I just bought a new 27″ iMac a couple days ago. It’s fabulous. The screen’s too shiny, and the disk is surprisingly loud (…) So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings. I felt the way I’d feel buying something made in a country with a bad human rights record. That was new. In the past when I bought things from Apple it was an unalloyed pleasure. Oh boy! They make such great stuff. This time it felt like a Faustian bargain. They make such great stuff, but they’re such assholes. Do I really want to support this company?
Sooner or later this had to happen, it’s striking the resemblance’s with the fact that we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of wall in Germany. Apple has been building a walled garden with the iPhone/iTunes AppStore, but as any bridged wall, it will come down eventually, one thing it’s for certain it will fall by the hands of those that helped build it, it may take a while, but you can’t really ignore the signs..
Apple is great! I love it as I’m sure a whole lot more people does! But things aren’t looking good and it feels as if they’re becoming those that they used to criticizes in way more front’s that they should.. Apple needs to correct their path, otherwise in a decade or less, they might see themselves in a rather ackward position, if for now they still sell the best, shiniest and prettiest of them all…
Today marks a big day in Vodafone’s history, the company just announced it’s new suite of internet services, goes by the name of Vodafone 360 and combines a unique seamless experience between mobile and the web.
Vodafone 360 aims at the core of our social life online: our friends, our communities, and all the artifacts that came from interacting with those, wether chat or mere content like photos, comments and music, all shared in one single place, providing a unified experience across different mediums.
Mobile phones have long been a central piece in our lives, it helps us define who we are, putting us in contact with the rest of the world. It’s also in many cases the first gateway to interact and perceive the world, in many senses they’ve enhanced our lives beyond expected, but at the same time they have been somehow out of the loop of our online lives, well it seems that until now! By combining contacts with the bits and bytes that they drop into the world, and combining all those tiny pieces of information in one single place I dare to say that Vodafone just took a deep jump into the future!
The 360 platform is open to anyone, meaning that you can join independently of your mobile operator, it’s also doesn’t compromise devices as it works across a multitude of different devices including the new and exclusive Vodafone 350 phones by Samsung.
In the words of Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services at Vodafone Group:
“Vodafone 360 is the first service of its kind to offer customers the benefits of a truly integrated mobile internet experience that gathers all their contacts and content, all around them, in one place,”
“The beauty of Vodafone 360 is that all the services work together and they are easy to use. Vodafone 360 enables customers’ digital lives. Customers can stay in touch and share experiences through social networks, instant messaging, email, apps, maps, music and buying digital content on their mobile bill, with the personalized address book at its heart.”
Vodafone 360 is a substantiator of Vodafone’s new brand expression – ‘power to you’ – which is focused on putting the customer in control and enabling simple and easy to manage communications, both mobile and fixed.
Disclaimer: Although I’m extremely happy to see this announcement from Vodafone, my current employee, this post still represents a personal view on this subject and shouldn’t therefor be considered an official statement from the company in any ways. I’m truly happy to be able to write about it as this has been part of my life for the past months and the reason why I’ve moved to Germany.
GM & Segway’s P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) prototype represents the shift that’s needed for the future of transportation!
Some people know that I’m so insane for Segways that I actually own one, and while I’m still hoping to improve my german to get a permit license to ride mine here in Düsseldorf (to where I moved last month), I couldn’t be more happy to see that apart from the rumors, Segway is still engaged in trying to solve our transportation needed thru technology.
The new prototype isn’t going to be on the streets anytime soon, but it’s design carefully tries to balance a set of important values again as Space, Energy, Enjoyment and Speed. To me it comes as no surprise that the guys from Engadget who tried it seem to have liked it!
If GM & Segway can make this into the production line, I honestly think that our cities would embrace them.
Just arrived my '#Rework' by Jason Fried & David Hansson, first impression: looks very promissing! Or could just be my corporate exposure! [pedrocustodio]
Sooner or later this had to happen, it’s striking the resemblance’s with the fact that we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of wall in Germany. Apple has been building a walled garden with the iPhone/iTunes AppStore, but as any bridged wall, it will come down eventually, one thing it’s for certain it will fall by the hands of those that helped build it, it may take a while, but you can’t really ignore the signs..
I'm Pedro Custódio. I'm a Webdeveloper and UserExperience Advocate, I'm organizer of 