What started at Web TV, now known ad MSN TV, will shut down on September 30. When you go to their website, all you get is this?ominous sign of what’s coming.
Web TV was created in 1996 by inventor and entrepreneur Steve Perlman. The next year,?Microsoft bought it for $425 million. It was renamed?MSN?TV in 2001.?Keep in mind when Web TV started, the Internet was still at it’s beginning. But in recent years, the number of users have dwindled. I think they still use the same hardware that was used back in the late ’90s. Eventually, there was an MSN TV 2 set up with greater features, but still fell on deaf eyes and ears. Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose behind Apple TV, admits Internet TV is still the same as it was 10-20 years ago.
And that’s the problem. Look at the smartphone market today. That phone you got last Christmas might be obsolete by this Christmas. Ten years ago, there was no Facebook, You Tube or Twitter. More people were going to the video store than using Netflix. Heck, 10 years ago, there were still mega record stores around because iPods were still in their infancy. I’m surprised it took Xbox this long to make an updated video system. But yet Internet TV is basically the same as it was in the late ’90s and early 2000s. What will it take for that to change?
July 1, 2013 will be the end of an era. Google Reader will shut down. For years, it’s been used for blog and?Web?sharing. It even updated your favorite sites for you. But in two days, thanks to declining use, it will be gone.
Google Reader went up in 2005. One designer called it a ‘river’ of news and other content. It eventually added features like marking and folder navigation. It went on to include You Tube videos. My favorite was the sharing feature, where readers could publish out their favorite blogs and sites to others, and vice versa. In 2008, they added a ‘Friends navigator’ to their menu. But eventually, it was too later.
I believe social media like Facebook and Twitter helped kill Google Reader. Think about it: how much news and articles do you get from your Facebook friends and Twitter followers? How much is shared on those pages? Many alternatives are offered and suggested. To many RSS is important. I don’t know what my new one is going to be, but I’ve read and heard many compliments about Feedly. It’s free, on desktops and laptops, and you can get it on smartphones and devices. While attractive, is it going to be the same? What was your favorite thing about Google Reader?
Microsoft seems to want to win people back, or should I say, get on people’s good graces again. Many experts say Windows 8 was one of the biggest flops in computer history.
Windows 8.1 is trying to make ground, and is pulling all the big guns to do so. The preview is tempting enough. With 8.1, you can run a slideshow on your lock or home screen. Imagine pictures of your big vacation, wedding, or major life moments on that. Are you a bad speller? Windows 8.1 has a keyboard that gives you spelling options. It gives you a choice of words, and you can highlight with your spacebar the words you want. It has a ‘Reading List’ formula. If you’re done with a web page, just swipe out Share charm and click Reading List. As far as music goes, I like the suggestions based on your playlist. If you like Nicky Minaj (why would you?!), and have?her on your playlist (are you crazy?!), it will suggest other artists and albums similar to Minaj’s (what a nightmare that would be!) But you get the idea.
They’re more promises. The photo app has everything from color enhance to red-eye removal. You can virtually be your own doctor with the health and fitness app, even down to the diet and exercise plan. You can learn to cook. They’ve even redone their alarms. I’m thinking of getting their chorus alarm myself.
While I’m still skeptical after their last melee, but I must say, they did a good job wetting my appetite. They’re coming up with great ways to get the public back. Do you think Windows 8.1 will be a hit or another flop?
For a while now, Facebook has been working on a service called Reader. It’s somewhat of a newspaper app for the social media world. It will publish stories and other things from users and put it in a paper style format.
If you’re familiar with Flipboard, Reader is expected to be a little like that. Flipboard, which collects news from online publishers, is getting more popular. It’s definitely more popular than the traditional newspaper. I can say that for all mobile news readers. In fact, Linkldin recently purchased news reader app Pulse for $90 million. As Linkldin and Twitter promote their news services, Flipboard has 50 million users and show no signs of slowing down. Reader’s progress has been watched closely, even by Mark Zuckerberg himself. There’s no telling when, or even if, Reader will be released. Nobody on Facebook is talking.
Remember when I reported about a Facebook phone few people are getting excited about? Well, I have a feeling Reader might be a different response. If they come up with Reader, make sure the articles that are published are true! I’m tired of reading phony Facebook post like Bill Cosby’s 83 and Tired false rant. I’m tired of reading post where celebrities die and miraculously, they’re walking down Rodeo Drive the next day. So Facebook Reader, make sure your stories are true and your sources are credible. If they can remember that, I predict Reader will be a great success for Facebook. I see why Pulse is being sought after. I see why news reader apps are doing so well. I read a statistic from September 2012 saying 60% of the public distrust the mainstream media. I myself get my news from alternative media (RT, NPR, You Tube bloggers). Facebook Reader could have quite the market. Which would you rather read/watch: a news reader or a mainstream media news hour?
Over the past year, CEO?Marissa Meyer has added a lot to Yahoo since last year. But she also subtracted quite a bit: like jobs. During her tenure, about 1,000 of them have been cut.
She’s done it so cool and quietly. And?did it the way it should be: through job performance management and through more frequent reviews. Employees used to get reviewed every year; now, it’s every quarter. In July 2012, when Meyer became CEO, Yahoo had 15,000 employees. That’s not including the thousands of temps coming and going. Instead of gathering thousands and telling them, “You’re fired!” like Donald Trump, or Vince McMahon (how cool would that be?), she cut the jobs few at a?time, kind of like an potter slowly cutting off the excess clay.
This could have had very negative results. This could have put people on such edge morale could have plummeted. This could have led to poorer work, with people saying, “Well, she’s going to fire me anyway, so why bother?” This could have even led to a revolt or strike. But instead, it had a very positive effect. Morale has shot up. Now why is that? Maybe the people that were let go were bringing everyone else down, professionally and personally. Maybe letting these people put others on notice, making them as the Nat King Cole song said, ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’. Maybe this made everyone better. What lessons could we learn from a story like this?
Ever hear of Fab? It’s a retail store site where you can get lots of alternative stuff. I get a lot of artwork, like this cool bull’s head (don’t worry animal lovers, it’s just a piece of art, not a real bull) off Fab. I even got an old school record player there. You can even get food and clothes from Fab. It turns out Fab is getting something too, and I’m not talking business from the consumer.
Fab announced it raised an additional $150 million, bringing investments?over $300 million. Even before these investments, Fab was worth over a billion dollars. And the Fab spokesperson expects more investments to come. Who is making the investment? One player is Tencent, China’s largest Internet portal. Tencent owns online messaging, gaming outlets, and a whole hosts of other Internet services. ?As of January 2013, Tencent has around 800 million users. Another cast member is the Japanese trading company Itochu. Many car companies and the food company Dole have their hand in Itochu. Andreessen Horowitz and Atomico are also involved. An obvious reason Tencent will play as a great investor is because it will open door to reach Chinese consumers. Fab CEO Jason Goldberg says it will help bring customers around the world.
But is this too much? I agree, any business needs investors in order to survive, much less thrive. Many believe Fab is growing too fast and raising too much money. But I always thought investors would reserve this kind of help if businesses were in trouble. According to Fab’s own website, in it’s 2-year existence, it has more than 11 million in 26 countries, grew 5 times over in 2012, and has won many an award. Does this sound like a business in trouble? It doesn’t to me. Then why does Fab need to raise all this money in a short time? Goldberg says it’s for improvements and expansions. But can’t he use his own capitol for that? By giving a successful company all this money, what about those companies that are struggling? Do we just let them die a slow death?? That’s my concern. But what’s yours? Do you give a successful young company more money for better success, or should we give it to a small business that just needs that extra financial push?
