For many sports fans, it’s the most wonderful time of the year: the beginning of the NFL football season. You’ll be seeing new things on the sidelines this season, and I’m not talking about a new Washington Redskins mascot.
Starting this season, NFL teams will use tablets and a digital video system to study opponents. If successful, this will replace printed photos. It’s called the Sideline Viewing System and it’s an alliance between Microsoft and the NFL. These tablets are the first time players and coaches are using computer technology devices for football purposes. The Sideline Viewing System will make it’s debut tonight, August 3, 2014, at the Hall of Fame game between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills. Let’s look at how teams used to study fields and opponents:? There were printed photographs to learn how opponents set up defenses before the offense snapped the ball. Then coaches used Polaroid shots. And in recent years, they used faxes and fiber optics.
It’s going to be interesting to see teams study tablets. But one thing I’m worried about is security, equality, and integrity of the game. Apparently, they have that covered too. Each team will get equal amount of Microsoft Surface tablets. These tablets are owned by the NFL. They will be locked up between games to prevent any fraud, cheating or manipulation. Well, that’s a good start. But what about hacking? I can picture someone hiring a hacker to break into an opponent’s tablets, stealing all their information and using it against them. What’s going to stop that? I guess we’ll see. Are these tablets the perfect marriage between sports and technology? Or is this just a scandal waiting to happen?
Comcast is the largest and most respected cable provider, Internet service provider, and one of the biggest telephone service providers in the world. Despite all these accomplishments, Comcast is one of the most hated companies today, and a customer service episode doesn’t help matters much.
Controversy and fallout continue after an embarrassing service call. A customer named Ryan Block calls to cancel his Comcast service. Instead of complying with Block’s wants, the Comcast rep demands, borderline bullies Block, for an explanation. The conversation leaks into social media and becomes a national headline. Now, COO Dave Watson has gotten involved, posting a heart felt letter on the company website. Mr. Watson says he’s embarrassed by the call, he also says the rep was trained to save customers anyway he/she can. He admits the rep fell short in respecting the customer. Mr. Watson vows in the statement to review and refresh training programs and to better reward customers about doing the right thing.
I hope COO Dave Watson means what he says, and this isn’t some temporary band-aid until the media stops focusing on this. I understand business is business and the goal is to get and keep customers. But respecting customers’ rights and wishes should take precedent over that. Plus, Comcast is the biggest telecommunications company in the world. They even own NBC, several cable channels, Universal studios, and trying to get Time Warner. Why were they so worried about one consumer? They’ll probably get at least 10 more before the rep’s shift is over that day. Their customer relations reputation isn’t that good, but they’re too big to fail. That’s why I cringe when I hear the word merger. Companies get so big they don’t have to care. There’s another lesson here. Be careful of how you talk to your customers. In this era of sophisticated technology, your conversation can get leaked and played all over the world, especially if it’s a bad one. Then what? What other lessons can be learned here?
What will you watch on Netflix today? Will it be Leprechaun 3? Or maybe Silent Night Deadly Night 2? Or how about Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman? The next day, you’re too embarrassed to let anyone known you’ve indulged in this guilty pleasure. Netflix may be able to help your dilemma.
Netflix is now testing a private viewing mode. Any bad movie or TV show you choose won’t appear in your activity log. It won’t even give you recommendations to watch in the future. The feature is being tested in markets everywhere, and tests are expected to continue through several months. But don’t binge on bad movies and terrible TV just yet: these are just tests and by the end of it all, the feature may not even be offered at all.
Personally, I hope this is. Picture this scenario: I invite friends over for movie night, or to watch a major TV show premier or finale. As I’m uploading on Netflix, the movie Showgirls shows up on my big screen, or episodes of The Jerry Springer Show come on the screen. Whoops! I guess I better not binge on Dolomite and Blackula yet. I’m telling on myself way too much, aren’t I?
In nine years, YouTube went from an start-up website of sharing videos to being the king of online viewership in the world. And they’re not stopping there.
At a meeting at YouTube headquarters, they’re coming up with ways to make You Tube more creative. Under YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, tools are being created in hopes of a better YouTube site and reach a wider audience (if that’s even possible). Let’s look at some of these new tools. The Creator Studio will help producers analyze and and manage their videos. The library sound effects will give video producers freedom to add cool special effects, royalty free, without the copyright police bearing down. Creator credits give your collaborators credit and possibly spin off another channel. And they plan to replace annotations with cards.
But the one that caught my eye is fan funding. Like Kickstarter, this app that allows people to donate to your YouTube video, project or cause. I want to believe this will be a great way to help struggling video producers get off the ground. This could fund someone’s dream of being the next YouTube star. I fear this could be take advantage of. But I’m liking all these changes. Most you have to wait for, but some are already running. Creator Studio is already available on Android, and coming out on Apple. Why they wouldn’t be released on both at the same time is beyond me. Do these changes make you want to watch more YouTube, or make videos through this medium?
The traditional book industry is in trouble, due to consumers’ technological changing habits. In 2009, book giant Barnes & Noble came up with Nook, an e-book device to compete with Amazon Kindle and others. It doesn’t seem to be working.
That’s why Barnes & Noble wants to split up with it’s child company Nook. The separation is expected to be complete in early 2015. They say Nook has about ran it’s course. In the last quarter, Barnes & Noble book, magazine and coffee sales increased nearly two percent. In the same quarter, Nook sales fell nearly two percent. Back in August 2013, they called for a Nook separation. In fact, rumbling started even before that. Nook was only created in 2009. Willie Lynch, Barnes and Noble CEO, who was a strong Nook advocate, resigned in January 2014.
I think this is a bad move on the part of Barnes and Nobles. The e-book craze is going nowhere but up. So why kick Nook out the door now? Just because you had a bad quarter? I can see if sales were down 20% or even 10%. But a 1.8% drop in one quarter tells me there is hope for Nook. Word on the web is they’ve invested in educational tools and toys. Why can’t they invest in Nook? Let’s say they separate Nook from Barnes. Let’s say Nook takes off and does extremely well. Barnes and Noble will be kicking themselves and rightfully so. What if other computer tech giants threw their creations away before they took off?
Ever been to a website, whether it’s a social media site, news site, or any other, and you just couldn’t leave? Yahoo wants to be that kind of website.
And they’re taking creative steps to make that happen. Under the leadership of CEO Marissa Meyer, Yahoo is creating digital magazines. They’ve already hired journalism legend Katie Couric to produce informative videos for Yahoo News. They have fashion cosmetics guru Bobbi Brown for Yahoo Beauty. They’ve also brought on best selling technology author David Pogue and Elle Magazine creative director Joe Zee. Last month, Yahoo Tech won over 9 million new visitors. Yahoo Food is calling on all aspects of food and drink, form Klondike bars to making the best cocktails.
This is another way for Yahoo to continue it’s comeback. And it looks to me they’re off to a good start. I like the way they’re bringing in the celebrities and top experts to launch and improve these various news magazines. But celebrity should be only part of it. I’d like to see regular people put up videos of their favorite food or beauty product, or debate the latest news topic or which tech product is best. Make a dialogue for all people, not just a select few. I hope this works for their sake. Meyer and company shelled out scores of millions. Is this gamble worth it?
