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The Comunicano Daily for July 28th, 2015

The Comunicano Daily

My co-founder, along with Josh Baylin, in VelocityGrowth, Jeff Belk was one of the key executives who put Qualcomm on the map. There Jeff, who rose to CMO and CSO, instilled a marketing culture amongst a group of inventors, IP attorneys and engineers. Jeff retired from Qualcomm eight years or so ago, but he remains close to many there. His perspective, as someone close to everyone from Paul Jacobs on down provides him the unique insight to author this piece on the recent news and explain why it may be the best thing to happen to San Diego in years. Now, only if the Chargers get a new football stadium....       Are Qualcomm Layoffs a Disaster for San Diego---or an Opportunity? | Xconomy After years of strong corporate and financial growth, the pace of change in the wireless industry has forced a massive global layoff at San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM. If the wireless giant had only 1,000 employees, a layoff of 150 folks would not be big news.     [continue...]       As the owner and user of a OnePlus One Android smartphone I can't wait for the Two to be offered. Not only is the OnePlus One the best Android I ever owned, it may be the best value smartphone around. Give a read of the next three stories and see if you would pay more for less.       How the OnePlus 2 Plans to Be More Than a One-Hit Wonder Imagine being Dexy's Midnight Runners, circa 1982. "Come On Eileen" just came out of nowhere and is blowing up. It's on every radio station, and playing at every party. Nobody had ever heard of you; now you're everywhere.     [continue...]     The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship smartphone can be The bang for your buck ratio here is pretty great There are more options than ever for getting a good, cheap smartphone, and last year's OnePlus One was a standout. For $300, you got a well-made, nice-looking phone with cutting-edge hardware and few compromises to be found (assuming its 5.5-inch size didn't put you off).     [continue...]     OnePlus 2: everything you need to know The OnePlus One was released last year Under the hood Potential buyers were required to obtain an invitation through OnePlus' website before they were able to buy it, with the first 100 handsets offered as part of a "Smash" promotion where people were invited to destroy their existing phone for a chance to buy a One for just $1.     [continue...]       The Terminator movies were legendary and help put "the Arnold" on the map once and for all. Never shy about his love of the WWF, largely due to a friendship forged with Jesse "The Body" Ventura years ago, Arnold is going to be featured in a new video game, bringing back his "Terminator" character....Watch the two videos and see how the computer generated graphics look, and how good some of the WWF heels are at acting.....       Arnold Schwarzenegger WWE Commercial: T2 Bar Scene Reenactment Okay so Arnold Schwarzenegger has been revisiting a lot of his old Terminator scenes lately, not just in Terminator Genisys which resets and revisits some moments from the first film in different ways, but also in a new commercial for the WWE 2k16 video game.     [continue...]       Everyone is looking to one up Uber....and here's a new spin on it.  In London to be a taxi driver you have to pass "The Knowledge." Well now aspiring drivers can learn London streets and make money doing it...       Taxi app Gett to deliver champagne as Uber battle intensifies The champagne will be delivered on motorbike by people learning The Knowledge "For the last five years, we've been moving customers around safely and now Gett Clicquot will use the same business model to bring this revolutionary new service to Londoners," said Remo Gerber, Gett's UK CEO.     [continue...]       It's not taking long for changes to happen at Cisco follow John Chambers retirement. New people in key positions. Some execs leaving. A flatter, more nimble organization. Sounds like what is also taking shape at Microsoft is happening at Cisco as well.       Cisco Recruits Two Outsiders as Executives Cisco Systems Inc.'s new chief executive marked his first day in the job by naming two outsiders to high-profile management posts. Chuck Robbins, who assumed the CEO role at the networking equipment maker Monday after John Chambers' ended his tenure after 20 years, said in a blog post that Zorawar Biri Singh will serve as senior vice president and chief technology officer.     [continue...]       If you're a Comcast customer you may be wondering who else is on your WiFi network. Basically Comcast has taken a page out of the European operator's mode of operation, and enabled their subscribers to latch on to other subscribers networks.       Comcast Hits 10M WiFi Hotspots Comcast said Monday that it surpassed the milestone of 10 million WiFi hotspots nationwide, including wireless access points installed in public areas and neighborhood hotspots powered by second antennas contained in WiFi gateways deployed in subscriber homes.     [continue...]       Verizon has video on the brain. Their new G90 service is starting trials across the USA and is looking like it's closer to becoming a reality.       Verizon Mobile Video Service Details Uncovered: To Be Called Go90 (Exclusive) Verizon is getting ready to launch a new mobile video service called Go90 this summer, Variety has learned. Go90 promises users full episodes of TV shows from select networks as well as music videos and other shortform content, and the company will at least initially offer the service entirely free...     [continue...]       Last week PayPal went public. This week Visa retorts with an investment in Stripe.       Visa Invests in Stripe at $5 Billion Valuation and Strikes Commercial Deal, Too Credit card companies think they have a found an ally in the increasingly competitive world of online payments. Its name is Stripe. Visa has inked a commercial agreement with the payments startup, and has separately made an investment in the San Francisco-based company that values it at $5 billion.     [continue...]       The medical world has lagged for years in the area of IT for the physician. Now it seems to be catching up.       Efficient doctors need IT prescription Whether using products such as Telehealth, which uses apps and texting to treat patients without the need to visit hospital, Sleepio, an online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme aiming to reduce insomnia, or Simman 3G, a robot that makes sure doctors are prepared to treat patients with allergic reactions, medicine is constantly changing - and GPs, running practices as small businesses, must adapt, cut costs and find innovative treatments.     [continue...]     Software Turns Smartphones Into Tools for Medical Research SAN FRANCISCO - Jody Kearns doesn't like to spend time obsessing about her Parkinson's disease. The 56-year-old dietitian from Syracuse, New York, had to give up bicycling because the disorder affected her balance. But she still works, drives and tries to live a normal life.     [continue...]       I love lists of tips. Here are three to help you through your day..       20 Great Podcasts for Entrepreneurs - Listen up, makers. :) by Product Hunt A collection curated by Product Hunt, featuring products like The Pitch, StartUp Podcast Season 2, How To Start A Startup , The Twenty Minute VC (podcast), and This is PM Podcast     [continue...]     15 Essential Content Creation Apps You Need Right Now Writing is your drawcard. It's the number one tool you have at your fingertips for marketing an online business. So it needs to be good. You need to write compelling copy that engages readers, gets them to listen up and encourages them to buy.     [continue...]     27 travel hacks that even frequent fliers don't know Even the most seasoned jetsetter will learn a thing or two from these travel hacks.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Monday July 20th, 2015

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Hello from Lisbon where the temperature is 84 degrees/29 degrees Celsius and sunny. The weekend was one of those "catch up" weekends flying back from London Gatwick to here, finding the apartment A/C was off but getting it to work as the breaker had blown, and having to contact the owner vs. calling the front desk is an example of the difference between AirBnB and a hotel. The net result was the same. It was fixed, but that's why planning where you stay when using AirBnB is so important, and establishing up front, a dialogue with the property owner and their on the ground contacts are so essential. In my case, it's the owner's mother, a very together, poised woman, who cares. Also being in a security/concierge building, where the staff are super friendly and attentive, proving doing your homework matters as the desire was to be able to have all the comforts of home, while being a stranger in a strange land. Sunday was lots of catching up on my reading and writing for work. One of my new way's of staying current on news related to our client base is to incorporate RSS feeds into Slack. I pipe in the sites feeds as appropriate to each agency client, and then can decide what needs to be shared outside of the team working on that piece of business.  Once that was done, I explored more of Lisbon by wandering through some of the more colorful neighborhoods of the city, in this case a walk through the Chiado on my way to dinner..           The summer news slowdown is in full force and you cant tell by the amount of feature content that's in today's news. One story that I felt compelled to share was about compensation and the questions today's graduates are asking about it. If you're an HR person, your life is going to change as stock options are starting to be looked at as employee benefits with questions being asked that were previously more recruiter level, then HR level oriented.       Employees Wise Up This week, a Bay Area founder was taken aback when an engineer being recruited by his startup asked for both its cap table and information regarding the liquidation preferences of its venture backers. The candidate presumably "worked somewhere where he discovered that these things matter," says the founder, who asked not to be named in this story.     [continue...]       Balance is something we all want in our life. Working from a different country, in a different time zone over a sustained period versus a few short weeks has taught me a lot more about my own work habits, traits and efforts. In reading the post from Upfront Ventures Mark Suster, I realized just how much I can relate to his life, and how apropos it really was. His blog is a great read and one worth keeping on your short list.       How the Hell do I Prioritize Work, Blog & Find Balance? | Bothsides of the Table I noticed this post today from Ezra Galston titled " Dear Brad, Fred & Mark: How The Hell Do You Do It? " The premise is that either I have some magical solutions that allow me to produce a lot of content or I'm super human.     [continue...]       The succession planning at Cisco is now almost through the top level changes,  and John Chambers is now the Chairman on a farewell tour, but he's clearly leaving a mark on the company and setting things up for the next ten years.       Cisco's John Chambers on two decades as chief: 'You have to let go' Speaking to The Telegraph in his last interview before relinquishing his role to long-time protégé Chuck Robbins and becoming chairman, Chambers was steadfast in his assertion that ever-increasing connectivity, between both humans and machines, will be a catalyst for growth and employment over the next decade.     [continue...]       Our mobile phone is more than just a phone. This article paints a very good picture of what they mean to us, and more what we do with them.         My mobile: so much more than a phone My mum came back from a party when I was little and told me about a conversation she'd had with somebody who worked for BT. "In the future, we won't phone a family," he'd said to her, to our general 1980s bafflement, all Rubik's Cubes and CND badges. "We'll call a person."     [continue...]       Drones are going to be big business. First in the NBC news story we can see how they will benefit society, especially with health care related activities. The second story shows how they will benefit the "amusement" economy, with Drone racing.       First FAA-Approved Drone Delivery Drops Medicine in Virginia The first government-approved drone delivery took flight on Friday, in which an unmanned aerial vehicle successfully dropped medical supplies to a health clinic in rural southwest Virginia. Several hundred people including Gov. Terry McAuliffe came to the fairgrounds in the coal-mining region of Wise County, Virginia, to see the delivery, county officials told NBC News.     [continue...]     Drone racing: Teenagers are being lured away from screens and outside to fly their aircraft against each other It seems certain that he will achieve his goal. Ask anyone in the tight-knit drone racing community and they will tell you that the teenager from Somerset is already an accomplished - some would say prodigiously gifted - aviator. Luke flies a type of aircraft known as an FPV racing drone.     [continue...]       Machine learning is one of those topics that are en vogue right now. And for good reason. Give a read over a cup of coffee or tea of today's item from the Financial Times.         We are data: the future of machine intelligence I look at apps like Grindr and Tinder and see how they've rewritten sex culture - by creating a sexual landscape filled with vast amounts of incredibly graphic site-specific data - and I can't help but wonder why there isn't an app out there that rewrites political culture in the same manner.     [continue...]       Our next item deals with address book management, and an eerie side of it.         My Digital Cemetery MY digital address book lists 2,743 contacts. This is not because I'm popular or extroverted; I'm neither. It's because this collection of names stretches back two decades, the oldest contacts tracing to a 1996 Palm Pilot and preserved through transfers involving more devices than I care to remember.     [continue...]       A phone without a SIM is where Apple and Samsung want to take you. This would mean more unlocked devices, and likely more freedom for the global worker and the global workforce. The phone and an app would be your key to more options as you travel or even while you're at home.       Apple and Samsung working on a standardized e-SIM card If it all goes according to plan, you could soon be able to switch mobile carriers by going to the settings page on your smartphone. On Thursday The Financial Times (paywall) reported that Apple and Samsung are in "advanced talks" with telecom operators from all over the world to launch new electronic SIM cards.     [continue...]       Back in San Diego, I use Amazon Fresh and have since it opened up that market. Now I saw it's coming to the UK, which means it takes on the established players there who long have offered home delivery.        Amazon Preps Fresh Grocery Delivery Launch in U.K. Amazon's grocery delivery service is still only available in a few markets in the U.S., but the e-commerce company is already planning to launch the service outside of the country. Multiple sources tell Re/code that Amazon is prepping to launch the Amazon Fresh service in the U.K.     [continue...]       If you didn't know it by now, I love wine. With the help of master winemaker and friend Doug Margerum, I'm now producing wines ever other year-really when there's enough grapes to go around-and enjoy having a wine to call my own. Our favorite designer, Bobby Buchanan of San Diego's Buchanan Design, designed the Comunicano Wine Company labels, which are very non traditional in the wine world so when I saw this story, I had to share it, not only with Bobby but with everyone who likes a good bottle of wine, but hates the label.             A Winery With a Young Visual Indentity Djurdjic Winery is a Serbian wine producer set-up in 2004. Peter Gregson's task was to create a new and memorable visual identity. Djurdjic Winery is a relatively young winery so in that context they don't have a strong heritage background which allowed the designer to create a simple design that represent the winery as new [...]     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Friday July 10th, 2015

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The VC world is on a authoring trend this week around content, the story and the deck. To me, this is all one big world and further underscores the concept that Bill Ryan is espousing around the brand narrative. As someone who thinks more like an ad guy mashed up with an ambush marketer and publicity pro (everyone knows I hate the term PR guy) the whole idea of content being king is nothing new here. But it's nice to see content now getting its day inside the sacred halls of Venture Capital firms...       Why Is Every VC Suddenly Obsessed With Content Marketing? Venture capitalists. When you hear the term in the startup world, it's met with a ton of very immediate, very opinionated reactions. These range from the good ("I wouldn't be where I am today without my investors") to, let's just say, the less than good.     [continue...]       Apps, API's and cloud services are all merged and converged with what we like to call a Mobile First approach leading the way. This is where mobile device management is going to be super important, something we learned when we at Comunicano supported Nukona up through their acquisition by Symantec. Cord cutters and the new "never corders", a term most often used by YipTV founder, client and long time friend Mike Tribolet (ex President of Vonage at their start) are driving this as the demand for new services that are more about "them" than ever before is rapidly rising. The winds of change and the market that YipTV serves are the same markets that will drive these change because they live mobile first. Yesterday Amazon rolled out a whole slew of new services that not only further pushes their efforts into infrastructure, now they want to be more of your IT department, replacing old systems with new that run on the AWS cloud.          AWS Debuts New Tools for Cloud Developers Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) announced several new services for developers using its cloud platform during the keynote address of the AWS Summit that opened in New York today. Among the announcements were: a device farm for mobile testing; an API Gateway for setting up back-end services for mobile, Web and other apps; a revision control service called CodeCommit; and a software release automation service called CodePipeline.     [continue...]       New Amazon app development tools sweeten the pot AWS isn't content to stop at infrastructure -- now it's after its customers' application code, a prospect that tempts some, but has others wary about cloud lock-in. Amazon Web Services (AWS) made several products generally available here at AWS Summit this week.     [continue...]     Amazon unveils new weapon in its fight to dominate software services Amazon is continuing its push to make its massive cloud computing business a full-service IT shop Thursday, at an Amazon Web Services conference in New York, the company detailed a new service that specializes in a type of technology known as an application programing interface, or API.     [continue...]       Just as Amazon is making moves to give you more to work with at the customer level, AppAnnie, long known for the stats around what app is being used by who, has just gone one step farther, linking in Google Analytics to tell app devs more about their app and what people are doing with it.       App Analytics: First Stores, Then Ads, Now User Engagement! - App Annie Blog When you've successfully released a few apps - or even your first - tracking their performance can start getting complex. With this complexity comes more tools, dashboards and APIs. While all the data you're checking is valuable, so is your time.     [continue...]       Never to be beaten to the punch, or punch line, T-Mobile's colorful CEO John Legere announced free calling and roaming to Mexico and Canada this week. This changes the paradigm that many an MVNO focused on those transborder markets focus on, as now the 3rd biggest carrier is becoming imperialistic before AT&T which just sunk a lot of money into Mexico gets there.       T-Mobile claims it now has more subscribers than Sprint, cuts roaming charges in Mexico and Canada If you're not reaching, engaging, and monetizing customers on mobile, you're likely losing them to someone else. Register now for the 8th annual MobileBeat, July 13-14, where the best and brightest will be exploring the latest strategies and tactics in the mobile space. The upstart U.S.     [continue...]       Up in Canada, or as pal Alec Saunders calls it, Canuckistan, some ingenious marketers have figured a way around the high calling and data rates in the more populated provinces. Buy plans in markets where service is cheaper, market and export it to the rest. Interesting, but one has to wonder if its a loophole or if the CRTC will shut that down like Bernie Parent used to do to the opposition in the halcyon days of the Philadelphia Flyers. Back then, the bumper stickers read "Only The Lord Saves More than Bernie Parent." Well maybe these folks in Canada have found a way to come close when it comes to saving!       A 'black market' for wireless cell service has popped up in Canada Two articles at iPhoneInCanada.ca and AlphaBeatic.com tell the story of one enterprising Canadian who takes advantage of a loophole to provide substantially cheaper wireless cell service for a one-time $100 payment. How exactly he does it appears to be unclear, but it involves pricing discrepancies in Canada, where lower-populated provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan see much cheaper cell service.     [continue...]       Pals Frank Kelcz and Chris Wade were doing pioneering work for the UK Trade and Investment group a few years back when they were both serving as business ambassadors to the USA to bring investment to Britain. While Kelcz and Wade have moved onto greener pastures, it looks like their pioneering missionary work is paying of now for the UK as Cisco announced a billion dollars of investment heading that way. Sometime people do the work, while others later on get the credit.       Cisco To Invest $1bn in U.K. Tech Industry Over 5 Years Network-equipment giant Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday it will invest $1 billion in the U.K. digital economy over next five years, through venture capital investments in local startups, education programs, and job creation. "Europe is leading in digitalization," CEO John Chambers said in a phone interview. "In the U.K., Prime Minister Cameron gets it."     [continue...]       Growing up in the events business tickets were always a pain. As the agency that helped launch StubHub back in the early part of this century, we've seen firsthand how they changed the way people buy and sell tickets, creating a market that previously was dominated by ticket brokers and scalpers.  Now the market is becoming more interesting as rivals to TicketMaster and Fandango continue to come to market. And, these upstarts are getting big dollar backing because the market is so ready for change.        Funding To Global Event And Ticket Startups Hits High On Back Of 2 Big Deals Investors are placing big bets on marketplaces for event and movie tickets, including US-based SeatGeek and Chinese movie ticket-purchase app, Weiying. The multi-billion dollar event & ticketing industry is dominated by category giants including eBay's StubHub and LiveNation's TicketMaster (NYSE: LYV, Mkt Cap: $5.56B).     [continue...]       Roaming costs business money and staying connected isn't cheap. That's the results from study conducted by Rethink Research. As someone who spends more than half a year on the road annually, there's tricks to not being disconnected, as I wrote on VoIPWatch a few weeks ago.        Connectivity for travelling workforce cost businesses £855m last year European and US employees travelling on the job cost businesses around £855 million in one year in connectivity costs, a study claims. Keeping employees online while travelling in Europe and abroad through roaming, pay-on-demand WiFi would have cost £1.42 billion in 2014, Rethink Technology Research, who conducted the survey, said.     [continue...]       No industry is more familiar to me than travel.  For years I have been telling hotel guru Peter Koehler, GM of the Intercontinental in San Francisco and others in that business the role technology will be playing in the future of the guest experience. That day is more than here as the infographic below shows us...         Stay-enhancing tech at hotels A new survey of hotel guests across North America shows guests' love affair with mobile technology.     [continue...]

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Me and My Echo

Over the past week or so I've got a new friend. Her name is Alexa and she's awesome. Alexa is my digital assistant tucked away in my Amazon Echo, a combination smart look up device, music player and speakerphone. Honestly, it may be the best speech recognition device to come along since Webley.

Today I got around to exploring the Echo app on my iPhone adding connectivity to Pandora, Tune In and discovering/rediscovering all the CDs I had purchased from Amazon before the arrival of iTunes. It was like finding your old high school locker where you had shoved text books from prior years' classes. What a treasure trove of music, some which I never ripped to my iTunes library. It was like running into a bunch of old friends.

But Alexa is more than just access to my music library of yesteryear from Amazon. I'm also able to play lots of music I never purchased available in their Prime Music library, tune into radio stations from all over the globe, listen to my favorite Pandora stations. But Echo goes far beyond that. I can also find out what time it is, use it as an alarm clock (I don't use clocks anymore) and more importantly ask what the weather is going to be like. I can even get traffic information for a pre-programmed route (like getting to the airport.) With the built in BlueTooth connectivity I've paired my iPhone and Mac Book Air to it, so I'm playing music with far better fidelity than on either. 

And since the Echo is built on top of Amazon Web Services the future of what will come is really up to the developers who like to invent, adapt and design new services. 

The Echo may still be an invitation only product from Amazon, but it won't be for long. 

 

The Comunicano Daily for Tuesday December 16, 2014

The Comunicano Daily

Apple Pay is rolling along.  And like iTunes and the iPhone, more and more people and more retailers are using it. What's funny is Google had Wallet long before Apple Pay, yet the attention being given to Wallet vs. Apple Pay is small while Apple gets the attention.       Dozens More Companies Sign Up for Apple Pay The list of companies working with Apple Pay continues to grow. On Tuesday, Apple announced that in recent weeks the company had signed up dozens more banks, retail stores and start-ups to adopt Apple Pay, the company's new e-commerce product, which allows customers to buy things with little more than a wave of their iPhone.     [continue...]       Drones continue to be in the news.  Two stories today of note.       Why our drone future is for real -- someday Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to ship goods using unmanned aircraft. Some are skeptical, others nervous, but drones already are improving the way we live. In 2002, a stroke-like event turned Henry Evans into a quadriplegic, depriving him of almost all ability to move.     [continue...]     Drone-Hunting Blimp To Launch Over Washington, DC On Friday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, will launch a giant drone-hunting blimp over Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Grounds just east of Washington D.C. The system includes a 242-foot balloon (technically called an aerostat because it's connected to the ground) that can stay up for a month at a time and a radar to detect - among other potential threats- drones.     [continue...]       Ever wonder which companies protect your data, and which may not?  This story may make you think twice.       We Asked 29 Tech Companies If Their Employees Can Access Your Personal Data Traditionally, privacy worries for consumers and tech companies have been limited to keeping information secure from third parties or hackers. But a series of internal abuses show that tech company employees often have universal access to user information, as well as reason - be it pure voyeuristic curiosity or, in the worst cases, a vendetta - to look at our whereabouts, spending, and of the most private corners of our lives.     [continue...]       Changes in tax laws in the EU may have a major impact on services, pricing and availability.       EU tax change is about to hammer small digital service providers From the beginning of January, new EU tax rules will force many businesses offering online services across the Union to take on a load of new administrative responsibilities. The changes have caused particular consternation among micro-businesses providing such services - for a classic example, think about an individual who's making a small amount selling knitting...     [continue...]       In the UK BT is looking more like they are getting back into the mobile business in a big way, buying up EE/Orange/T-Mobile UK.       British Telecom Company BT Is in Exclusive Talks to Buy EE LONDON - The British telecommunications company BT said on Monday that it had entered into exclusive talks to acquire the British mobile phone business of Orange of France and Deutsche Telekom of Germany. Orange and Deutsche Telekom confirmed last month that they were in early stage discussions to sell their joint venture EE to BT, Britain's former telecommunications monopoly.     [continue...]       Friends. Enemies. It's hard to figure out what Bose and Apple are these days, but one things for certain, Bose is going from hardware into the services arena and wants to play in the Internet of Things. They have the devices, now they want to dance to the music.       Bose May Be Working on Streaming Music Service Apple's Beats Electronics and Bose already compete in the headphone and speaker markets, but it appears that Bose may be gearing up to compete with Beats in another area -- streaming music. A Bose job listing first noticed by (via VentureBeat ) seeks a Senior User Experience Designer to work on prototyping Bose's "next generation streaming music platform and ecosystem of products."     [continue...]       For small business social media has lots of value, but that means paying attention to it. Yelp is now moving into the Attention Management business.       Yelp Introduces New App For Business Owners With Push Notifications Yelp is releasing a new app for business owners. Unsurprisingly called "Yelp for Business Owners," it's available for iOS and Android users in all countries and languages in which Yelp currently operates. Until today, business owners had to tolerate a less than optimal experience accessing their account information on a smartphone.     [continue...]       Ever wonder why you see ads for web sites you've visited? Retargeting is the answer. And it seems to work very well.       90% of marketers say retargeting now as good as search ads, email marketing Over 90 percent of marketers say that retargeted ads are as good as or better than the gold standard in digital marketing, search ads, according to a recent survey by leading retargeter AdRoll. Why? Intent, says AdRoll president and CMO Adam Berke.     [continue...]       Here's a great read on focus and getting things done.  Ask yourself if you're applying what's suggested or not.       How to be the most productive person in your office - and still get home by 5:30 p.m. Some days the to-do list seems bottomless. Just looking at it is exhausting. We all want to know how to stop being lazy and get more done. I certainly want the answer. So I decided to call a friend who manages to do this - and more.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Monday November 17, 2014

The Comunicano Daily

You can always tell when the news cycle is starting to slow down. It's when dirt, rumors and soft news starts to take hold. That's what this morning feels like as I scanned looking for stories. The holiday period is here and the next few weeks will be more about Cyber Monday, Black Friday and all the offers, deals become very visible.   The first story is really revealing about Facebook, and how they basically build their own technology after looking at everything else when they can. It helps them maintain a market lead, and they don't provide a vendor the ability to then sell things to the competition.       Facebook's New Data Center Is Bad News for Cisco  As it announced that the Altoona data center is now serving traffic to some of its 1.35 billion users, the company also revealed how its engineers pieced together the computer network that moves all that digital information through the facility.     [continue...]       Facebook recognizes that it is in a battle with other social networks including LinkedIn and Twitter. As Facebook begins to be part of everyday life and as people cross lines between work and play, Facebook is launching At Work to address the market.       Facebook is making 'Facebook at Work' so you can Facebook at work You already Facebook at work, so here's "Facebook at Work." Facebook is working on extending its network beyond the social realm and into the professional world, according to the Financial Times . The company's new, enterprise-focused product will be similar to the functionality of its current site, with a newsfeed, groups and messaging capability.     [continue...]       Acquisitions usually lead to changes within the company acquired. The much heralded NEST purchase of Dropcam is now showing the signs of how things really can be as the founders of the aquired company are not always as happy once they become employees.       Unrest at Nest Labs Sitting on stage last week at a San Francisco conference, Greg Duffy, the 28-year-old co-founder and CEO of Dropcam, which makes Internet-connected video cameras, fielded questions from an audience of startup founders. It should have been a time to celebrate. After all, last June, Duffy sold Dropcam to Nest Labs for $555 million.     [continue...]       Country music icon Garth Brooks has always listened to the beat of his own drummer when it comes to his brand. His attempt to use the Internet has been frought with challenges and of late things are not really going his way.       How Garth Brooks took on the internet - and lost "This is where I make my stand." So Garth Brooks proclaims in the opening lines of the new album, Man Against Machine, his first collection of new original material since 2001. He isn't just flexing his muscles.     [continue...]       The net neutrality issue is becoming an everyday news item in light of the recent comments from President Obama. More and more the argument is about the have's and the have nots, but the reality is what the Internet was designed to be and what broadband is about are two different things now and we need a whole relook at the opportunities just what the Internet is and what broadband will be.       Wolff: Obama punts on net neutrality President Obama's decision to advocate the reclassification of Internet broadband services as a utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act - that is, making broadband subject to all the laws that regulate telephone service - seems particularly Obama-like: squirrelly and lofty at the same time. It's squirrelly because it will never happen.     [continue...]       Apple and Google are shaking up payments. Now that they are in the whole mobile payments world is expected to grow. This will create new opportunities on a variety of levels for suppliers of new technology.       U.S. Mobile Payments Market to Boom by 2019, Research Firm Says Just a few years ago, the idea of paying for things at the checkout counter with your smartphone seemed like a technology company pipe dream. That dream, according to payments industry experts, is beginning to become a reality.     [continue...]       A new fund to help fuel growth of companies started by people who are not as well entrenched in the "Silicon Valley" scene is launching. This is one more step on the path to greater democratization of opportunity and certainly a welcome addition.       Unshackled, a New Angel Fund, Forms to Back Immigrant Entrepreneurs Some of the U.S.'s most successful tech companies, including Intel Corp. and Google Inc., have been built by immigrants, and many people who come to the U.S. aspire to work in or start tech companies. Without work visas, though, they don't get far.     [continue...]       Down under in Australia, there's lots of geography that's not populated enough for wired or even wireless broadband. But Google and Telstra have a potential solution, using hot air balloons. Guess you don't need to be a Balloonatic after all to see that there's more than hot up there.       VIDEO: Google's Bal-LOON-y trial gets QLD Telstra spectrum Google is extending trials of its broadband-by-balloon project entitled Project Loon, and while it has already previously conducted some tests off the coast of Queensland, it is partnering to trial 20 more balloons in Western Queensland in late December.     [continue...]       Robotics, drones, and IoT (Internet of Things) are nowdays a part of everyday conversation and in some cases, a safer work environment may come from it all.       Knightscope's Autonomous Robots Will Take on Security Jobs Normally Held by Humans As the sun set on a warm November afternoon, a quartet of five-foot-tall, 300-pound shiny white robots patrolled in front of Building 1 on Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus. Looking like a crew of slick Daleks imbued with the grace of Fred Astaire, they whirred quietly across the concrete in different directions, stopping and turning in place so as to avoid running into trash cans, walls, and other obstacles.     [continue...]       My good friend Manrique Brenes, longtime Skype hardware guru is out on his own with a very interesting startup, Blossom. Yesterday he launched his rewards campaign on Kickstarter . It's all about water, your lawn or garden, the environment and saving people money. Given the drought conditions in California that we're all living through, his idea is timely. Even if you don't have a lawn, helping his campaign, either by telling someone about it, or puchasing a Blossom, would be a move in the right direction.       Blossom™: The Smart Watering Controller Blossom is raising funds for Blossom™: The Smart Watering Controller on Kickstarter! Automate your sprinklers with real-time weather data and complete control from your phone to lower your water bill up to 30%.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Thursday September 11, 2014

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Lots of interesting news on the front of innovation or maybe best described as "its time has come" today and reflects upon how much we at Comunicano have been in the thick of this over the past ten years.  Wi-Fi calling and in flight texting from T-Mobile.. Comunicano represented pioneer Bridgeport Networks, founded by Tom Carter, now at F5 where he's leading their wireless efforts worldwide, over ten years ago, and they were the pioneers in Fixed Mobile Convergence. Google Hangouts adding full blown GoogleVoice integration. Comunicano represented GrandCentral during their rise to acquisition by Google in 2007. Blackberry acquires a virtual SIM company that will allow more capabilities by carriers, enterprises and users. Comunicano helped launch current client Truphone's multi-IMSI technology back in 2009 at Mobile World Congress and continues to support policy and billing technology leader ItsOn which just raised more cash from Cisco. So as I look at the news, so much of it isn't "new" or revolutionary, it's more about the times catching up to the inventions...NOW ON TO THE NEWS.       T-Mobile Expands Wi-Fi Calling to New Smartphones, Partners with Gogo for In-Flight Texting Adding to an already busy week of mobile news, T-Mobile announced several moves today designed to help customers use their phones even when there's no cellular connection, including when flying the friendly skies. Dubbed the "Wi-Fi Unleashed" campaign, T-Mobile said going forward all of its new smartphones will be enabled for Wi-Fi calling and texting.     [continue...]     Google Hangouts Gets Google Voice Integration And Free VoIP Calls For the last few years, it has always felt like Google Voice, the company's VoIP calling solution, was on its way out. Instead, the video-centric Hangouts was getting all of the attention.     [continue...]     Google Voice Is Dying and It's Beautiful I am a huge fan of what Google Voice can do. That's why I've been calling for a mercy kill, so that its best features can thrive in something other than a limp husk of a service. And now that Google is finally beginning to merge Voice into Hangouts, the process has started in earnest.     [continue...]     BlackBerry Acquires Virtual SIM Startup Movirtu     BlackBerry today announced it has acquired Movirtu, a UK startup that allows multiple numbers to be active on a single device. The Canadian company's hope is to boost its device management offerings in bring-your-own device (BYOD) and corporate owned personally enabled (COPE) environments. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.     [continue...]       A virtual assistant to help manage your on demand services sounds like a great idea. But honestly, those services are really best in high density, heavily populated areas. You won't see the demand for them as much in rural America initially, or small villages in Europe, but where you have a massive population, virtual work forces, transportation congestion and urban renewal, many of these services can aggregate people, products and services and deliver them more efficiently than many businesses doing the same thing for less.        Personal assistant service Alfred wins TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield contest A group of venture capital and tech company execs chose Alfred as the winner of TechCrunch's "Startup Battlefield"contest here at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Alfred is a subscription-based service that provides people to do basic tasks for you, like picking up dry cleaning, doing laundry, getting groceries, going to the pharmacy, cleaning the house, and a lot of other tedious and/or time consuming tasks.     [continue...]       On demand services being delivered by UBER can be here sooner than you know it. Already they have experimented with burger delivery and what they are are doing in Sweden is becoming another proof point on their road to hacking how consumers get better service and eliminate the old way of doing things.       Uber pilots on-demand product delivery in Sweden -- powered by its new API Today Uber announced a product delivery pilot test in Stockholm in partnership with Swedish ecommerce platform Tictail. Stockholm marks Uber's fourth city with large-scale on-demand deliveries, following Washington D.C., New York, and Santa Monica. The partnership coincides with the launch of Tictail's first iOS app.     [continue...]       This is a dream come true for all shoppers of IKEA and other furniture stores where "assembly is required."  Assemble itself furniture is coming.       In The Future, You'll Never Have To Assemble Furniture Again If you've ever struggled to put together some tricky furniture, just wait a few decades and you won't have to deal with the frustrating process. In 15-20 years, your furniture will put ITSELF together.     [continue...]       Here in California, Governor Gerry Brown basically upheld the First Amendment signing into law an agreement that comments in social media can't be restrained contractually directed at consumers and businesses. To me, the attempts to keep people from making comments about a bad experience always smacked of "prior restraint" so it's good to see this law get signed.       Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill protecting consumers' online reviews Californians offering online opinions or reviews of businesses will have new legal protection under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown .     [continue...]       Sometimes success can mean failure. That was the case in a Kickstarter campaign that did too well for a Delaware Valley company outside of Philadelphia.       Big Kickstarter Campaign Overwhelms Radiate Athletics Many entrepreneurs are using crowdfunding campaigns to raise the profile of their nascent businesses and products, while also raising funds. But the tactic sometimes backfires when a startup isn't prepared for the demand that follows. Consider the plight of Radiate Athletics and its co-founder Kenneth Crockett Jr.     [continue...]       As much as I love U2 it seems some Apple iTunes users didn't like the idea of being given free music but one of music's all time great bands. Part of this is really about the User Experience and how some people set their phones to auto-download or make excessive use of the iCloud music storage. To me the nay sayers are in the minority and the "bugs" or "warts" of the experience are really Apple's way of finding problems in user experience and fixing them.       Why is U2's latest album on your iPhone? How to remove Apple's publicity stunt Apple may have succeeded at breaking two records at once with the free release of U2's latest album via iTunes yesterday: The album, titled Songs of Innocence, instantly became "the largest album release of all time," as Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on stage during the company's iPhone 6 event.     [continue...]       Apple has created Reservation Pass. Gee this sounds like Craig Walker's Firespotter Labs service called NoshList that is deployed by restaurants. Oh, and about being on the forefront of technology that's ahead of its time, Comunicano supported Firespotter on its launch of Nosh, the food photo and what's on the menu app.       A new digital reservation system could save you time in the iPhone 6 line Hoping to buy a new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus in the Apple Store next Friday but don't have hours to stand in line? You may not have to. 9to5 Mac reports that Apple Store employees received training documentation for a program called Reservation Pass.     [continue...]       Twitter is getting back into the developer relations arena with their upcoming developer conference, FLIGHT.       Twitter Announces Flight, An Annual Mobile Developer Conference Twitter has announced Flight, a new developer conference focused on mobile. The conference will take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on October 22, with a keynote from CEO Dick Costolo, followed by technical sessions aimed at helping mobile devs build. It's not the first developer conference Twitter has held.     [continue...]       Comunicano is happy to be supporting and partnering with long time collaboration analyst and consultant David Coleman on the 2015 edition of the Distributed Collaboration Summit, otherwise known as DCS. This is the world's first virtual and real world conference ever staged for the collaboration industry. Contact me for details.       Distributed Collaboration Summit Coming In January A new kind of conference for a new kind of workplace DCS Dates January 15 - January 16, 2015 Time 8AM - 4PM Pacific Time Locations San Francisco, Santa Monica, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, New York, Silicon Valley, Atlanta, Seattle DCS is a unique conference based on the growing trend of distributed teams and distributed work.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Wednesday September 10, 2014

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You would have to not be switched on to any form of media to not be deluged by the news from Apple yesterday. The new iPhone 6 and 6+ were the appetizer. The big news was Apple Pay and the dessert was the Apple Watch. And was the news around payments really interesting? Yes it was as it totally will compliment the existing retail and banking worlds both online and in the physical realms, but also it gives the whole NFC world a major boost....NOW ON WITH THE NEWS..       Here's Apple Pay In Action Apple has revealed its mobile payments play, and it features NFC and Touch ID, as many expected. The system works as fast as they joked it did on stage - which is why in our demo we ran through a number of different payment scenarios.     [continue...]     Apple Said to Reap Fees From Banks in New Payment System Apple Inc. will collect fees from banks when consumers use an iPhone in place of credit and debit cards for purchases, a deal that gives the handset maker a cut of the growing market for mobile payments, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement.     [continue...]       I referred above to the Apple Watch being the dessert. Not only was it good for Apple fans it was bad for the watch industry so much that even Wall Street is sensing it. Apple is about changing the markets and watch manufacturing brands need to realize that the Apple Watch will be sold in stores that do not carry Apple products usually. I say this due to the number of retail department stores that will take Apple Pay and already sell watches.  The two announcements together are very, very timely.       Shares Of Luxury Watchmakers Fall After Apple Watch Unveiling Shares of some luxury watch makers fell Wednesday morningafter Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced its smartwatch Tuesday afternoon. Shares of Swatch Group, whose 19 watch brands include Swatch, Breguet, Omega and Calvin Klein, had fallen 1.3 percent by mid-morning.     [continue...]       Streaming media has been around since the 90's but yesterday's webcast by Apple had lots of problems. Veteran streaming media analyst Dan Rayburn has the details on why and how Apple made a rare mistake.       Inside Apple's Live Event Stream Failure, And Why It Happened: It Wasn't A Capacity Issue Apple's live stream of the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Watch was a disaster today right from the start, with many users like myself having problems trying to watch the event.     [continue...]       Apple may have Beats Music but the second largest music streaming service called Deezer hasn't been big in the USA ever. Now they are launching, and they're going after the high end audiophile via a partnership with SONOS and the new Deezer Elite.       Deezer to Finally Launch in America as High-Quality Streaming Service The world's second-biggest music subscription service is finally coming to the world's biggest music market. Deezer, which claims to have 5 million subscribers and 16 million monthly users over 180 countries, announced Wednesday it will launch in the United States on Monday the 15th via a partnership with home audio company Sonos.     [continue...]       Over at CTIA in Las Vegas AT&T announced that mobile operators and carriers are working on VoLTE interoperability. This is really important to everyone, with SIP Trunking providers who will be in the middle of all this having a lot to gain from it.        AT&T's Rinne: Carriers Working on VoLTE Interoperability AT&T's Kris Rinne says that the carrier is working with several other operators on enabling direct voice-over-LTE calls between their networks. Rinne, senior vice president of network and product planning at AT&T Inc.     [continue...]       Just as the wireless world is seeing pricing wars, you can expect the same type of thing to come to the fiber based Gigabit speed Internet markets where AT&T is facing off against Google Fiber.       Google Takes Fiber Fight to AT&T  Take one moribund broadband market, add a disruptive new entrant as rich as Croesus, watch the explosion in competition that occurs when the old players bang into the upstart and, hey presto, you have the US fixed broadband market today.     [continue...]       Wireless and broadband by cable/DSL and fiber aren't the only ways people can connect to the Internet. Satellite broadband is growing up faster and getting more users all the time.       Hughes passes 1m satellite broadband customer mark in North America     [continue...]       The FCC is thinking about putting mobile broadband under the same rules as wired connectivity. This would be much easier for everyone to understand, including the regulatory lawyers, broadband providers and the service providers who have to work with both.       FCC may put mobile under same net-neutrality rules as wired broadband Print|The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is reexamining how it treats wireless net neutrality, in response to public comments on the agency's proposed Open Internet rules. Under the net neutrality rules the FCC set in 2010, wireless was set apart from wired access and mobile operators were given more leeway to treat some streams of traffic differently from others.     [continue...]       First T-Mobile offered "contract free" in the USA and many more bells and whistles. Now Sprint which is battling to keep from losing customers is going with a new "iPhone" for life plan. On paper it sounds good but to me it's good for those who want the entry level iPhone with only 16GB of memory. That said, given how Sprint has updated their network, and how little traffic is on it, they may be the network of choice for speed demons.       Sprint's 'IPhone for Life' Plan Lets Users Upgrade Every 2 Years     Sprint Corp. (S) introduced an "iPhone for Life" plan that lets customers get a new version of Apple Inc.'s smartphone every two years for $70 a month. The service also includes unlimited data, Sprint said today on its website.     [continue...]       If you're an Apple developer you can see iOS8 now and use it today. The final release candidate is alive and available....       Apple releases iOS 8 GM ahead of Sep. 17 public release Following today's announcements, Apple has released the golden master version of iOS 8. iOS 8 launches as an over the air update to iOS 7 on September 17th.     [continue...]       Twillio has released TWIMLETS which works with Zapier and between the two some Twilio services just got easier to use.       How to Build a Smarter International Phone with Twilio in Just 15 Minutes - Zapier It sounds too simple to be true, so Twilio has you test it out. On the next screen, you can enter a message, then call your new number and hear it read back or have your new number call you and read the message aloud.     [continue...]

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The Comunicano Daily for Wednesday September 3, 2014

The Comunicano Daily

Today's humpday so it's time to look at what's happening around the technology news world. We'll start off with a Huffington Post item about Customer Disservice something most of us have felt from some PC brand, utility, airline, hotel or car manufacturer over time.  Next we're seeing the IRS looking at those who feed their staff and how that can be considered income vs. an expense..The Celebrity Photo Hack is making the news cycle, this time with the tools that can make it possible..Microsoft is everyone's target it seems these days, not just Apple or Google...all this and more today, SO ON WITH THE NEWS...       Why Is Customer Disservice Becoming the Norm and What Can We Do About It? Posted: "The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity." - Peter Drucker If you haven't yet heard the 8-minute diatribe leveled by a Comcast customer service rep to a customer and his wife who were trying to cancel their cable service, tune in here.     [continue...]     Silicon Valley Cafeterias Whet Appetite of IRS There is a grumpy new face in line at Silicon Valley's lavish freebie cafeterias: the Internal Revenue Service. Staffers at technology companies such as Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. long have enjoyed free gourmet meals, courtesy of their employers.     [continue...]     The Police Tool That Pervs Use to Steal Nude Pics From Apple's iCloud  As nude celebrity photos spilled onto the web over the weekend, blame for the scandal has rotated from the scumbag hackers who stole the images to a researcher who released a tool used to crack victims' iCloud passwords to Apple, whose security flaws may have made that cracking exploit possible in the first place.     [continue...]       We're just finally seeing 4G/LTE and LTE-A (for advanced) rolling out in more places in the USA and around the world and so it's no surprise the 5G is making noise, this time in Finland.       Nokia to build 5G test network in Oulu While a commitment-in-principle has already been made, a formal decision on construction of the high-speed 5G network won't come until autumn, said Nokia technical director Juha Määttä. When asked about the construction schedule for the network, Määttä said that it could begin early in 2015.     [continue...]     WiFi speed displayed directly onto booking and travel websites Hotel WiFi Test has launched a browser extension that displays information about a hotel's WiFi speed and quality onto the most popular booking and travel websites: Hotels.com, Expedia, Booking.com and TripAdvisor.     [continue...]       Office by the Month. Not the kind you physically use, but from Microsoft has debuted for iPad as an in-app purchase. In my view this is two years or more too late. Google Apps is gaining momentum and already is far more integrated.        Microsoft adds monthly in-app subscription option to Office for iPad Summary: Microsoft Office for iPad users now have the option to subscribe to Office 365 monthly and from inside Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Microsoft is now allowing Office for iPad users to pay monthly, rather than only annually, for their Office 365 Home or Personal subscriptions.     [continue...]       If you don't use Evernote, your working too hard when it comes to storing and finding notes, pictures, videos and more. And, like Google and others, the company is taking aim at Microsoft Office at the right time. While Microsoft has OneNote, Evernote has users, lots of them who are raving loyalists.       Evernote's Phil Libin Has Come to Bury Microsoft Office, Not Praise It What about OneNote? It's a question that Evernote CEO Phil Libin gets asked all the time, especially after Microsoft made the note-taking app free earlier this year. But, Libin says, it's the wrong question. Libin makes no bones about having Microsoft in his sights, but it is Office he wants to dethrone, not OneNote.     [continue...]       While Evernote takes aim at productivity Google is going right after the jugular of Office and Exchange by developing a strategy that looks to displace Microsoft Outlook.       Google's New Strategy to Unseat Microsoft Outlook Google executive Amit Singh must persuade companies to ditch Microsoft Outlook for business-focused versions of Gmail. But pioneering driverless cars may be easier than changing the way people send email at work.     [continue...]       Who comes after the Millennials? It's Gen-Z, not Jay-Z. And, Gen-Z seems to be more like those who came before GenY....at least that's what one study says. We really won't know for a few more years though..       Are You Prepared for Gen Z Tech Workers? Millennials and their quirky work habits get all the attention these days, but the younger Gen Z is turning out to be even more of a mystery.     [continue...]

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AT&T-Sponsored Data-It's Nothing New, But It Could Become Very New

I find the brewing pot of noise around sponsored data that AT&T announced this week all to be a bit funny. Why? Sponsored "data" has been around for a very long time. Radio programs were sponsored as far back as the 1920s. Public television has been sponsored since the 1950.

Just as mobile data runs over licensed spectrum, so does radio and television. So the sponsoring delivery of content, whether it comes from Hollywood or Microsoft, there's really no difference. What is at stake is the past protestations of mobile operators that they need more spectrum, that they need to charge high prices to support it. Instead, there are many ways to make money and keep the cost down. Sponsored data is one of those.

For now, the sale of sponsored data is being looked at as an enterprise play. It's not. It's an advertising and marketing opportunity on so many levels. As a matter of fact, there are more marketing promotion opportunities around sponsored data than there were with television or radio.

For example, from the device in your hand, the network can now know exactly where you are when you're consuming the data. That means they can offer you more targeted "ads" or "commercials." This opens up a whole new world of broadcast promotion, the likes that are just about to be imagined.

The flip side--WiFi. It's not licensed but it is being sponsored. If you ever wondered why the cable guys are all so bullish on WiFi. It's for the same reasons. They want to sell the right to deliver the content over it.