What is the attraction of Instagram?

I enjoy photography and would never try to stop anyone taking photos either as a reminder of an event or as an art. However the current mobile phone fad has me confused. The modern smart phone is capable of taking pretty good photos (and is causing a drop in basic camera sales). The iPhone 4s has an 8MB camera and this is not the most impressive pixel count available on a camera phone.

So the ability to take clear well exposed photos is there – so why do people want to use programs like instagram to make their photos look like they were taken on a rubbish snap shot camera like the good old Kodak Instamatic, they even advertise it with an old polaroid camera – and they were rubbish!

Am I missing something?

 

This is a brilliant explanation of social media…

This is just brilliant, often the best explanations are the simplest and this hits the nail firmly on the head – and I particularly like the reference to Google+!

 

iPad two years in…..

Amazingly the iPad is two years old (last week) – it has taken me two years to get into the iPad owners club, but I have to say now I have one I can really see the attraction!

When it was first launched there were a large number of people who said it was a pointless piece of kit which would never take off – well history has proved them wrong – and it is still in my view the machine to beat.

Why? Well it is a well worn adage about all things Apple – but it just works.

Hand an iPad to almost anyone and they can get into using it very quickly because everything is so intuitive. We have a number of ‘new users’ in the office and they just love it. They are all iPhone users but the experience is so much richer and better on the iPad.

Since getting mine a few weeks ago I have found a number of things that are better than I expected (and I had high expectations). They include;

Browsing – so quick and easy on a touch screen device, our desktop PC at home is slow and is becoming used much less because of this.

Wordprocessing – I have downloaded the ‘Pages’ app and have found it brilliant. the keypad on the iPad works really well (despite what some people say). And using iCloud allows me to share the files across my devices and keeps them synced.

Spreadsheets – The ‘Numbers’ app is also brilliant and allows me to use graphs on my iPad – something that other spreadsheet apps don’t allow. It syncs to iCloud as well.

Evernote – If you don’t use this you are really missing a trick – it is superb.

Games – I am not big into gaming but some of the driving games are amazing.

So all in all I love my iPad, it is not a total replacement for my laptop but it goes a long way towards it. The big plus is the fact that is instantly on. I am sure that Apple will develop the OS even more over the next few years which can only make it better!

And iPad 3 is due in only a few weeks?

 

Is Facebook really the way to get youngsters to vote?

The state of British politics does not appeal to the average 18 year old it seems (or to most of us), the percentage turn out at recent general elections has been getting progressively worse so the question has to be how to get the kids involved as they are our future.

And recent research suggests almost twice as many 18 year olds use Facebook than are actually registered to vote!

The Electoral Commission used Facebook last year to encourage teenagers to get involved, with 15,000 going on to claim their right to vote. But analysis of electoral roll data from hundreds of council areas by Experian found the total number is actually falling.

There are an estimated 1.05 million 18 year olds in the UK with Facebook accounts, but only 520,000 who registered to vote, and that was 3% fewer than in 2010.

.Official figures show that only 56% of 19-24 year olds and 55% of 17 and 18 year olds are on the electoral register.

The Electoral Commissions campaign using social media to attract young voters is clever, but is not the answer. As long as our political system remains in its current ‘tit for tat’ state I can’t see youngsters feeling that they have any part to play in the political system – sad but true. And very unhealthy for the future of our country.

Surely we need to make this part of the education system – otherwise our politicians will always be as they are now – how depressing!

 

Another Google ‘duffer’?

As I have commented before I really like my social media and things – I keep up with the news via a combination of Twitter, RSS feeds and various news apps. But, in the main its the RSS feeds and Twitter that I find most effective, they provide a short headline that I can either ‘ignore’ or dig deeper on. All part of the ‘sound bite’ generation I suppose.

just not 'nice'

So as I blogged about earlier this week I was keen to give Flipboard a go when it came available for the iPhone and it did not disappoint. I am very impressed with it and find it as an iPhone app should be – very intuitive to use and smooth and ‘nice’ to use and look at.

I have been keen to look at Google’s effort in this sector of the market, it’s called Currents and was released a week or so ago – but only in the USA. I have no idea why Google always seem to do this. They are a global brand so you would think it would be possible to release things world-wide at the same time – but apparently not!

Anyway, I remembered that I have a US login for iTunes that I have used previously to access things like this via the US iTunes store. So after a quick reactivation today I downloaded Currents to have a play.

My initial reaction was that it is quite a good attempt at bringing a magazine style experience to this type of feed – and if Flipboard had not been there it might have been quite impressive! But it just does have the same feel as Flipboard. It is not as easy to use or as pleasing to the eye. More importantly it doesn’t work as smoothly and consequently isn’t as ‘special’ an experience.

Particular annoyances?

• You have to swipe sideways to read more in an article rather than the iPhone ‘norm’ of scrolling down.
• It doesn’t show feeds with new stories differently from ones without
• It is like Google+ – not obvious to use

So will I keep trying it out? Possibly for a week or so, but unless I have an ‘epiphany’ I don’t expect it to remain on my iPhone long-term. Is it me or do Google lack a certain something when it comes to design these days?

 

Flipboard – the way forward?

one of the 'home' pages

I am a self-confessed ‘geek’ – I love the ability to access things on the road and particularly love social media and the available news and articles via RSS feeds and the like. As such I am always on the look out for some form of aggregator to pull together a number of my ‘feeds’ into one place.

To date this has proved difficult and I have had to use separate apps for things like Twitter (Tweetbot which is great), Facebook (their own app) and news feeds (Byline – another great app), they all work fine but I have now found Flipboard which brings them all together in a very clever and ‘pretty’ manner. This youtube clip explains it really well.

an example of a tweet

I have not switched totally yet, but it all looks pretty promising so far. It is well worth a look, as the way you flip pages is just amazing. The presentation is also rather cool – it is more like a magazine style with pictures. That makes it sound a bit ‘simple’ but as you can see from the attached pictures it makes for a much richer and interesting experience. I for one am sold on it and hope that it develops as time goes by to include even more services – like LinkedIn for example.

news story - tap to read

I am aware that Google have just launched their take on this in the USA (why only there?) and it’s called Google Currents and it would I am sure pull down my Google Reader feeds really well (i currently use Byline). I also assume it would show them in more of a ‘magazine’ view (like Flipboard). However, my big reservation here is that it will be made to link to Google+ and not Facebook – and I really dislike Google+ so this will probably stop me trialing it when (or if) it finally becomes available in Europe.

Flipboard is well worth a look (and its free) – if nothing else it shows how user-friendly and visually exciting apps can be! This has to be the future!

 

Christmas and networking

Now I am probably missing something fundamental here, but can someone explain to me quite why we all feel the urge the increase our business networking ten fold over the weeks leading up to Christmas – a time when we are all very busy at work anyway?

I have been looking at my diary for this week and I am out every evening at a client ‘bash’. Now don’t get me wrong – the chance to get together with other professionals and clients is welcomed, but why do it all over a two-week period? Networking events occur all year but there are always a huge number leading up to Christmas. I can guarantee that I will see certain people at every one of the events I attend this week, surely we don’t need an ‘excuse’ like Christmas to organise this type of get together?

With social media now such a huge part of so many people’s lives it is easier to keep up with others movements and careers, and a ‘face to face’ meeting is a pleasant change, but perhaps spreading them across the year might actually make them more effective? Or is it that in the current (or any economic climate) change is seen by our competitors as something bad?

I really don’t know the answer, but it does make you wonder…..

 

Has email had its day?

Interesting times we live in – the web has become an integral part of our existence. We all have email addresses and even the least “IT savvy” among us have mastered this form of interaction – ask the Post Office!

So when the founder of Facebook announces that “email is dead” should we be worried? Or is he right?

Obviously Facebook have a vested interest in how we all relate to each other via the web, there are a staggeringly large number of Facebook users worldwide. And they can interact without using email!

Google also want us to use their conduit – Google+, but so far this doesn’t appear to be happening. We also have LinkedIn, twitter and other social networks we can use. So does Mr Zuckerburg have a point?

I think he does, only to a point and more because email has become abused so badly. The level of spam in the ether has devalued emails to the point that they have become a daily deluge that has to be filtered by the user. Our office spam filter removes around 97% of our incoming email – a frightening statistic!

But if we ditch email and move to another form of contact there are some issues that need to be dealt with;

How are we to limit its abuse so that it doesn’t go the same way as email?

In business some form of paper trail would still be necessary.

And surely the cycle will turn full circle again and we will find whatever we adopt next becoming ‘flooded’ after a period?

Perhaps what we need are far stronger controls on our current system to prevent spam and put the value back into email?

 

Google+ who needs it?

I will admit to being a bit keen on social networking, it is here to stay so it needs embracing by all of us - I am on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and enjoy blogging. I think I have a reasonable understanding of what social networking is – but having now tried Google + (I was not invited to the beta but it’s just gone live) I just don’t get it!

First of course there was Google Wave, that died a quiet if lingering death some time ago – it just didn’t work or offer anything over and above the likes of Facebook (and my recollection is that it wasn’t straight forward to use). My take on Google + is that it also isn’t particularly easy to get into (either that or I am getting old) and doesn’t have many people on it yet! Quite why you would migrate from Facebook to Google + it is a mystery to me – although I am open to comments why I might be wrong?

Again I don’t believe it offers anything over and above Facebook. Google appear desperate to take possession of an area of the market that they also appear not to ‘get’. Their search engine and online apps are excellent, isn’t that enough for them? Or do they just feel that they need to dominate every sector of the market?

My advise to Google (for what it’s worth) – is leave it alone, you don’t need it, you already run people’s lives and others do this so much better! I am all for changing if something is better or offers more – but this on first look offers neither.

 

Using social media to further your brand loyalty

I work in an industry that likes to think it is fairly forward thinking but is very often slow or sceptical of change. Many of my colleagues just ‘don’t get’ Twitter or Blogging and consider it a pointless waste of time.

But, in an age of massively increased mobile access to the Internet this is becoming one of the key ways that people interact both with each other and to companies. Much of what we buy now is through websites – the internet is King. We ignore it at our peril both on a personal level and on a from a business view-point.

This has been brought home to me recently through my blog. I would be the first to admit that I do not have a huge following on my blog – it is a way to express my views and I find it strangely satisfying! However I have had replies to complaints I have made from various ‘switched on’ businesses – John Lewis is the classic example. They are I think we would all agree at the top of their game, and they obviously watch the web.

Vodafone caught onto one of my Twitters some time ago about coverage on O2 and contacted me to offer an alternative service – great PR.

Both are excellent proactive ways of building the brand.

Which brings me back to my point – ignore your web savvy clients and perish – I have received nothing back from Virgin either via direct replies to their “customer care texts” or to my blog comments. What does this do to my view of them as a brand – nothing positive!

I am only a small fish in a very large pond, but there have been cases of Twitter or Blogging catching the public mood and causing firms to be crucified – worth keeping in mind!