By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In our last post, we spoke to Katie and Luke Hrycak, the sibling founders of CommentAir, . A process of self-education and aggressive networking to tap into the expertise of supportive advisors and mentors has been key.
The need to seek out external business and technical expertise of course extends to the team they must build to move CommentAir along. As a bootstrapped startup, they must not only find individuals who compliment their own strengths and weaknesses, but also share their passion and are willing to put in long hours without a regular pay cheque.
In this post, we take a closer look at what the siblings have learned about themselves, about building strong teams and how this must be applied to the business.
Who should be the next hire?
CommentAir took flight in early 2010. As we explored in the previous post, Zhu Li, a PhD candidate in wireless communication at Carleton, became Katie’s technical advisor and, now that he has returned home to Hong Kong, is on deck to serve as the company’s Chinese connection when the product is ready for mass production. (However, he has yet to join the company as a founder or employee.) CommentAir has also enjoyed the support of Carleton University professor Tony Bailetti and Ed Strange, coordinator of applied research and investigator of special projects at , who put together a student team with funding through  to work on CommentAir’s prototype.
While Luke and Katie have secured the support of a number of other advisors and mentors, their first true hire came this past summer, when they brought on board as chief designer and project manager Andrew Lowe.
“I went to go talk to him about manufacturing and plastics, and he liked the idea so we offered him equity in the company for his designs and knowledge on manufacturing and electronics,†Katie said.
For 2012, Katie and Luke are planning to add a technical cofounder as they work toward major field tests this summer.
“We need someone like this as soon as we start getting to either some major first tests or before a launch, because technical things are going to go wrong and it’s out of our knowledge base to fix them,†Katie said.
“I would like a telecom or electrical engineer, preferably someone who has many others to vouch for their work ethic and projects,†she added. “They have to also enjoy sports and understand why we are doing what we want to do. An entrepreneurial mentality isn’t a top priority, but definitely a creative mind that can work around unforeseen problems. It’s also important that it’s someone we can get along with.â€
But there is a clear distinction between getting along with someone and always being in agreement with them.
“You won’t always see eye-to-eye with your team, and that’s a good thing,†Katie said. “Same goes with informal advisors and partners. It’s all about having different perspectives and taking them all into account. If you have anyone telling you the same thing as you’re thinking, that’s not good.â€
“If they aren’t adding value, cut them loose,†Luke added. “Don’t wait and don’t look back. Trust your gut.â€
What distinguishes a co-founder or partner from advisors, mentors?
“A partner is someone who is willing to get more involved in the day to day, and bring value beyond just advice,†Luke said. “They’re bringing a skill or trait that we lack, such as the technical know-how, or something to get us to the next stage.â€
Or, to put it another way:
“Co-founders and team members are meant to cover each other’s butts when your reputation and product are on the line,†Katie said. “There are always people who will love your idea, but that doesn’t mean you should bring them on.â€
But sometimes, an ideal team member may present themselves unexpectedly.
“Sometimes a team member will just fall into your lap, so always keep your eyes open and have in mind a checklist of what you want to add to your team,†she said. “If they believe in your idea and in you, they will come on for equity if you’re bootstrapping and not even question if there is a salary.â€
Finding the right people depends on your qualities as much as theirs
Katie readily acknowledges that her greatest weakness as an entrepreneur is lack of life experience, something which cannot be acquired in a university lecture hall.
“Every single meeting or conversation I’ve had with a mentor has left me pretty much floored in just how much I don’t know but should, and how much work I have left to do,†she said. “In order to get over this, I’ve had to self-educate to become an expert in my areas of interest as well as in the business I want to run.â€
On the other hand, she considers her greatest strength to be her people skills, which she has already used to her advantage to win advisors and mentors willing to share their expertise.
Luke, on the other hand, has come to realize that his biggest weakness is “assuming any obstacle can be overcome quickly, when in reality, it takes a while to overcome it. My strength is just the perseverance to keep at it over time.â€
While they believe their strengths will serve to create a strong and close-knit culture in the business as it grows, they both agree that the best way to overcome their weaknesses is to seek out the input of others before making decisions.
“If we can do this bootstrapping and without having to take money from anyone, that’s the way we’re going to do it,†Katie said. “Keep it in the family and just build relationships with mentors to get the expert advice we need.â€
Thinking about the future
While the expert advice they need may someday require bringing on board a savvy investor for a share of equity, Katie and Luke are not yet willing to give up that degree of control.
“It can obviously be beneficial to have someone hands on overlooking the entire operation,†Katie said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet so I haven’t put too much thought into who I would want to invest in us. Would I turn down money if the investor fit wasn’t right? We’ll cross that bridge if we get there!â€
Meanwhile, the siblings are intent on building a business with the staying power to continue on without them.
“Some entrepreneurs just want to make big money and go retire on a beach, so they build their companies that way,†Luke said. “In our case, we want to build something that will continue on without us, but we will want to always have a hand in it. We want to take what we build and continue on to grow other businesses as well.â€
In our next instalment, we will explore the challenges of paying the bills on a bootstrap budget.
This is the fourth article in a continuing series chronicling the growth path of , a startup based in Ottawa, Canada. CommentAir is developing a wireless technology fans can use at sports venues to receive the same real-time commentary as fans watching from their televisions, a wireless technology that also creates a platform for targeted consumer interaction. We invite your feedback.
Putting your assumptions to the test
Putting your assumptions to the test
By Francis Moran
In our last post, , including its appearance on Popular U.K. television program  at , Europe’s top radio industry event, and its new “experience†for long-running U.K. current affairs program .
Making a splash at major industry events and with high profile clients demands one thing – a compelling product. But a compelling product can’t be developed in a vacuum; it must address a clear market demand. As we have emphasized time and again, marketing and product development must work together from the get go. To quote guest commentator Ronald Weissman,Â
The team at Screenreach has taken this to heart. With a new version of the Screach app expected to launch in February, every effort is being made to solicit input from beta testers and prospective users. In this post, we’ll look at how Screenreach approaches the beta testing process, what third-party tools it has found to make life easier and the lessons it continues to learn along the way.
In beta with social media
While the team is reluctant to reveal too much about the new features and functionality that will be included in the new version of Screach, it is safe to say the app has been in a constant state of evolution since its launch in the summer of 2010. Market feedback has been fundamental to the process, with social media emerging as a primary means to attract and engage users.
Screenreach’s blog has proven to be a useful tool and this time around, the lure of winning a MacBook Air is an added incentive. But building a community following on Twitter has been fundamental to mustering a strong and outspoken group of testers. The team has built its following by getting involved in specific industry conversations on Twitter and constantly discussing Screach through the micro-blogging platform.
“There is a need to strike a balance between too few and too many beta testers,†said Screenreach CEO . “Realistically, you may have a lot of people signed up for beta testing but experience has shown us that only 25 percent of those will actively download the app and provide feedback – perhaps even less. So from that point of view you need to account for drop off.â€
The mobile platform being tested also impacts how large the group can be. At this stage, Screenreach is only testing the iPhone version and Apple limits beta tester groups to 100. Google, on the other hand, imposes no such limitation for the Android.
Finding the forest among the trees
It’s one thing to build a strong community of beta testers who are willing to provide useful feedback and quite another to manage the logistics of all that crowd-sourced input and distil it into meaningful data. For that, Screenreach has found two useful third-party tools.
The first is , a free web service that provides developers with an easy means to distribute their beta apps for testing. For the Screenreach team, there just isn’t anything else comparable.
“TestFlight has proved to be a useful tool for us, it has a great dashboard and organizing tools,†said Rawlings.
However, its current version does have one drawback.
“One problem we have experienced with TestFlight is that it only allows you to assign one account to your device which has posed problems when a beta tester has previously registered another account,†said Rawlings. “It means they have difficulty swapping the accounts over – this was something we were already aware of and could help the testers resolve but it’s definitely something you need to be aware of. Anything that inhibits the tester from downloading the app as quickly as they need to obviously isn’t great.â€
The other tool is , an online platform for brands to host their community of users.
“We looked around at a number of tools that could be used to collate feedback on the new app and we chose Get Satisfaction for a couple of reasons,†said marketing manager . “First, we really liked the way it allows a user to categorize their posts. It means we can manage feedback based on whether it’s a question, idea or problem. It has useful admin features too, such as a management view which helps you to track and stay on top of all your posts.â€
The Screenreach team never really considered handling these kinds of logistics in house.
“Third party apps like Get Satisfaction are good at what they do and make it easier to categorize feedback topics and assign the best team member to respond to a specific question, problem or idea from a tester,†Athey added. “It also creates a forum for testers to compare notes with each other and for the whole team to get involved in these conversations.â€
In some instances, however, nothing beats good old fashioned face-to-face contact. While Get Satisfaction has proven effective for engaging in conversations through online forums, the Screenreach team has still found it useful to hold focus groups for feedback on the Screach experience for versions that have been customized for a specific market vertical, such as television programming.
“We’ve also had a couple of testers who have really gone the extra mile and their fresh perspective on Screach has been fantastic, so we’ve thought about inviting them in to meet the team and see the impact their feedback has made,†said Athey. “Some of the testers put a lot of their time and thought into the process and we’re very grateful for that.â€
Lessons learned
Despite the benefits of using social media and specialized third-party tools, the team has found that the process can be more complicated than expected, with a host of small details to manage around the release to ensure the install of the beta version is as painless as possible for testers.
“One thing we’d say is make sure you have the full team involved in the process. Everything that comes out of this involves just about every aspect of the organization,†said Rawlings. “It’s also an interesting way to generate new ideas within the team. We’ve always placed great emphasis on every team member being deeply involved in the user and client perception of Screach so this is an important part of that.
“For example, your developer needs to be ready with the technical aspect of things but this has to be correctly communicated to your marketing person for them to translate that message to the user. Then there will be feedback that revolves around design or bugs or product questions in general – you need to have all of the correct people on board to answer these questions.â€
One risk the Screenreach team took was opening beta testing during the holidays.
“We took a bit of a risk, but as it turned out, it meant our core testers had free time on their hands to get more actively involved,†said Rawlings. “You need to be aware of things like this.â€
The important thing, Rawlings added, is to immerse yourself in the feedback that you receive by asking followup questions to understand the thought process behind why a beta tester is making a specific suggestion.
The learning process never ends. The new version of Screach will soon be pushed out to Android beta testers, which promises to provide a whole new flood of feedback given the growing variety of Android devices that are now available.
“We’re aiming to launch in February so things are very full on at the moment and the beta tester feedback is at the heart of everything we are working on,†said Rawlings.
In our next instalment, we will take a closer look at the launch efforts for the latest version of Screach, provided, of course, that the team’s best-laid plans do not go astray.
This is the fourth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of , a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
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A new twist on shortened URLs as spam carriers 
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January 24, 2012
What to expect when moving from BlackBerry to iPhone
What to expect when moving from BlackBerry to iPhone
by Kye Husbands
So you’re contemplating the jump from BlackBerry to iPhone and wondering what you should expect. Having done the same thing a few months ago, I wanted to share my experience and help you save some time getting your iPhone set up to suit your needs.
You’ve already heard how great the iPhone is, so instead of preaching more of the same, I thought this blog would be more helpful if I highlighted a few of the challenges with making the switch or, a few things you may want to consider before making the switch.
Email on the iPhone versus the BlackBerry
The email experience on a BlackBerry is superior to the iPhone. Yes, I said it and despite having switched months ago, I still reach for my phone occasionally when I hear the unmistakable BlackBerry email chime. The whole premise of checking email doesn’t exist on a BlackBerry and RIM’s push email functionality means that you never have to check your email. On the iPhone you can have your email accounts set up to check periodically – (every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or hour) -, but it just isn’t the same thing.
So, if email is a critical part of your professional life or the BlackBerry has been a part of your cell phone DNA for years, this seemingly simple difference will take some getting use to. On the other hand, cell phones have evolved way beyond simple email messaging devices and the other many advantages of the iPhone outweigh this drawback.
BlackBerry’s Physical Keyboard versus Apple’s Virtual Keyboard
BlackBerry has long touted the advantages of its QWERTY keyboards and five years ago that was all we knew. While yesterday’s power user may still be use to the keyboard for sending emails, BBM messages or whatever, the physical keyboard comes at the expense of a bigger screen, unless you happen to be a BB 9800 or BB 9900 user.Â
As a former BlackBerry Torch user myself, I never used my slider keyboard and the virtual keyboard on the Torch can be frustrating at times. A simple email can be a miserable experience just based on where the global language button is positioned with the inadvertent messages in Chinese, Japanese or some other language, and the auto correction/suggestion is lacking at times. Apple on the other hand has perfected the virtual keyboard in my opinion. The keyboard is sensitive and responsive and the auto correction/suggestion is simply amazing, so there is no need to concentrate on where you click on the screen as long as you are in the general area, you somehow get it right. All in all, the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is close to perfection and simply the best virtual keyboard of all the smart phones in market today.
Getting your contacts on your iPhone
Chances are, if you are a long time BlackBerry professional user your contacts are all in MS Outlook. I personally had over 500 contacts in MS Outlook and in order to take advantage of the Apple’s Address Book and therefore have your contacts native to the iPhone 4S you have to move your contacts over. This became the biggest hassle of getting set up on the iPhone, because you can’t simply export your contacts from MS Outlook to Address Book. So in order to do this you need:
- Export your contacts in CSV format from MS outlook
- Install Thunderbird (a free email client) on your PC and import your CSV file into Thunderbird.
- Ensure that your contacts are imported correctly (i.e correct number of records and the data looks fine)
- Export your CSV file from Thunderbird as a LDIF file. (It must be an LDIF file)
- Now you can import the LDIF file of your contacts into Address Book on your Mac PC.
This process can be a little quirky once importing to Address Book and may require some additional time finessing the fields of information imported for each contact. With a little patience and good luck, at the end of this exercise you will have your full list of contacts on the iPhone and any updates that you do should be done within Address Book as opposed to MS Outlook, or you’ll have to repeat the entire process. Of course, if you didn’t have your contacts in MS Outlook you can just enter them on your iPhone directly if you have time to burn, or if you happen to be a Google App user, you can install Google Sync and sync your outlook contacts to Google’s cloud and from there to your iPhone.
Adding signatures for multiple mailboxes
On the iPhone 4S it’s easy to set up multiple mailboxes for your email, however, the main challenge you will discover is not being able to have multiple signatures for each of the those mailboxes. In other words, you can only have one signature for all of your outgoing mailboxes. If your in tune with life as an iPhone user then your first thought will be, “there must be an app for that?†A quick search of the Appstore for “multiple mail signatures†yields a few results with very average ratings, but a new addition called MailSig by Ziximo appears to offer some promise. Also, here are .
So what’s the scoop?
The iPhone is a lifestyle. Let me repeat that, the iPhone is a lifestyle. It’s your iPod for your music, it’s your camera that takes better pictures than the BlackBerry, it’s your window into a world of apps that can almost do anything you dream of and the overall user experience is superior to the BlackBerry as a result of all of these things plus plenty more. So, until RIM get’s their act together and really ups the ante with some new devices, making the switch to the iPhone is an easy decision.
If you’re in market for a new iPhone, take advantage of myCELLmyTERMS and to find the best cell phone deal.
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Part II: Dissecting the brain of the market pays off for BlueArc
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January 23, 2012
January 21, 2012
January 20, 2012
This anti-piracy battle may nearly be won, but the war isn’t over
Minecraft.net's Web strike day splash page graphic.
By Brian Jackson
“PIPA and SOPA? How about NOPA!†So read the protest splash page on Minecraft.net in place of its usual content during against anti-piracy legislation being considered by U.S. lawmakers.
While the legislation hasn’t been defeated yet and many Web firms that joined in the protest say they aren’t done, surely they must be doing at least a small happy dance after the Web strike stunt went so swimmingly. Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree with support for the movement and shocked statements of surprise about Wikipedia not being available to instantly deliver answers (which made me concerned about some student’s ability to research, but I digress). Several U.S. law makers publically backed away from supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (in Congress) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (in the Senate), and Google reported that 7 million signed its online petition against the bills.
Even the White House a petition against the bills, saying “we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.â€
But the White House staff writing the letter also had this appeal: “Rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right.â€
This points out that even if SOPA and PIPA are defeated, the root problem hasn’t been solved. There are powerful content-based industries out there that see their business model as being under threat. Without the ability to control the means of distribution as it used to, the movie and music industries are seeing what used to be profitable business models slowly erode. While I’m skeptical that piracy has played as crucial a role in this as industry lobby groups say that it has, it is no doubt a part of the problem. Piracy, and Internet distribution systems in general have created a generation that expects to be able to receive content for free.
This race to the bottom on price is perhaps most evident in the mobile app market, as I was reminded when attending this week’s conference in Toronto. A couple of years ago, it was common to see almost as many paid-for apps in Apple’s App Store as there were free apps. But now there are so many free apps to compete against that most mobile developers consider it folly to even try to put a price tag on their product. The accepted ratio of mobile app downloaders willing to pay versus never willing to pay is two per cent to 98 per cent.
So the question remains, how are content developers supposed to make a dollar these days? While SOPA and PIPA were overly broad pieces of legislation that threatened to break the Internet and censor free speech, they were at least attempts to protect the value of digital content – content that people used to happily take money out of their wallets to pay for, but no longer.
Adapting business models to modern technology is definitely the best step towards protecting that value. Look no further than what Apple has accomplished with iTunes and the App Store, or the popularity Netflix’s all-you-can-watch streaming service has achieved. Many mobile app makers are enthusiastic that a “freemium†business model – where you give away an entry-level product for free and then sell more functionality on top of that – will work.
But adapting to a business model that results in a much lower price per piece of content, or funnels the sum of money collected into fewer pockets won’t be enough to fix the problem. Our society may at some point have to stomach legislation that protects creator’s intellectual property to some degree, so they can continue to be incented to do the work we all enjoy so much.
Or we could start opening up our wallets when we want to be entertained. But how likely is that?
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Cyber criminals get more aggressive with social engineering tactics
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January 19, 2012
Legal issues to think about for 2012
The beginning of the year is great time to do a legal check up. Consider the following as you go into the New Year.
1.     Refresh your will – Revisiting your will, living will and power of attorney on an annual basis could save you or your family heartache down the road. Consider whether there has been any of the following changes in your life this past year: significant changes to the business, birth of a child, death in the family, a divorce, or you bought that something new that is worth bequeathing to someone. Something you may also wasn’t to consider, if you haven’t done so already, is access to electronic assets. Having your passwords to your computer, email, photos, or Facebook account in a document that is accessible to your heirs can save lots of time for them and can be extremely valuable. For example, if there are communications that have to be addressed, bills that are only received electronically that need attending to, or photos on flickr that you want your family to have access to, you should consider including information on how to access these accounts. If you are interested in learning more on how companies will treat your electronic assets on death, take a look at the Terms of Use of Apple, Google, or Yahoo.
Catastrophic Playstation breach: Inventory of what you may have lost
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January 17, 2012
A look back at CES 2012: Seven biggest newsmakers
A look back at CES 2012: Seven biggest newsmakers
In 2010, 3D TVs dominated the in Las Vegas. 2011 was all about the rise of tablets. 2012? Tough to say, although the numbers speak volumes about the success of CES 2012.
This year’s  gizmos and gadgets drew more than 150,000 attendees and a record number of exhibitors with more than 3,100 electronics and appliances manufacturers strutting their latest inventions.
While there wasn’t one big announcement dominating headlines all week-long at CES 2012, there were several initiatives that created a lot of excitement among media and tech enthusiasts alike.
Here are the seven biggest newsmakers coming out of this year’s show:
-  . The future of TV claimed better picture quality. No more talk about smart, streaming, 3D (these features are now standard within new TVs) – it’s back to basics with getting the best picture and resolution possible. Major manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and Sony generated media attention on its flat-screens now offering features typically native with computers, e.g.  built-in cameras and microphones. The biggest attention grabber is motion and voice-controlled TVs.
- . Ultrabooks were also a heavy focus for all major computers manufacturers. This is evidenced by the fact more than 75 models are set to launch in 2012 and of those, 50 per cent will have 14†and 15†displays.
- . The connected world was easily demonstrated through what is now capable with wifi-enabled appliances controllable by smartphones. Both had the powers of connected appliances prominently on display.
- Tablets and smartphones. Next generation tablets were paraded by major manufacturers. While smartphones were being unveiled in larger formats, e.g. the new Samsung Galaxy Note is a whopping 5.3†by phone standards, some , e.g. Toshiba showcasing a 5.1†tablet.
- Microsoft generated a lot of media attention, given it was their at CES, after announcing, they would no longer participate in the show past 2012.
- Connected cars. One other interesting announcement from CES included the with the Mercedes-Benz in-vehicle telematics system, designed for drivers and centered around the location of friends and businesses.
- . I would argue this was the most number of celebrities endorsing press conference, , or unveiling their own initiatives. From Dennis Rodman to John Sally, 50 Cent to The Wonder Girls, Andy Dick to Ryan Seacrest, the A and  B-listers were out in droves.
Canadian music artist, Justin Bieber drew out thousands during a brief appearance at CES 2012.
What caught your attention at CES this year? Share in the comments section below.
is Communications Manager of . He lives and works in Vancouver. Eliott is a blogger who is passionate about PR, marketing, technology, gadgets and playing/ watching sports. Elliott is covering CES 2012 for ITBusiness.ca
Tech jobs that cloud computing will create
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January 16, 2012
When selling yourself as faster and cheaper is no longer enough: Part 1
SaaS has bec
ome a common delivery model for most business applications, including accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning.
3 tips to revitalize Anonymous
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January 14, 2012
Ultra books live up to the hype at CES 2012; tablets Excite
Ultra books live up to the hype at CES 2012; tablets Excite
Are the highly-hyped “ultrabooks†worth it? That was the question swirling many minds heading into the desert surrounding the . After viewing several models, this technology will be among the top five newsmakers of this year’s CES.
The biggest names in the business, from Samsung and Toshiba, to Acer and Hewlett-Packard were showcasing their renditions of ultrabooks: sleek, shiny, light and packed with impressive specs.
After logging 33,000 hours to develop the Samsung Series 9 Notebooks (ultrabooks), the Korean electronics maker has packed them with a lot of punch, such as “MaxScreen” technology. Similar to their HDTVs minimizing the bezel around the screen, MaxScreen offers more real estate on this 15″ premium ultrabook. Aside from being the world’s thinnest and most compact 15″ ultrabook, it weighs-in at just 3.5 lbs. The 13″ Series 9 ultrabook is weighs a mere 2.5 lbs.
Under the hood, the Series 9 ultrabooks offer an Intel Core i5 Processor 2537M, Intel HD Graphics 300 chip, 4GB of memory and a hard drive capacity of 128GB SSD.
Over at Toshiba’s booth, a big draw is their Satellite Ultrabook with Ivy Bridge processor. This compact ultrabook measures 14″ and in addition to multiple USB ports, will feature a HDMI port and chiclet-style keyboard.
Both ultrabooks are expected to launch later this year.
Smartphones getting larger and tablets are getting smaller
Samsung has also stirred noise by revealing its new Samsung Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note is a whopping 5.3†Gingerbread (Android 2.3 OS) smartphone that works as a mini tablet. It comes equipped with a stylus pen, dubbed the “S Pen.†There are plans in the U.S. include 4G LTE connections via major carriers. Launch date is TBA, but will arrive in Canada.
So phones are getting larger. Tablets on the other hand are shrinking. Toshiba, for example, is showcasing its newest tablet prototypes in a variety of sizes starting at 5.1â€, progressing to 7.7†and up to 13.3â€.
Toshiba’s 5.1†tablet was unique not only by size, but also the fact it uses a 21:9 aspect ratio screen. The 7.7†tablet is equipped with a beautiful AMOLED screen. There was a 10.1†tablet on display labeled as the world’s thinnest tablet 10†tablet. Finally, the largest tablet on display at Toshiba’s booth measuring 13.3†needs two hands to handle it and takes viewing media or playing Angry Birds to the next level.
The most exciting tablet at Toshiba’s booth was the , a 10†Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) powered device. The Excite X10 boasts some other impressive features:
- Gorilla Glass protecting its 1280x800p in-plane switching display
- Dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 CPU
- 1GB of RAM
- Front and rear cameras (two megapixels and five megapixels respectively)
- Micro HDMI, micro USB ports and a micro SD card slot
Aside from the details above, we’re left guessing when the Excite X10 will release at Canada. carried the Toshiba Thrive at launch so you can expect announcements for the Excite X10 to be announced this year.
is Communications Manager of . He lives and works in Vancouver. Eliott is a blogger who is passionate about PR, marketing, technology, gadgets and playing/ watching sports. Elliott is covering the CES 2012 for ITBusiness.ca
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How to determine market demand on a start-up budget
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Why aren’t there more women in the tech startup scene?
Â
At one such event this past fall, only a handful of the hundred or so participants were female. At another, I spied one smartly dressed young woman near the front of the room and assumed she was one of the dozen startups there making pitches to a gathering of VCs and angels. When I introduced myself and asked which startup she was with, she smiled and said, “Oh no, I’m just here to watch my husband’s pitch.†Â
Â
She was the only woman in the entire room besides me.
The fine art of the business hustle
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January 13, 2012
Why are there so many headphones at CES 2012?
Why are there so many headphones at CES 2012?
Audiophiles will be pleased to know headphones continue to evolve with several big name manufacturers and celebrities making noise during the Consumer Electronics Show ().
Why the sudden surge? A variety of reasons. The biggest contributor is the rise of smartphones. Consumers are not satisfied with low-quality out-of-the-box earbuds that come with mobile devices; we want studio-like sound quality when listening to songs, watching media or making phone calls. We want noise-cancellation characteristics too. On top of all this, headphones have become desired by all ages with each demographic wanting their own style, type – in-ear or over-ear – and identity.
Let’s take a look at some highlights on the show’s floor today.
As expected, Monster, makers of the uber-popular line, unveiled exciting, new headphones, including over-ear models. Fashion label Diesel, for example, partnered with Monster to establish the “Diesel Noise Division†line. The first pair of headphones to unveil under this collaboration is “VEKTR,†sharp-looking black headphones combining Diesel’s eye for design and Monster’s high-performance qualities.
A recent entrant into the headphone space, House of Marley, from the Bob Marley family enterprise led by one of his sons,, continues to impress with their innovations, offering new styles and designs in a variety of price points. House of Marley headphones have been a huge hit since , and their lines are expanding to things like portable speakerbags and Bluetooth ‘docking’ stations – more on that to come later.
Christopher Bridges, aka "Ludacris" shares with CES goers why his Soul by Ludacris headphones will be a hit
Celebrities from the music industry are getting in the headphones game too. Rapper and actor, Ludacris graced CES attendees with his presence at his “Soul by Ludacris†booth where the focus was on his .
Rapper 50 Cent is also invested in headphone technology. He graced the CES floor a few occasions already, spending time at the booth, his company focused on wireless and wired headphones. Last year, with the mega-rapper, and he shared during his autograph session with me that relationship is over in favour of is own line. Smart move.
A bonus during today’s 50 Cent appearance was boxing champion Floyd Mayweather co-signing 8’x10’ photographs. (These will look great in the mancave.)
Headphones have become fashion statements in their own right. It’s becoming common for Canadians to have more than one pair of headphones. For example, I have a few pairs of Monster headphones for exercise and lifestyle needs. I rely on my when at the gym or exercising outdoors – they provide excellent sound quality and are water and sweat-proof. I use over-the-ear headphones for those noise-cancelling moments when traveling. When traveling by plane, I use House of Marley in-ear headphones so I can wear them for just about the entire duration of the flight.
Licensing of popular pop culture like comic book superheroes, sports teams and even candies are becoming mainstream among headphones. iHip, for example, has released new pro sports team lines, including the NFL, MLB, NCAA, Marvel, Detective Comics and even candy-themed headphones like Bubblicious. Smart play in my opinion; these lines will attract all ages and interests.
As we move deeper into the connected world, the number of accessories to improve our mobile devices will continue its growth. It’s no surprise headphones are turning heads in every corner of CES.
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Should You Feel Bad About Blocking Online Ads?
Should You Feel Bad About Blocking Online Ads?
 by Claudiu Popa
I’m not a fan of banner ads, browser pop-ups nor of what’s come to be called . I find that such promotion largely falls into two categories. The kind that has nothing to do with what I’m interested in, and the kind that is surprisingly well targeted to my personal interests.
Since the former is irritating and the latter is downright creepy, I’m not likely to click on any online ads anytime soon. And either.
That said, I’m certainly not against commercial promotion and far be it from me to pass judgment on one of the most profitable ways to spend – and make – money online ($25B in 2010 and an estimated $31B in 2011). I’m even sympathetic to the argument that online advertising keeps the Internet humming along as the subsidized services we practically depend on in turn depend on advertising dollars to resist the temptation to charge us.Â
However, when this online marketing comes with and compromises , I am forced to give it a thumbs down. After all, what better way to infect users en masse is there, other than by and injecting malicious code through legitimate Web sites without having to break into them individually? Â
Ah, the economies of scale! Just as I do with unsolicited email which is now mostly addressed by effective spam filtering, I don’t make much of a fuss about online ads. I simply want to ensure that they scale both up (to address the needs of small businesses, since larger ones have an entirely different set of options in this regard) and down (to ensure that individual users are protected at home).Â
One of your best options (and an alternative to ) is to use , whose many free options also include blocking by entire categories of Web destinations (such as hate, porn, P2P, etc.). This combined with a new (and optionally further augmented by the use of an ) makes for a very elegant filtering solution. The hosts file is a simple step that effectively makes it so that and (or indeed ) machines end up hitting a dead end when they attempt to access any of the listed destination domains.Â
 In a quasi-complementary manner, an IP firewall such as PeerBlock effectively blocks IP address ranges rather than domain names. For me, two significant benefits of such content filtering are a faster Internet (because such ads, many of them content-rich, simply can’t get downloaded) and a cleaner Web experience (since on-screen real estate is simply not cluttered with ads).Â
In closing, and to ironically come full circle, I must point out that like any DNS service, especially one that is outside the country, the use of OpenDNS may serve to feed a behavioural advertising beast. However, the company – at least so far – simply displays some proprietary search engine results when a Web destination cannot be found. Â
Keep in mind that some or all of the data they collect is reported back to users as part of their value offering, but do try to make a habit of reading and understanding the of Internet-based companies you consider depending on.
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January 12, 2012
Where are there so many headphones at CES 2012?
Why are there so many headphones at CES 2012?
Audiophiles will be pleased to know headphones continue to evolve with several big name manufacturers and celebrities making noise during the Consumer Electronics Show ().
Why the sudden surge? A variety of reasons. The biggest contributor is the rise of smartphones. Consumers are not satisfied with low-quality out-of-the-box earbuds that come with mobile devices; we want studio-like sound quality when listening to songs, watching media or making phone calls. We want noise-cancellation characteristics too. On top of all this, headphones have become desired by all ages with each demographic wanting their own style, type – in-ear or over-ear – and identity.
Let’s take a look at some highlights on the show’s floor today.
As expected, Monster, makers of the uber-popular line, unveiled exciting, new headphones, including over-ear models. Fashion label Diesel, for example, partnered with Monster to establish the “Diesel Noise Division†line. The first pair of headphones to unveil under this collaboration is “VEKTR,†sharp-looking black headphones combining Diesel’s eye for design and Monster’s high-performance qualities.
A recent entrant into the headphone space, House of Marley, from the Bob Marley family enterprise led by one of his sons,, continues to impress with their innovations, offering new styles and designs in a variety of price points. House of Marley headphones have been a huge hit since , and their lines are expanding to things like portable speakerbags and Bluetooth ‘docking’ stations – more on that to come later.
Christopher Bridges, aka "Ludacris" shares with CES goers why his Soul by Ludacris headphones will be a hit
Celebrities from the music industry are getting in the headphones game too. Rapper and actor, Ludacris graced CES attendees with his presence at his “Soul by Ludacris†booth where the focus was on his .
Rapper 50 Cent is also invested in headphone technology. He graced the CES floor a few occasions already, spending time at the booth, his company focused on wireless and wired headphones. Last year, with the mega-rapper, and he shared during his autograph session with me that relationship is over in favour of is own line. Smart move.
A bonus during today’s 50 Cent appearance was boxing champion Floyd Mayweather co-signing 8’x10’ photographs. (These will look great in the mancave.)
Headphones have become fashion statements in their own right. It’s becoming common for Canadians to have more than one pair of headphones. For example, I have a few pairs of Monster headphones for exercise and lifestyle needs. I rely on my when at the gym or exercising outdoors – they provide excellent sound quality and are water and sweat-proof. I use over-the-ear headphones for those noise-cancelling moments when traveling. When traveling by plane, I use House of Marley in-ear headphones so I can wear them for just about the entire duration of the flight.
Licensing of popular pop culture like comic book superheroes, sports teams and even candies are becoming mainstream among headphones. iHip, for example, has released new pro sports team lines, including the NFL, MLB, NCAA, Marvel, Detective Comics and even candy-themed headphones like Bubblicious. Smart play in my opinion; these lines will attract all ages and interests.
As we move deeper into the connected world, the number of accessories to improve our mobile devices will continue its growth. It’s no surprise headphones are turning heads in every corner of CES.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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January 11, 2012
OLED, Smart and 3D TVs prominent at CES 2012
Samsung showcases its Super OLED TVs at CES 2012
by Elliott Chun
Leading up to this year’s show, industry insiders expected OLED to take the cake as a top news maker of after unveiling in big-screen formats. This is certainly true, with Korean electronics giants LG and Samsung strutting 55-inch OLED TVs and drawing plenty of crowds to fuel the fanfare.
If you’re curious what OLED is, Jeffrey Ingram, spokesperson from Samsung Canada shared “each individual pixel has its own sub-pixel, and each sub-pixel has its own colour.â€
Put simply, OLED provides faster picture quality for moving resolution that is one thousand times faster than a LED panel. The output is amazing, best-in-class picture quality.
TVs continue to get smart
Google TV was hyped heavily at last year’s show, and it was mentioned today that the technology is finally ready to hit the market. Several manufacturers, including Sony and LG were demoing how Google TV works, and the experience was seamless. Remotes will offer things like QWERTY keyboards, but the biggest strengths are apps made by each manufacturer to serve as touch screen remotes from tablets and smartphones are becoming standard.
Also, LG and Samsung shared deeper advancements in the brain power of upcoming Smart TVs through gestural and voice-activation features to control the tube of 2012 and beyond.
3D technology is here to stay
Will Smith show his support of 3D movies, following a trailer previewing the upcoming Men in Black 3 movie at Sony's CES press conference.
Ever since 3D TVs debuted in the spring of 2010 in Canada, there have been as many skeptics as advocates of the technology. People question the content or label 3D as a fad. Well, guess what? All the biggest manufacturers in the business are committed to evolving the technology so it’s easy to use and offers a “wow-factor†for viewers. Expect 3D to be one of several functions today’s televisions will offer out of the box.
Sony set aside some real estate in their massive CES pavilion to show their commitment to solve the mystery of displaying 3D without the need for glasses through small and big-screen 3D-enabled LCD HDTVs, and a BRAVIA model. While far from perfect, it was encouraging to see the investment from major companies is there.
Additionally, the biggest names in the entertainment business are dedicated to producing films in 3D, evidenced by Sony Pictures showing a teaser for the upcoming Men in Black 3 (MIB3) movie, starring Will Smith. The “Fresh Prince†even strutted the Sony stage during their press conference with MIB3 director Barry Sonnenfeld to offer their support of 3D. Musician and actor for Panasonic at their press event.
Televisions are one exciting element of CES. There’s more to come from me tomorrow on other exciting developments from categories like tablets, smartphones and headphones, as well as high-tech appliances.
is Communications Manager of . He lives and works in Vancouver. Eliott is a blogger who is passionate about PR, marketing, technology, gadgets and playing/ watching sports. Elliott is covering the CES 2012 for ITBusiness.ca
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