If, like me, you’ve read any of the many Rainbow Magic books, you’ll know that every fairy has a particular “talent”. Some fairies, for example, are really good at playing an instrument, while others excel at flying or dancing.
So, what’s your talent? What’s the one thing that you’re really good at? Are you a super-salesperson? An amazing programmer? A connecter/networker? A superb communicator? An organizer extraordinaire? A motivational expert?
I think everyone is really good at something. It may even be something that they’re not totally cognizant about because it’s a talent that happens so naturally.
The key is discovering your “talent” because if you can do that, then it’s easier to figure out how to do things...
As some of you may know, I take an odd pleasure in vacuuming. In any event, the fine folks at Strategic Objectives have been nice enough to let me play with some Dyson vacuums in recent months. The most recent trial was the DC25 Animal. After a healthy two-week trial, the DC25 Animal is a powerful machine that living up to the Dyson reputation by sucking up dirt like you wouldn’t believe.
But in many ways, it’s oddly flawed. In particular, the hand-held tool isn’t user-friendly because it’s difficult to get into action, which discourages it from being used. The DC25 also comes with a lot of different parts when, in fact, only a few are used.
Don’t get me the wrong the DC25 is a great vacuum cleaner but at $699, it’s probably more vacuum cleaner than most people need....
A few months ago, I was approached by Globe & Mail editor Noel Hulsman about a new Web site the newspaper was going to launch focused on serving the needs of entrepreneurs and small business owners. The idea was to deliver relevant and valuable content that people could use to operate their businesses better, or successfully launch a business.
After a lot of hard work behind the scenes, “Your Business” launched today. It features three themes – Start, Grow and Exit – as well as extensive contents that includes a team of columnists, including myself.
My column, will appear times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), will focus providing new business owners and entrepreneurs with everything from tips and tools and guidance from experts on how to run your business...
Here’s a list of some of the things I’d like to see tech-wise this year:
1. A tool that deletes profiles from all those Web 2.0 services that I’ve checked out but rarely, if ever, used over the past few years.
2. An upgrade to the iPhone’s OS that enables easy switching from app to app like the Palm Pre.
3. A new search engine that comes out of nowhere to rival Google, and doesn’t under-deliver such as Cull or Powerset.
4. New Canadian copyright laws that strike a fair balance between owners and users.
5. A lot less talk (aka hype) about Twitter, and a lot more walk (e.g. a business plan)
6. New sources of early-stage funding for Canadian high-tech entrepreneurs.
7. Some real discussion and exploration about the rise of “publicy” and the demise of...
I was reading David Pogue’s 2009 “Best Tech Ideas”, and it made me think of yogurt.
Not just any yogurt but yogurt made by a Quebec company, Liberté, that features 8.5% milk fat. In a world dominated by no-fat and low-fat, a yogurt with 8.5% fat is extraordinary (and extraordinarily delicious!).
So how are “Best Tech Ideas” and amazing yogurt alike?
Innovative technology often goes against the grain by offering consumers something different or unique that makes it stand out from the crowd. In the same way, Liberté’s yogurt is different from most other yogurts by playing up its fat content in a world where fat is seen as bad....
Over the next week or so, consumers will be sorely tempted by “XX% Off” and “Inventory Clearance” sales – making it increasingly difficult to avoid falling victim to “Seasonal Consumerism Syndrome”, or SCS.
At its worst, SCS compels you to purchase product you don’t need, particularly upgrades of perfectly functional products you already own. But when a product is discounted by 25%, upgrading seems like a no-brainer, so out comes the credit card along with your pledge not to over-spend during the holidays.
My own personal case of SCS happened a month or so. As you might already know, I’m passionate about hockey (ice, not field!) so every visit to the local hockey store is fraught with temptation. One day, I was overcome by SCS, and...
About a year ago, we were in the market for a new vacuum cleaner after blowing through yet another one of those cheap vacuums bought at Wal-Mart. As a gadget geek, I really wanted a Dyson but got talked about it by the salesman who convinced me that a European-made a Miele was a much better option – even though it certainly not as sexy as a Dyson.
So I was excited when offered the chance recently to check out the Dyson DC31 Animal – well, as excited anyone should really get about a vacuum cleaner. The Animal is cordless, and looks and feels more like a Star Wars weapon than a handheld vacuum cleaner. True to the Dyson pedigree, it has lot of power, which makes it ideal for quick jobs around the house, garage and the car.
The Animal’s only drawback is while it has a lot...
When I started my consulting business last January, one of my first clients was WineAlign.com. It was a start-up created by Bryan McCaw, who wanted to build a service so wine buyers in Ontario could make better and more informed buying decisions at the wine store.
Bryan created WineAlign because he has a passion for wine, and saw a perfect opportunity to launch a service to serve the needs of other people who also love wine. Despite the economic downturn, Bryan decided to bootstrap the business – a classic entrepreneurial decision that, frankly, Canada desperately needs to see more of.
Like many start-ups, WineAlign has been forced to fine-tune the service, try different marketing approaches and refresh its look and feel. At times, I think Bryan has been puzzled why consumers...
I don’t travel for business much but when I do, I’m always somewhat surprised to see how many people are travelling for business, and how many people do it on a regular basis.
With all the communications technology available (video-conferencing, VoIP, e-mail, social media, etc.), you would think a significant chunk of business travel could be eliminated because the same results could, theoretically, be achieved without having to fly/drive hundreds or thousands of miles.
It seems, however, that we’re traveling just as much even though it sucks up time and money, and it’s not very environmentally friendly.
It may be that when it comes to it, personal communications (aka meeting someone in person) is a lot more powerful than digital communications, even if...
For the past week, I’ve been testing the Epson Workforce 610, an all-in-one machine that prints, copies, scans and faxes. For people running a small business, it’s a powerful and economical way to do pretty much everything you need or want.
Here’s a snapshot of what you get:
Pros:
- One-stop shopping for to meet a variety of needs
- Fast and high-quality laser prints in black & white, and colour (38 ppm)
- Relatively small footprint
- Built-in wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi
- Two-sided printing
Cons:
- Using all the features can be time-consuming and complicated. It probably helps to read the operating manual, although pressing lots of different buttons also does the job.
- Setting up the wireless connection is not easy or user-friendly...
Within the “Web 2.0″ world, one of the more interesting spectator sports is watching start-ups launch a new service that is already widely available in the market. A good example is video-sharing in which a steady flow of start-ups continue to emerge despite YouTube’s dominance. You could say the same thing about search engines, which has seen a steady parade of new players, and many other online markets.
The question is how do you create a better mousetrap? How do you create a service or product that captures the imagination of users/consumers even though there is a perfectly good product/service already available. It clearly helps if a new product is better and it is easier to use. Great design, strong branding and price are also important.
An interesting case study...
Since launching ME Consulting in January, I have struggled with describing myself as a “consultant”. In many ways, “consultant” is seen as a dirty word because it evokes images of hiring people who over bill and over charge, under deliver, and leave you feeling unhappy about the whole experience.
Of course, there are many consultants who provide great service and terrific value but the profession’s reputation becomes quickly tarnished when high-profile issues such as Ontario’s $1-billion e-health fiasco emerges – a situation in which consultants were paid huge amounts of money but apparently generated little to show for it.
My approach to consulting is a combination of strategic and tactical services – I provide insight to clients about what...
A few weeks ago, my two-year-old MacBook blew a gasket when I tried to update the OS to Snow Leopard. This included the dreaded blue screen of death, and the realization that thousands of photos were in danger of disappearing into thin air.
So what do you do when your hard drive craps out on you? Other than cursing and/or feeling stupid for not backing up your data, you go on to Twitter to see if anyone can help you.
In my case, I was lucky that Gary Hilson saw my tweet. Gary used to do some public relations work with CBL Data Recovery Technologies so he pinged their CEO Bill Margeson to see if there was anything they could do. Within minutes, Bill sent me an e-mail offering to if CBL’s labs could come to the rescue.
When the package from CBL arrived via courier today, I opened the...
A couple weeks ago, there was an interesting article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine about the self-storage industry, which has now grown to a staggering 2.3 billion square feet in the U.S.
The self-storage industry concedes there’s a lot of “junk” being stored, but as long as people are paying to store all this stuff, companies such as Public Storage are happy to let you store stuff to your heart’s content. In fact, they will let you do pretty much anything with a storage unit other than live in it.
The article resonated with me because I was in the process of looking to buy an external hard drive to store photos, music and my personal and business documents. Although my digital “assets” account for less than 200GB GB, any external hard drives of...
I had the pleasure yesterday of attending the initial TEDxTO that featured 13 speakers. All in all, it was an enlightening, insightful and educational afternoon. It was well-organized, reflecting the six months of planning that Paul Crowe, Tyler Turnbull and their team had invested.
By far, the best presentations were made by Gavin Sheppard and Peter MacLeod.
Sheppard, co-founder and executive director of The Remixx Project, was the star of the show with a talk about how to make education and learning more engaging and interesting. He was insightful, passionate and enthusiastic in talking about a world that most of us have never experienced – truly inspirational.
MacLeod, the last speaker of the day, delivered an enthusiasm talk about Canada, the 1967 centennial and what Canada...
One of the challenges facing many Canadian start-ups is getting growth capital so it’s exciting to see Well.ca raise $1.1-million from a group of angel investors led by ex-eBay Canada managing director Jordan Banks.
While Well.ca is still have a relatively modest profile, that may quickly change if the Guelph, Ont.-based company can continue its impressive growth, which has seen sales more than quadruple over the past year, while the number of visitors has soared by 135%.
Well.ca CEO Ali Asaria said the company had the luxury of being able to select from a group of U.S. and Canadian investors attracted by the company’s growth and cash flow positive status.
In addition to Banks, the angel investment group includes:
- Hilton Silberg, an entrepreneur who founded the...
There are lots of things to like about Montreal - the nightlife, restaurants, cafes, parks, shopping, et al - but the thing that has really impressed me over the past week has been a system called Bixi that lets people use bicycles when needed.
There are stations scattered throughout downtown Montreal where you can pick up a bicycle, travel to where you want to go, and then park it at another station. The system, which can be accessed and monitored online (that’s the technology angle here!) can tell where you pick and drop off a bicycle, along with how many kilometers it’s been used. Since Bixi’s launch a few months ago, more than 1,000,000 kilometers have been racked up. Now, that’s impressive!
It was thought that Bixi would be particularly popular with tourists...
Apparently, Canada’s copyright laws needs need to be overhauled because, after all, we’re a haven for digital pirate - at least that’s how the copyright-crazed Americans like to describe us.
Last year, the federal government started to introduce legislative reforms that would have brought Canadian copyright laws a lot closer to those in the U.S. This plan was skewered by a huge roar of protest, led by Michael Geist’s Facebook group, which attracted more than 10,000 members. Eventually, the PCs saw the light and backed down.
The latest sad chapter in Canada’s copyright reform were three reports released recently by the Conference Board of Canada. Unfortunately, they were badly flawed pieces of work. Geist exposed the reports as:
“deceptive, plagiarized...
As much as the Internet has dramatically changed how we live, work and play, it’s the small things about it that are often the most impressive.
Case in point is the pressure relief valve on a hot water tank in my house. It was leaking, so a repairman came over yesterday to fix it. After he left, the valve started to really leak to the point where it was filling buckets of water in minutes.
So, what do you do at 10 p.m.? In the “old days”, you’d call a plumber, and bite the bullet on a premium service fee.
Today, you go to Google and search for “leaky pressure relief value hot water tank”, check out a few links, and then turn the valve on and off a few times.
Voila, problem fixed! The Internet comes to the rescue again!
If I was Seth Godin, there...
I spent 15 years working for newspapers so it’s not surprising that despite being a digital creature, I still love reading newspapers - the ones made with paper that leave ink stains on your fingers.
Even though I’m no longer a journalist, it’s troubling to see how newspapers are crumbling before our eyes - victims of a business model that doesn’t work anymore, high debt loads brought on by strategic dreams about convergence, and a struggling economy.
The Rocky Mountain News closes, the Miami Herald sheds 200 jobs, the Globe & Mail offers severance packages, the Washington Post downsizes its business section, and on it goes.
There are many questions about what’s happening and who to blame but perhaps the biggest question is whether the struggles of...
It’s difficult to believe it has only been a month since I parted ways with PlanetEye. Over the holidays, I had plenty of time to think about my next move, and get advice from a wide variety of people.
After much thought, lots of great conversations and far too much coffee consumption, I’m excited to unveil the official launch of ME Consulting, which will provide companies with strategic and tactical services about marketing, communications and social media.
While we’re certainly living through interesting economic times, I’m confident there are companies that would benefit from my expertise to enhance their brands and drive sales.
My approach is both strategic and tactical. With 10 years of experience as a technology reporter, three online starts-ups under my...
Apple’s decision to no longer participate in MacWorld comes as a surprise given it was the place where Apple and Steve Jobs unveiled the latest goodies for the MacNation.
Clearly, Apple no longer sees MacWorld as a necessary evil so stepping aside is not a big deal in the scheme of things. Apple has more than enough marketing clout and brand momentum to deliver its message in other ways than a traditional trade show.
The bigger question is whether Apple’s decision reflects a growing trend away from trade shows. It used to be that trade shows served a valuable function as a place where companies could showcase their technology and interact with customers and potential customers, while industry members could network.
Today, a lot of this activity no longer needs to happen at a...
If this post were written by Seth Godin, he’d probably give it a catchy name such as “Crosswalk Blues”, and then proceed to write a book and go on a lucrative speaking tour.
“Crosswalk Blues” is inspired by some recent experiences waiting for cars to stop when walking through my ‘hood recently. It used to be sticking out your hand was enough to get cars to stop so you could safely walk across the street.
Today, this technique doesn’t work any more. To prevent cars from speeding through the crosswalk, you have to press the button so the flashing lights come on, wave your arms furiously, and then do a few head fakes to show cars you intend to use the crosswalk. Even then, you need to tentatively tip-toe across the street in case someone didn’t...
Although it didn’t get much attention, the modest mouse celebrated its 40th birthday this week.
For some such as Logitech, the world’s leading mouse maker, it was an occasion worth celebrating. Some people, however, may be wondering how many more birthdays the mouse is going to celebrate given the growing popularity of touch screen technology - a phenomena being propelled by the iPhone.
Logitech, which makes more than $600-million a year selling “retail pointing devices” (aka mice), said earlier this week it had shipped its one billionth mouse. The Swiss company, which has been making mice since 1985, makes 376,000 mice a day and 7.8 million a month.
“Since the first click of the Logitech P4 mouse in 1982, Logitech mice have played an indispensable role in the...
I’m a big fan of Google services - search, blog search, finance, news and images. But until recently, I was only a quasi-GMail user, mostly because I didn’t want to commit all my e-mail to a third-party service supplier.
As a result, I was using Thunderbird. It was an unorthodox decision because it’s not like Thunderbird plays as nice as other e-mail clients such as Outlook and Entourage. But as an ardent Firefox user, it seemed to make sense to support Mozilla’s e-mail efforts.
Unfortunately, my faith in Thunderbird has gone unrewarded. As much as Firefox has become a vibrant and useful tool, Thunderbird has been stagnant. Firefox has an amazing add-on ecosystem, while Thunderbird’s is almost non-existent. Firefox plays nice with all kinds of other...
If you didn’t know already, today is World Toilet Day. At first blush, you may wonder why there’s a need for a World Toilet Day given we take toilets for granted. The sad reality is 2.6 billion people, or 40% of the world’s population - don’t have access to a toilet.
When you think about it - and here’s the technology angle - the toilet really hasn’t changed that much over the past 250 years since Alexander Cummings invented a sliding valve within a toilet bowl called the Strap. Today’s toilets are a little more sophisticated but they are still based on the same technology created in the 18th century. (Here’s a history of the flush-able toilet)
The question is whether technology can be used to create a better toilet - and one that can be...
Earlier today, I met with someone who wanted to show me the Web site they were developed. He pulled out an Acer netbook, which could easily described as “cute”.
It’s small, lets you do basic computing (Word processing, Web browsing, e-mail) and sells for about $350 - although I suspect you’ll probably see on sale for $249 to $299 during the holidays. As well, there are the $100 computers from the Give One, Get One program..
Is this the future of mobile computing? Will be the future see us using cheap, no-frills Netbooks when we don’t want to lug around a laptop? Personally, I can easily see having a work/home laptop AND a mobile/travel/vacation/conference laptop.
As much as the NetBook concept is appealing, it could also be doomed by the emergence of...
When I joined PlanetEye in July 2007, GPS, geo-tagging and location-based services were on the high-tech landscape but getting little attention as “Web 2.0″ hogged the spotlight.
Today, however, it’s a completely different story. With wireless devices such as the iPhone and the Blackberry coming with GPS; Google Maps becoming more popular, including the proliferation of thousands of mashups; and GPS becoming popular in-car tools, the world is becoming about location, location, location.
This was more than evident last night when PlanetEye hosted the first GeoSocial in Toronto. There was a great response with a room full of people excited to talk about what they were doing and how they might be able to work together.
It was particularly good to see large companies...
When the economy was booming, it was easy for consumers to indulge themselves when it came to technology.
If a new and improved iPod came out, buying one was a done deal even if the one you had was still fine. If a bigger and better TV hit the market, the drooling and buying would soon follow. If your ISP was offering ultra-fast broadband, upgrading was a no-brainer.
But happens now that the economy has stalled or even heading into a recession? What will consumers give up?
Will consumers hang on to their gadgets, computers and TVs longer? Will the start to pore over their cable bills to see if they really need to be paying for ESPN 8? Will we start renting more DVDs rather than buy them?
My sense is consumers will be far more pragmatic about new purchases. The model of offering new...
At the grocery store near my house, they installed some fancy-dancy automated check-out machines a few months ago.
The concept, in theory, is that technology is an advance because it gets people through the check-out process without having to deal with check-out people - you know, the kind that costs you money, demand raises, treat customers with indifference on occasion, and call in sick. Given grocery stores operate on razor-thin margins, the machines are seen as an godsend.
The problem is the machines suck.
First, the grocery experience is already impersonal enough. You do all the work; you pick, you pack, you push your cart around the store, you bag your own groceries, and then take them home. Now, the machines remove the personal part of grocery shopping.
Second, the machines are...