5 posts tagged “bill gates”
I love it when the mainstream media, also known as the MSM on the net, finally grasps a concept that I have known in my professional, my academic research, and my professional research: convergence has not only linked the world it has transformed the world. The United States literally went wild this year with the introduction of the iPhone, the iTouch iPod, the classic iPod, Google Apps, the Wii and new marriages of Digg and Facebook with Microsoft. In fact, the iPhone was named the invention of the year by Time Magazine as the first massively adopted convergence device that has an ease of use and innovative features like touch screens, iTunes and You Tube with the Mac interface. A report by the USA Today demonstrates the power of convergence worldwide, and how it has already conquered Japan and people are turning to handhelds like smartphones, handheld media devices like the iPod, gaming devices, and cell phones instead of personal computers.
Experts like Tapscott & Williams, (2006); Steve Jobs, (2007); Bill Gates, (2007); Marc Prensky, (2006); Henry Jenkins (2006); James Paul Gee, (2003, 2004, 2005); and others have been predicted the convergence avalanche. The recent development of the Internet, the iPod, the personal computer, and web-based tools like You Tube and Facebook into single convergence devices that can held in one's hand is the clearly the future of entertainment, learning, government, commerce, home, and work in one device with a quality web camera and video camera with note taking and large memory capacity (Gates, 2007; Jobs, 2007; Pavlik, 2000; Tapscott & Williams, 2006).
The personal nature of cell phones has now extended past the traditional web experience provided by the personal computer. Personal computers, like laptops, are portable, but lack the personal portability and the ability to make calls on the run. Increasingly, our cell phones are becoming portable handheld electronic extensions of our minds, our personalities and our core beliefs and values. McLuhan (1967, 1968) suggested that would occur in the 1960's that we would live in a connected electronic global village and that the medium would be the message.
To be sure, we are moving closer to Star Trek than any of us ever could have imagined more rapidly than most people could have ever thought.
Here is the USA Today article below.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/computing/2007-11-04-japanpcs_N.htm?csp=Tech
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Publisher & Executive Producer
The cloud based iPhone with cellular service would be a blow to telecomms, who definitely want to control the web, because the iPhone would be an open phone and allow Apple to be independent since Microsoft has said its not bidding on spectrum space so that means that Microsoft will be working with the telecomms and cable firms. Apple should allow third party applications and reserve the right to approve them all just like Facebook does and end this stupid cat and mouse game. This is wasted energy. Apple has been in the phone business for less than six months and is acting worse than Microsoft and the worst telecomm over opened iPhones. The deal with AT&T has helped AT&T with its horrible EDGE service and Apple is getting its image killed trying to battle their own customers just like the music and video industries. Now isn't that ironic, Apple the maverick pro-consumer brand is acting totally corporate? I am an Apple fan but you cannot make this stuff up, its real. Apple needs to modify that deal or prepare for the day that deal ends quickly because Apple needs a 3G phone and it needs a better network.
Besides let AT&T enforce the open phone issue. It's their phone lines they know what people are doing and they should kill phone service of people who decide to go open or dare I say sue. Obviously, if a phone goes open, the other telecomms could kill the iPhone on its line. There are only two companies left how hard could it be. However, this issue points out how important it is for Carter Rules to be extended to cell phones so that the US can join the rest of the world with open phones and cheaper prices and more access. For readers who do not know the Carter Rules forced phone companies to allow people to buy their own home phones or opened phones from non-AT&T approved manufacturers before the split of AT&T in 1984 when everyone paid monthly fees for phones I know it sounds so 20th Century but this is how it was until a manufactured sued after the phone companies used the same excuse the Apple and many telecomms used about the device being bad for the network. Ha! The courts did not buy this line then and people are not buying it now and Apple needs to stop carrying water for AT&T, who I actually like better now, Apple is just a manufacturer. You don't see Research in Motion, Motorola or even Nokia doing this with their popular lines of phones like the Blackberry, the Razr or the Nseries. Apple needs to tell AT&T that this issue is hurting Apple and will hurt sales for everyone and take AT&T to court eventually while developing a truly open 3G phone. Apple was right to want control over its phones the telecomms do not make phones and should not be allowed to dictate any more to consumers with closed phones which are not legal in most European nations. Can the US please get with it, do you know we are barely in the top twenty as far as being fully digitally connected and we do not have HD yet either? South Korea is number one if you are interested,
AppleTv has not sold well because the HD, storage capacity and DVR capabilities have not been exploited full by Apple and it has not been marketed properly either. In fact, there are three companies who are actually in business to exploit these three features, and at least one the companies is in Northern California, A social network would ber a perfect place for Apple to market its devices, its brands and its services. The social network could be called the iTunes Network and it could use cloud based applications of iMovie,iChat, iPhoto and Garageband for short clips to get people to buy more Macs. AppleTv would be the Tv network online that shows continues shows with ads included in them with hosts and Apple could also develop original content of its own so that this could turn into an online television network of its own for professional content providers, up and coming content providers, and consumer generated content. Apple's logical partner would be Google because Google can sell all of the advertisements and push its search and YouTube brands. Besides the GoogleTV brand has not set the world on fire and it could benefit as the for-profit version of YouTube where legal user generated content could be sold or rented. If Apple gets these things rolling it can also get its on-demand movie rental service and its movie download business a boost by having independent, old and some features as advertiser based movies.
Apple could then create a mobi-version of this network for iPhones for people on the go that could run through the iTunes Network and AppleTv. However, the real coup for AppleTv would be when AppleTv ran iTunesU programming through televisions for students and professors with ads attached as billboards, icons throughout like soccer games or through straight up advertising and allow the school to choose the advertising as a revenue generator. Naturally, all of this programming would run through the iTunesStore and the iTunesNetwork and AppleTv. Finally, Apple needs to invest in the spectrum with Google and get its own space on line and partner with Cisco, its iPhone partner, and Intel on creating the cloud based system. Quest, which need a partner any partner to be relevant after being dissed by the government and other telecomms for not working with the government on domestic spying, could be its telecom partner for billing purposes if it decides to enter the residential or corporate side for its computer sales, future iPods with limited calling and iPhones.
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Editor
I know I have said a lot but I think Ballmer, Gates and Microsoft is a company to seriously look at investing some cash in because they have done all of these things, and they are investing in the touch based and voice based technologies that will bring people with disabilites into the mainstream through the Internet and portable devices. All you need to do is look at the Surface and the new Zune and see that Microsoft is gradually building the momentum, spending the money, and most importantly borrowing innovation and inspiration from its Xbox unit which has spurred a think different mentality within the software giant. Xbox could transform into two units if Bill Gates has his way. One unit will be the purely entertainment side that is tremendously successful; however, I believe based on my own research that the new unit could dwarf the entertainment unit. What is the new unit you ask? The new unit would be the edutainment unit which would create serious games to teach students at every academic level courses, theories, research and streamed classes too just like iTunesU and now You Tube. Most universities have Microsoft technology and Microsoft could pair gamers, media production experts, game designers, professors, and administrators together to produce a series of interactive educational games, video, audio, assessment tools to measure student achievement online, and actual classes from universities that could be downloaded or streamed. Microsoft's version of the Alexandria Library project could give Google a run for its money if Microsoft committed its money and will to such a project. Since K-12 education is mandatory, and college is becoming almost mandatory for most people in the digital age, I would think Microsoft would have the influence, the money, and the synergy to create XboxU, XboxEdutainment, XboxSearch, XboxMedia, XboxTesting and XboxNet which could be the network that embeds adds and links into these products in exchange for free or low cost projects. Especially now that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working to bring technology and education together through schools in our major cities. This can help end the digital divide! Remember Bill Gates in the presence of Steve Jobs said that now technology can finally do something for education. Bill and Steve, if you like these ideas give me a shout, this soon to be PhD is just suggesting the tip of the iceberg. I dare you! On a serious note you can see the foundation for Microsoft of the future has already been laid and this software company has become a software company, a device maker, an entertainment company, and now it is becoming a social networking company, an educational research company, an educational publisher, an edutainment company, and an advertising company. If Microsoft doesn't watch out it could become an online television network which is what Apple is going to have to do to get AppleTv rolling. Remember, I own a Mac and iPods and favor Final Pro Cut for editing my productions over Avid, but I still own a PC and a Windows Media based phone and will keep it when I get my iPhone. The future will connect for Microsoft because its advertising, advertising, and advertising to steal a phrase from Ballmer. I hope you liked this mini-series of posts. That is what I think what do you think?