The Comunicano Daily for Monday December 23 2013

The Comunicano Daily

Hello from Cascais Portugal. Last week I was in the South of France, where I was working remotely from Domaine d'Aupilhac, helping with the planning of their 25th anniversary, is just as easy as working from home.   Being on the road didn't mean work stopped for me. Meetings using Calliflower,GoToMeeting, WebEx, UberConference. Calls using either Counterpath's Bria withSimpleSignal or via Skype, along with mobile service from Truphone, plus local mobile operators Bouygues Telecom and Orange have allowed me to stay connected. I'm also finding a massive shift in my behavior with the iPad Air with a Zagg keyboard vs. MacBook Air, my traveling laptop these days. The laptop stays in the apartment (gites) more than it leaves. Same here in Portugal. In France while driving, I've made a ton of calls using 4G on Bouygues, but the calls were not over the usual cellular networks but over the data networks. The issue, coverage is still being built out and when you switch between 4G and 3G it's different networks and your IP calls get dropped. That problem will go away over time. Here in Portugal, Optimus' 4G network is giving me up to 50 megs of speed and I'm making VoIP calls using SimpleSignal like I'm home. Net Net--The Internet keeps me connected and working from winery (WFW) or from the back of a taxi is the same for me as WFH (working from home). Here in Portugal the combination of Optimus and Vodafone, as well as Truphone on my devices has me mobile and connected. The hotel has provisioned a personal direct connection to their broadband network for me, with my own Wi-Fi SSID so only my devices are on that part fo the network giving me 20 megs symmetrical up to 50 megs anywhere on the resort...This is where the new iPad is excelling as is the Nexus 7 tablet. What else has changed. Over the past week or two members of my team and I have been digging deeper into GoogleDocs and I'm watching how much faster collaboration can occur. Also, being on Google with an Android is far more seamless than being on other devices, but if you use the Google Apps on iOS the seamlessness seems to continue so I don't see how Microsoft or Blackberry even can catch up. The only players who can are LG and Samsung, along with some new players like OPPO andXiaomi  who a are both innovating with Android as the core OS and then adding to it. Cheers...and now onto the news         Data. Data. Data. No, not the Data in StarTrek's second coming, The Next Generation, but data is the key driver to all business these days. And, using data from the iTunes App store may be a key driver in determining just what's hot or not.       Identifying the Hottest Startups in the iTunes App Store Using Mobile Data Analytics Last week we shared some high level insights we have gleaned from the data on over 1 million apps in the Apple iTunes App Store that we actively track. This week, we wanted to share how we analyze the data at an application level to help our customers discover emerging apps and publishers.     [continue...]       One doesn't have to look farther than Google Ventures to see where Google is placing its bets long term.      Where Google Ventures is pinning its hopes December 19, 2013: 8:08 AM ET The search for a better way to fight cancer is unfolding quietly against the floor-to-ceiling window of a conference room in a San Francisco office building where three young men are scrutinizing a jumble of Post-it Notes.     [continue...]       if you can't beat them, join them. That's what legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden did when it came to battling piracy. Even though sales of recorded music are down due to piracy, the band use data to go to where the pirates are, selling out their concerts and moving millions of dollars of merchandise.      How Iron Maiden found its worst music pirates -- then went and played for them For more than a decade, musicians have battled rampant music piracy that has put labels and record stores out of business at a rapid pace. Unlike the shift to Amazon that did in the book store chains, record stores are suffering from outright theft, and the migration to iTunes or Spotify streaming isn't making up the difference.     [continue...]       Innovation is alive in Indonesia when it comes to a mobile network where no network was before. This is not the first example of this, but shows that if there's a will, there's a way.     A Guerilla Mobile Network Springs Up in Indonesia | MIT Technology Review A four-hour drive from the nearest cellular coverage in the remote highlands of Papua, Indonesia, a new kind of guerilla telecom network is operating, albeit outside the law, using a cheap base station roped into a treetop. The technology could provide a new model for self-managed "last mile" mobile coverage in the world's hardest-to-reach areas, where traditional top-down telecommunications business models don't work.     [continue...]       If you ever wondered what you can do with Push notifications, here's a real nice primer.     Push Notifications - Push Messaging - Push Marketing - Just Enough Just-in-Time - Top-10 Issues and Impacts Push notifications, push messaging, push marketing, push, news alerts, Push alerts, push messages, push mobile alerts, push alerts, weather alerts, crime alerts, emergency notifications, emergency alerts, fire alerts, news push, push news, push sports, walkie-talkie, real-time news, real-time push, real-time messages, real time weather, real-time business, business news, push business news, push tech news     [continue...]       As the Internet of Things grows, beacon technology which combines mobile apps, BlueTooth and location to trigger actions will blossom in importance.     Comment: What are iBeacons and why should retailers care? If you follow mobile tech or digital retail news, you will have heard about a mysterious new technology called iBeacons that seems to be being billed as changing everything in retail. Continue reading this article - Simply subscribe below Subscribe for less than £1 a day and get immediate online access.     [continue...]       If the FCC changes the sports blackout rules, mobile networks and mobile infrastructure players will be the big winners as sports can be leveraged into packages. And you wonder why Dish Networks wants to buy T-Mobile and keep them out of Sprint's hands?     The FCC’s plan for TV blackouts: what it means for sports fans Sports leagues - especially the NFL - use blackouts to encourage fans to see games in the stadium rather than on TV. A new proposal by the FCC would make it harder to do this, but it won't bring relief to the majority of sports fans.     [continue...]       Speaking of T-Mobile, their "uncarrier" approach may take on an ever newer twist next year, with the Seattle based carrier buying customers out of early termination fees. That will spark a very big price war if it happens...or put an end to them along with subsidized phones.      What if Uncarrier 4.0 is other carriers' early termination fees covered? [UPDATE: It probably is] Ever since John Legere teased Uncarrier 4.0 on his twitter account earlier this week, I've been racking my brains trying to decide what it's most likely to be. In terms of its own plans, value and available products, T-Mobile has done about as much as it can do to convince customers to join.     [continue...]

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