digiBIZ Daily - Oct 25th

digiBIZ Daily - Oct 25th

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24 Hours Away from Windows 8

The highly anticipated Windows 8 is less than 24 hours from release and experts and analyst are starting to weight in on what this means for Microsoft. This has already been named the most important release in technology this year. It’s the difference between Microsoft’s continued decline of market share and profits or a huge comeback story for the once leading tech giant. In a conversation I was having with an attorney yesterday, he asked me just what the new Windows is going to mean to him. This is a very difficult question to answer because I believe Windows 8 means something different to everyone. The user experience from desktop, to tablet, to mobile is one Apple has defined. Microsoft has taken a stab at a completely different interface than previous years. Along with a new interface, Windows 8 comes with better security, better gaming performance thanks to the new Intel i5 and SoC microchips built into the devices, along with Microsoft driven application renovation like Skype and Xbox. However, analysts are still worried about the “openness” of application creation from 3rd party companies. If Windows is truly going to compete in mobile than they have to have a clear infrastructure for developers like the infrastructure from Google and Apple. There is no doubt this release will do well out of the gates but will it be enough for Windows to finally compete against the current leaders in mobile?

What the Rising Stock Meant for Facebook Employees

Yesterday I reported on the sudden increase in stock from Facebook thanks to the earning reports and the success Facebook is having in the mobile space in recent months. But the rising stock didn’t just mean the company is happy. Thanks to Facebook giving a percentage of shares to their employees (over 200 Million) all the employees became a little richer. In fact, those shares are worth approximately 5.2 Billion dollars split among the employees. You do the math, that means if Facebook employed 300 employees, each had 17K shares at the current stock price than each employee would be close to a half of million richer. We do take account that certain executives have more than the first year developers but you get the point. This is the direction that Facebook and the team at Facebook have been looking to go since the first few months of the devastating IPO.

Blackberry’s Largest Account Gone

The decline of Blackberry’s success has been rapid for the past few years but now its worst than every as Blackberry is losing their largest account since the beginning. The government including the FBI, Congress and even President Obama has been carrying Blackberrys since day one but Customs Enforcement is changing it all as they have just selected to give all their employees iPhones. Although this was certainly a pesting blow to the once-leading Smartphone maker, it’s worst as other governmental departments are looking to part ways as well. As recent as 2005, Blackberry owned over 60% of the marketshare but has seen their shares decrease to less than 5% because of Apple and Android.

Want to Chat with Someone of a Different Language?

Japan-based DOCOMO has developed a new app that allows inpiduals that speak two different languages to chat with real-time translation. The new app “Hanashite Hon’yaku” (say that 5 times fast if you can say it at all) will allow you to speak to inpiduals in real-time while the app translates the conversation. The new app will be available on Android November 1st and will include languages Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean but looks to add French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai by end of November. With this new revolution, teamed up with live video conferencing, how do you think this will revolutionize how inpiduals and businesses interact or in the education sector?

Facebook Leads Among Teens

It was no surprise that Facebook still leads in social media among teenagers but I believe the biggest surprise was the other social media accounts that were in the mix. A recent survey spoke with 7,700 teenagers asking them to rank their social media sites 1-3. In the survey, Facebook led with 3,280 teens picking Facebook as their go-to social site followed by 2,118 for Twitter and just over 900 for Instagram. Google+ came in forth with over 400. LinkedIN, Pinterest, Flickr and Tumblr were in the mix behind the top 4. One of the biggest surprises was Google+ success for only being out just over a year and beating out sites like Pinterest and Flickr.