Black Friday and the holiday shopping season can bring out the worst in people. From forcing people to work on Thanksgiving, to trampling each other for that Xbox or iPod, the holidays can be more about selfishness than giving. Apple is trying to change that.
Starting today and going through December 7, Apple will donate all proceeds from the purchase of 25 RED based apps. These apps range from Angry Birds to Farmville 2. Proceeds will go to RED, a charity started by U2 lead singer Bono in 2006 to combat, and eventually eliminate, the spread of HIV/AIDS. On December 1, World Aids Day, Apple will donate a percentage of all App store and online purchases to RED. And during Black Friday, a day when many will literally be fighting over the next big toy or gadget, physical and online Apple stores will offer customers buying certain Apple products (I don’t know what products they are) a RED gift card. Portions of this gift card will go to the Global Fund. The Global Fund aims to give antiretroviral treatments to AIDS patients throughout Africa, the continent hardest hit by the epidemic. Deborah Dugan, CEO of RED, hopes that Apple’s involvement will encourage other major corporations to step up.
While this is part of Apple’s push to step up it’s image, I enjoy reading stories like this. That’s why I’m talking about it now. I read so much about what’s wrong with this time of year that I don’t care what Apple’s reason is for their contribution to RED/Global Fund. I’m just glad it’s happening. I hope other technological companies, and other companies in general follow suit in the next 32 days, not just to this issue, but other social ills facing our world. Many corporations generally don’t have a good reputation today. So to see them rolling their sleeves to combat homelessness, AIDS, cancer, poverty, and other ills will make them look a lot better. Plus, it’s just the right thing to do. Not just this time of year, but all times of year. ?What would it look like if all corporations did their part this holiday season?
Yesterday, I blogged about the controversy Uber is in, thanks largely to Business Senior Vice President Emil Michael. Now Congress, including a very prominent US Senator, is getting involved.
The controversy started when VP Michael suggested the media investigate and dig up dirt on a journalist who criticized Uber on her blog. Though this conversation was supposed to be confidential, it leaked out anyway. Mr. Michael apologized for these comments, but that didn’t stop US Senator Al Franken from writing a letter to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, questioning Uber’s privacy policies. But it’s not just this incident that concerns Senator Franken, who is also Chairman of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. At the infamous dinner party was Uber spokesperson Nairi Hourdajian, who told Michael that such acts would violate Uber’s policies. In a blog yesterday, Nairi Hondajian revealed Uber can access taxi driver and rider data for ‘limited business purposes’, but Senator Franken says the limits weren’t fully described. The Senator checked Uber’s policy on their website, and discovered this policy doesn’t match the policy stated after Mr. Micheal’s slip up. The Senator is troubled by reports of incidents Uber tracking customers. There’s the incident where an employee admitted to using a program called ‘God’s View’ to track a journalist without the journalist’s knowledge or approval. Senator Franken ended the letter with 10 questions for CEO Kalanick to answer and reply to no later than December 15, 2014.
Just when you thought Uber couldn’t get in anymore hot water, now they have one of the most powerful senators in America and his subcommittee to answer to. If these incidents are true, I’m glad Senator Franken is stepping up. Privacy issues have been on the technology forefront for several years now. And it often seems like major corporations have the upper hand. It’s good to have a man in the Senate representing the concerns of many people. If I were CEO Kalanick, I’d get back to Senator Franken before December 15. Could this public relations nightmare get anymore terrifying?
Uber is trying to revolutionize the taxi cab industry, whether the industry wants it or not. Despite the protest from taxi companies worldwide, Uber is facing it’s worst enemy: itself.
Their take no prisoners, super aggressive anything goes attitude are turning off investors, employees and even customers. Earlier this week, technology blog Buzzfeed discovered a top Uber executive proposed the idea of investigating and publicly trash journalists who criticize them. The executive, Uber’s senior business vice-president Emil Michael, said he thought such comments were off record, but did apologize for them and insisted they didn’t reflect Uber whatsoever. This slip up comes around a time when CEO Travis Kalanick is running a media charm offensive, especially in New York City. But there was a fancy dinner in the same city. This dinner included a Buzzfeed editor, journalist Michael Wolff, as well as Mr. Michael and Mr. Kalanick. It was at this dinner where Emil Michael suggested hiring researchers and journalists to fight back against members of the press saying negative things against Uber. There were speculations of looking into their professional and personal lives. Much of the fury was directed at Sarah Lacy, editor of tech website Pondo Daily. In an article, with some colorful language, Ms. Lacy accused Uber of sexism, arrogance, and poor treatment of their employees. Mr. Michael became so outraged at the article he started plotting revenge.
I’m glad they didn’t. Going the revenge route wouldn’t have helped Uber, instead, it would have made things worse. What I would like to see is Emil Michael and Sarah Lacy have a meeting, say over a lunch or dinner, with online bloggers and journalist present, to air their differences and come to some understanding. From a humanitarian public relations standpoint, this would be good for everybody. If you were an Uber exec, or if you were Sarah Lacy, how would you handle this situation? Is Uber under fire?
There is a 13-year-old eighth grader named Shubham Banerjee. He’s by no means the average junior high kid. In fact, he’s the toast of Silicon Valley and the technology world.
Banerjee makes history as the youngest entrepreneur to get approval for venture capital funding.? He’s based out of San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley. Semiconductor giant Intel, based out of nearby Santa Clara,? presented a generous fund to Banerjee to help him develop a Braille friendly printer, and an inexpensive one. It bothered the teen that printers for the blind can easily run $2,000. With his parents’ financial and moral blessing, he began playing with Legos to come up with his own Braille printer. Before long, his printer was winning him science fair contests. A couple of months ago he was at an Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco displaying his printer under corporate name Braigo Labs. There, he was told Intel would give Braigo Labs venture funding for his printer development. Shubham Banerjee is a minor, so his mother is president of Braigo Labs. With this undisclosed amount of money provided by Intel, Banerjee plans to improve his printer and come up with other prototypes to improve quality of life for the visually impaired. His Braille friendly printer is expected to cost between $350-500, a fraction of what they already cost. There’s no release date on Braigo Labs’ printer.
But I am looking forward to Braigo Labs’ printer debut. I hope it does really well. My hat goes off to this kid. My hat goes off to Intel and others in Silicon Valley who believes in his dream and supports him, and his parents for encouraging him. On a news show this morning, he says he’s far from done and they’ll be more prototypes to come. What would you like to see come from Shubham Banerjee’s Braigo Labs?
Apple is building an engineering in Seattle. Does that sound like nothing? Keep in mind what company Seattle is the home of.
Seattle is home to Apple’s biggest rival, Microsoft. This is their first engineering office in the northwest. They’re moving there because of the area’s booming software engineering talent and online infrastructure. It seems to be a strategic move to improve cloud technology, which is built in Seattle. In fact, the meat of this Seattle Apple office is going to be a group of engineers who worked at a cloud company called Union Bay Networks. Most Union Bay employees are now calling themselves Apple employees. Did Apple outright buy Union Bay? Everyone’s keeping tight lip about that one. Apple’s not the only one settling in Seattle. Tech companies from Google to Facebook either have or are in the process of setting up engineering offices there because of the talent pool the northwest offers.
Many are welcoming this move, as technical companies bring in jobs and revenue. A high ranking official of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says this is great. Well, competition has always been great for business. Now it’s going to be great for one US metro area. I certainly hope all this cloud improvement competition actually improves the cloud. But Seattle isn’t the only place in the US where great engineering talent is growing. What other cities can Apple, Microsoft and other major tech companies move to?
*Update: As it turns out, Christian Bale will not be playing Steve Jobs in the new movie coming out, as was blogged about last week. Sources say Bale felt he just wasn’t right for the role. But Seth Rogen’s name has been thrown around to take the role of Apple co-founder Steve Woziniak. Who will be the best actor to play Steve Jobs?
Hey techies, it’s Halloween time and if you haven’t gotten your Halloween costumes yet, we have a few suggestions for you.
10. Steve Urkel: This 1990s icon is the stereotypical epitome of the geek. But glasses, suspenders, and hitched up pants are all you need to pull it off. Eventually, Urkel got the girl, so there’s hope for all of us.
9. Astronaut: Technology and the space age has gone hand in hand since the 1950s. To enhance the costume, carry Tang around. See if anybody under age 30 understands.
8. Any Big Bang Theory Character: You can get Sheldon’s ‘Great American Hero’ T-shirt online for around $25. That t-shirt alone should be a clear giveaway. The Periodic table t-shirt works well too.
7. Neo from Matrix: This Matrix leader’s costume is fairly simple. Dress in all black, including the glasses and long coat, and a belt with toy weapons would make a great touch. As far as those cool moves and the blue pill vs. red pill, we can’t help you with that.
6. Dr. Who: A staple of pop culture for over 50 years, a suit, bow tie, and British accent should pull it off. Maybe this one’s a little too easy.
5. Any Robot: A few famous ones like Robocop, Transformers, and Wall-E come to mind. Who remembers the 1980s TV sitcom Small Wonder? Again, see if anybody under 30 will get it.
4. A Walking Computer: This takes a lot of effort to pull of, but from costume contests I’ve attended in years past, it’s well worth it.
3. Aliens: Again, you can go anywhere with this. Go as an X-Files alien. Go as the alien that terrorized Sigourney Weaver. Go as Marvin the Martian on Bugs Bunny. But my favorite alien is The Twilight Zone’s ‘To Serve Man. “It’s a cookbook!”
2. Any Star Wars character: This doesn’t need to be explained. We all get it.
1.? Any Star Trek character: Bring the next Star Trek convention to your Halloween party or trick or treat venture. Come on, you know you want to. This is the time a year you unleash your inner Star Trek without being considered…well… a geek.
