Since 1957, a committee has chosen which extraordinary Americans will be put on US Postal stamps. This committee of Americans decided to add a tech legend to that list.
Beginning in 2015, former Apple co-founder, CEO and computer innovator Steve Jobs will be on US stamps, according to the Washington Post. He’ll be in a good class: late night TV legend Johnny Carson, rock&roll legend Jimi Hendrix and California politician/gay rights activist Harvey Milk will make the 2015 postal stamp class. They’re even bringing Elvis’ 1993 stamp back. Just think, you can celebrate this occasion by blasting Hendrix or Elvis tunes on your iPod, or watch Johnny Carson classics on your iPad.
The US Post office is doing this to boost first class mail sales, which has been tanking for years. How ironic one of the guys responsible for this downtown is being honored by that same business in hopes of increasing that business? You have to be deceased to get a stamp. Jobs has only been dead 3 years. Carson passed away in 20005. Hendrix, Elvis and Milk left this Earth in the 1970s. If I’m not mistaken, this is the quickest any departed American icon has made it to a stamp. And why not? This man gave us the Macintosh, popularizing the home computer. He gave us the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and many technical advances in between. He may not have invented these modern day devices, but he sure made them better. But will Steve Job stamps boost first class postal sales?
In the last 24 hours, we’ve learned Facebook acquired What’s App for $16 billion. What is What’s App? What does it mean for the two social media giants? What does this mean for you and me?
What’s App is the premier instant messaging app for smartphones. You can send videos, audio, and even maps between phones. It was founded in 2009. By the end of 2013, there were approximately 400 million What’s App users a month. And there are only 32 engineers on What’s App who manage the activity of all these users. The number of users have doubled in less than a year. Maybe that’s why Facebook is so excited about this acquisition.
Also, it’s important to remember What’s App hardly spends a dime, if at all, on advertising and marketing. I learned about it through a friend, and they’re advertising is mostly by word of mouth. Facebook’s bread and butter comes from major advertising. So I don’t know how that’s going to work. But Facebook has been acquiring quite a few companies as of late. Zuckerberg insists Facebook and What’s App are perfect partners. I think the potential is there. But my fear is Facebook is going to change What’s App to what they think it should be. Mr. Zuckerberg, I understand you want to grow your company and I applaud that. But could you please leave What’s App the way it is? It’s working just fine on it’s own thank you very much!
Silicon Valley has become iconic for the many Internet and tech companies that are there. It’s a region in Central California south of San Francisco/Oakland that all of us in the industry owe a debt to. But that might be changing.
Due to the long commutes home, and the not so good public transportation in Silicon Valley, some are proposing Silicon Valley be moved to Oakland. You see, many employees live in San Francisco and some companies are settling there. But keep in mind it’s one of the most expensive cities in the US, and that will start more problems. But Oakland is cheaper and public transportation is better. Oakland is also offering tax breaks. I know, when people think of Oakland, they think of poverty, crime, gang banging, prostitution/pimping, and no opportunities. It was voted one of the toughest cities in the USA. But I see an opportunity here.
If Silicon Valley moves to Oakland, this could change the city’s reputation. I’m sure there are a lot of boarded up buildings that could be turned into gold mines of tech offices. It will be an easy commute between Oakland and San Francisco, the kind of commute not needed with a car. And there are some things Oakland can offer, like Jack London Square and the infamous Raiders. But most of all, these tech companies can tap into Oakland’s untapped reservoir: the youth of that city. There is so much potential there. Push the education system to give them a tech based quality education. Hire high school and college kids for lower entry level work, and turn them on. Offer field trips to these headquarters for younger kids. Teach and hire these kids to these corporations. It won’t happen overnight, but this can be good for everyone involved. Will this work?
The business and technical world got a lot shorter thanks to a major merger. Cable giant Comcast has agreed to buy cable giant Time Warner.
This move will merge the two largest cable companies in America into one powerhouse! This deal will cost Comcast over $45 billion in cash and stock. Time Warner has been on the selling block for months. Comcast’s offer beat out Charter Communications and billionaire John Malone. This merger brings Comcast 11 million more cable subscribers. They will? now virtually own the New York City cable market.
Am I the only one who worries about what this could lead to? Am I the only one that worries about a monopoly? Comcast has purchased over $65 billion in acquisitions since 2004, one of them being $16 billion dollars for NBC Universal. Of course, that $65 billion doesn’t include this latest Time Warner deal, scheduled to become official later this year. Now sure, this might save a few jobs in the short term, or save an entire company in the short term. But what around the long term? What about when cable bills go sky high and there’s nothing the consumer can do because there’s no competition? What about if a small company wants to get started but are shut down by he big boys immediately? What are some of the positive aspects of Comcast buying Time Warner, if there are any?
Just 24 hours after Microsoft announced their CEO, Google announced it’s new YouTube leader. She will replace it’s current boss Salar Kamanger, whose held the position since 2010, and is now off to other Google ventures.
The new You Tube boss is Susan Wojcicki. She was one of the first Google employees, even had the headquarters in her own garage. For years, Wojcicki has been looking for a major leadership role. Now she has one, though she’s stepping in a whirlwind of uncertainty. There’s a tug-of-war going on between those who complain they’re not making enough money and those who want to turn it into a the next TV network. You Tube attracts over a billion visitors a month and has rumored to have profited over 5 billion in 2013 alone.
It’s interesting to see where this goes. I see Google stuck with one of their first and most loyal employees. I think that’s saying a lot. If you can’t trust someone whose been there since the beginning, who can you trust? And there are many who are actually watching YouTube channels as much, maybe a little bit more, than network TV. Plus, Wojcicki is an ad exec. Who better than an ad exec to clear up the ad problems and bring more revenue? Of course, I can’t even watch a YouTube video without an ad, but oh well. What do you think YouTube’s future will hold when Susan Wojcicki takes over?
Google is the most powerful online source today. It’s probably one of the most powerful corporations today, if not all-time. Yesterday, they proved that even they are human.
Yesterday, around 2pm Eastern time, Gmail and Google+ went down. They were down for almost an hour. The interruption was felt worldwide. It was a Code 500 problem, meaning minor, temporary, and we don’t know what caused the problem. You Tube was affected; during this time period, hindering videos from being uploaded. Twenty minutes later, most Google users had full power again. By the end of that hour, everyone Gmail and Google+ user was up and running again.
But that’s only part of the story. Apparently,?some at the Yahoo thought it was good to polk fun at Google’s temporary misfortune. They said they didn’t mean any harm, but it got to the point Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had to apologize. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at Yahoo headquarters right about now. Keep in mind Yahoo has it’s online turbulent email history. I got two things from this episode. One: all people, companies, and corporations are going to make mistakes. Even the mighty Google fumbled the ball; we just don’t know how yet. Plus, I don’t think it was wise for the good people at Yahoo to tweet about Google’s mishap. There’s a saying: Get the speck out of your own eye before removing someone else’s. Is Yahoo speck free?
