New App for Your Appetite
September 23, 2012
Recently Mark Wilson, in his piece over at the Fast Company blog, “This (Perfect?) Restaurant App Offers Just The Menu And The Hours,” covered a new, sleek and efficient restaurant review app and was kind enough to share with the rest of us. Frustrated with her own experiences as a hungry Louisvillian fumbling through her phone for suggestions, developer Michelle Jones decided to re-think the overcooked apps she’d come to hate. She started by trimming the fat. Menus and Hours is a food app that gives you just that: the menu and the hours of your city’s eateries. By removing so many of the industry’s superfluous garnishes from its design, Menus and Hours delivers only what you need and exactly how you need it.
As Wilson states in his post:
“While apps like Urbanspoon are designed with a gimmick at the core–a like button, restaurant randomizer…a way someone might want to interact with something–Menu and Hours is scaffolded around the root functions it’s meant to serve, to give someone very specific data. And at the end of the day, pretty pictures are nice, but that discernibility of information is always what’s most important.”
The only draw back: Jones’ database only contains info on restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky, the only city currently supported by Menus and Hours. Although the app is only available to the famished and indecisive of the Blue Grass State, it’s easy to see the mass appeal of such a finely tuned piece of programming. Hopefully the rest of us will not have to wait too much longer; it is almost lunchtime.
Michael Ison, September 23, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Wapedia Makes Mobile Device Searching More Efficient
September 9, 2012
Mobile device searching can prove difficult, even with mesmerizing products such as Apple’s Siri. A good go-to resource to try when looking for information on your cell phone or tablet is Wapedia from Wikipedia. The mobile version of the well-loved free online encyclopedia makes standard Wikipedia pages viewable on smaller displays, reduces image sizes, and includes a search engine independent of Wikipedia servers. The Wapedia page tells us more about the technology:
“Wapedia offers the most recent version of every article, which is done by using a combination of a proxy-like behavior and a local article database. This combination provides both high speed and up-to-date articles and low load and traffic for the Wikipedia servers. The copying of data is one way, from Wikipedia to Wapedia, and so Wapedia does not offer the ability to edit pages. Edits must be made to the original page on the Wikipedia site, which propagate through to Wapedia over time.”
Versions for Apple devices, Android, and WebOS applications exist. This mobile solution injects adverts directly into the Wikipedia articles through HTML or in the applications. We think this search solution from the free-content giant is impressive and think other companies and app-developers should take note of the technology.
Andrea Hayden, September 09, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Google and Boingo Team Up on Mall and Airport Wi Fi
September 6, 2012
Microsoft used to pay people to search. Now Google pays to get people to connect courtesy of Google– Quite similar in our perspective. You see, Search Engine Watch reports that “Google Offers Free & Discounted Wi-Fi at US Malls, Airports.” The search giant is working with Boingo Wireless to offer free Wi-Fi access at eight malls and discounted access at sixteen airports. As you might suspect, there is a small catch: one must subscribe to Google Offers to take advantage of the program.
Writer Amanda Miller tells us:
“This June, Google partnered with Boingo Wireless to offer free Wi-Fi in six subway stations and more than 200 other locations in New York City. That program is scheduled to end September 7.
“Now, shoppers will be able to surf the web for free in select Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa malls, among other major city locations.
“In the airports selected, Google is offering 50 percent off a 24-hour Boingo As-You-Go wi-fi pass.”
See the write up for the list of airports Google and Boingo chose for their project. I wonder, though—if the subway venture has an expiration data, will this new arrangement similarly end at some point? Why bother if the initiative is not long term? It couldn’t be a cynical ploy to hook customers on a service they will later have to pay for, could it? Nah.
Cynthia Murrell, September 06, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Swizzling Android
September 5, 2012
When Amazon rolled out the Kindle Fire, I wondered if Amazon and Google were best pals. Amazon’s Kindle Fire worked with the Amazon download system and the programs worked on the Kindle Fire. We bought a couple of Kindle Fires and figured out that Amazon had used Android but veered into the wilds of the Amazon technical forest.
When I was in China, there were quite a few Android phones available. I had not seen most of these. I quite liked the four SIM devices which I wrote about in one of my for fee columns. (You can see most of these on my LinkedIn profile page, but you will have to go through a free registration process to see the list of write ups.)
Google has made Android open source, so variation, flavors, forks, and knock offs are part of the program. No big deal, I thought, because Google is a giant outfit, able to beat Oracle in court and stuffed with money and wizards.
Then I read “RoMOS Is Russia’s Take on Android OS, Shields Users from Google’s Prying Eyes.” Quite a headline, replete with innuendo in the phrase “Google’s prying eyes” and the SEO charged references to Russia and Android. Here’s the passage which caught my attention:
Unveiled at IFA in Berlin, the Russian Mobile Operating System or RoMOS reportedly mimics the look and feel of Android and works with Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System. The OS is scheduled to debut in tablet form by the end of the year, though RoMOS’ project manager says it can serve as a smartphone operating system, too. The main customers for RoMOS will reportedly be the country’s military, which has always had concerns about data collected by Google from Russian devices falling into US government hands.
Why not use Android and get with the Google program? My hunch is that the possibility of monitoring or some other security concern is not mere public relations baloney. Will other countries use Android in this way? Will a large US telco just follow in the footsteps of Russia and create a version of Android which is proprietary.
Walled gardens, despite the election rhetoric, are a major part of 21st century business strategy. Will these gizmos run the Android games, apps, and malware? Will these hypothetical devices connect to other networks?
One meaning of the word “fork” is “to pay.” Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, September 5, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Smartphones and Travel Plans
September 2, 2012
Many forecasters expected that widespread adoption of smartphones would lead to a boom in mobile-based travel purchases. Now, citing a new study from eMarketer, OnlineMediaDaily informs us that “Travel Research Trumps Bookings on Smartphones.” Hmm. All is not lost, though, for those who would capitalize on the confluence (Google, perhaps?) The article also tells us where and when travelers are truly relying on their phones.
It seems that folks are using their smartphones to research and plan their travel, but when it comes to purchasing, the desktop still reigns supreme. There are a couple of reasons for this. Perhaps most importantly, many people are still uncomfortable making financial transactions through thin air. The nature of travel planning also plays a part—it is more complicated than filling a virtual shopping cart and clicking “check out.”
There is financial opportunity at the other end of that first flight, however; hotels and airlines are now finding ways to capitalize on the situation. Writer Mark Walsh tells us:
“Beyond travel planning and booking, the report also looks at the role of mobile in transit and once people reach their destinations. This is where smartphones come into their own, serving as digital Swiss Army Knives for travelers eager for information about their flights, car rentals, nearby restaurants, and checking into hotels. All that activity opens up new opportunities for travel marketers.
“Almost all travelers take their mobile devices with them, and 80% said they used them all the time while away, according to a Mobile Insights study this year, cited by eMarketer.”
And that is why Google will be buying more travel content. It is not search; maybe it can be considered search and proprietary content. Whatever they call it, Google is sure to find a way to tap into this revenue stream.
Cynthia Murrell,September 02, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Watson in Your Hip Pocket: Win TV Game Shows Anywhere, Anytime
August 29, 2012
Autumn is fast approaching, and it is time for IBM to wheel out the Big Berthas of its marketing campaigns. I spotted the story “IBM Creating Pocket Sized Watson in $16 Billion Sales Push.” The headline snagged my attention. First, it pointed out that the $100 billion services giant wants to generate $16 billion more. A goal can be useful. Second, one of the products which will help blast through this sales target is Watson.
Will IBM Watson pull a rabbit from a hat or wear a hat which looks like a rabbit?
I found this passage particularly interesting:
The next version, dubbed “Watson 2.0,” would be energy- efficient enough to work on smartphones and tablets. The challenge for IBM is overcoming the technical obstacles to making Watson a handheld product, and figuring out how to price and deliver it. Watson’s nerve center is 10 racks of IBM Power750 servers running in Yorktown Heights, New York, that have the same processing power as 6,000 desktop computers. Even though most of the computations occur at the data center, a Watson smartphone application would still consume too much server power for it to be practical today.
Okay. No problem.
The fact that a noted technology expert like Ray Kurzweil is passing along public relations output which flowed from IBM to Bloomberg to Mr. Kurzweil is instructive. The Bloomberg story is “IBM Envisions Watson as a Super-Siri for Businesses.”
Several observations:
First, Watson won a game show. I questioned the credibility of a machine victory particularly when game shows are produced. The good old days of College Bowl on which I appeared in the 1960s were live. Today’s game shows are subject to lots of work by men and women in edit booths. I was okay with the stunt, but did it sell Watson? I don’t know.
Second, I called attention to IBM’s assertions that Watson would rework health care. You can find those write ups—“IBM Watson in Health Care,” “IBM Watson Still Chasing Health Care,” and “IBM Public Relations Chugs Away on Watson and Health Care”—in Beyond Search’s archive. I have lost track of Watson’s revolutionizing medicine.
Third, I have been skeptical about IBM’s claims that Watson slices, dices, and performs various works of retrieval magic in an affordable manner. The most recent analysis of Watson appears in my discussion of Watson in a monograph about open source search which is in press at this time. The full megillah will be available from IDC, the giant consulting firm, in the fall. You can get a taste of what we do at this link: LucidWorks Profile. Let me say that Fancy Dan systems are difficult to make into profitable businesses of the magnitude of IBM’s $16 billion. Autonomy was about a $1.0 billion when it was sold to Hewlett Packard. I mention this as a point of reference only.
Third, the voice search thing is viewed as one of the next big Star Trek things for big companies to do. The challenges, however, are intriguing. There is the issue of accents. There is the issue of ambient noise. There is the issue of a lousy phone due to the owner’s dropping it or spilling a smoothie on it. There is the issue of computational horsepower. There is network latency. There is confusing strings of speech which, if you consider your conversation with a colleague, is full of fits and starts and direction changes. There is the issue of lousy hardware in an automobile’s “smart” dashboard. You get the idea.
Will Watson slam dunk voice search? In demos, Watson will be impressive. In the real world, it may perform as the system did on Jeopardy.
Stephen E Arnold, August 29, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
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