The Edgy Entrepreneur

iPhone Beats Droid, Nexus One And Droid Eris In Touchscreen Performance

not all touch-screens are created equal. And that the iPhone’s screen performs slightly better than that of its rivals.

via www.techcrunch.com

I heart my iPhone...

The tipping has really already started – The Shatzkin Files

So I awoke this morning to get the news in my mailbox that Simon & Schuster has redesigned its sales coverage to be “more phone”. Cheaper. Less overhead. But also (likely) less effective and (certainly) less differentiated from what any small publisher based anywhere can do.

via www.idealog.com

Simon and Schuster redesigns sales coverage to be more "phone" oriented? I can't imagine how that will be more successful.

Seesmic Blog: We've acquired Ping.fm. Get ready to update 50 social networks from Seesmic

Your friends are not all in one social network, but we want to help you stay in touch with them anytime and from any device. That is Seesmic's vision and to deliver this faster, we have acquired Ping.fm. You can now update 50 social networks using Seesmic+Ping.fm from email, chat, sms, Blackberry, Android, web, Windows, OSX and much more soon.

via blog.seesmic.com

This is an awesome move for both Seesmic and Ping.fm. I am a big supporter of both and think consolidation of networks is the theme of 2010.

check-expectations-for-apples-tablet-at-the-door: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Tech's chattering classes are obsessed with the unconfirmed product, which Apple (AAPL) may announce at an event in January, or February, or March, depending on which set of reports you adhere to. Apple, not surprisingly, is mum.

via finance.yahoo.com

The possibilities for Apple's tablet are exciting...particularly if it makes reading digital material as pleasurable (or close to) as reading a traditional book.

Social Media Today | 7 Social Media and Web Analytics Predictions for 2010

I don’t want or need to repeat what a lot of others are predicting – go look to Emarketer or Forrester if you want to get overall trends – I’m into telling you what I am pretty certain will happen in 2010 because I have touched the data.

via www.socialmediatoday.com

Enhanced Digital Books Kick eBooks Ass

Anyone who thinks ebooks are the wave of the future is probably listening to 8 track tapes and watching lava lamps. The future is dominated by souped up hot rods of digital publishing that barely resemble their cousin the ebook. These "digibooks" are full of live links, videos, javascript animations...you name it.

"Books" will be connected to authors, retailers and publishers in ways never thought possible. Ultimately, this brings the reader/consumer tons of added value and greater engagement. This article is a great example of just such a program called "Vook". For the companion digital publishing vlog post, head over to my day job at Cool Springs Press and see what I have to say.

Here's an excerpt about "Vooks"...follow the link below to see more of the story at the NY Times.

Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, calls this digital amalgam a “Vook,” (vook.tv) and the fledgling company he has created with that name just might represent a possible future for the beleaguered book industry.

via www.nytimes.com

The Future of Social Media is Mobile

THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IS MOBILE: There, I've said it. Remember this post at the end of next year. I have been doing some reading and reminiscing about the past year in social media and social networking. And while there are still a fair number of Negative Nelly's who insist that Twitter is a waste of time, those who are GenY marketing-savvy see the potential for creatively engaging a new generation of communicators. (Tune in to the sister video post on this topic at my day job: Cool Springs Press: The Future of Social Media).

The strength of social media, particularly as it relates to marketing, is that messaging can be very specific and the target market drill down can be microscopic. Which makes it the perfect channel for mobile marketing...something that I am predicting will explode next year.

Previous mobile marketing attempts have had limited success, primarily because it has been little more than push messaging via texting. The payoff is in specials, deals, etc...which is important to customers. But discounts are not sufficient motivation to grab the attention of consumers who are receiving thousands of messages like that over the course of a day.

The task is to differentiate your products and prices from all of the others...and the best way to do that is to create relationships with your customers. Brand recognition and loyalty is best built via word of mouth and testimonial. Social Media is by its nature relational and to a high degree, personal. Conceptually, it just makes sense that mobile devices would be a great platform for fostering affiliations with customers.

As always, the key will be to offer valuable content in the course of marketing outreach. And this content will be easier to deliver as new phone have faster download and bigger memories. This new generation of mobile marketing will continue to move us toward a model of building richer, more engaging models of customer care. A trend that I eagerly embrace.

Baker & Taylor has the next big thing in ebooks. Really! – The Shatzkin Files

On January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, K-NFB  will unveil a new “reading technology.” We in the book business will get to know it as a proprietary ebook platform from Baker & Taylor that has capabilities nothing presented previously can match.

via www.idealog.com

Very exciting new publishing platform...can't wait to see it!

The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte

October 24th, 2009This Week In Google 13: This Is The Droid You're Looking ForDanny Sullivan from Search Engine Land joins us to talk about Google's social search, Jeff Jarvis invents Howard Stern 3.0, and Gina Trapani sorts by magic.

via twit.tv

Love finding new social media podcasts. Haven't listened to this yet, but looking forward to it...

After social networks, what next? | Media | guardian.co.uk

via www.guardian.co.uk

Have we peaked in the evolution of social networks/social media? This article picks up a couple of my favorite forecasts for the future of communications: mobile web access and content filtering.

I also think the next stage of evolution is integration of multiple social media platforms with email and IM. If TypePad and Google Wave could combine features, it would likely be the most amazing product anywhere.