The Rise of the Infrastructure Age

July 10, 2015 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Infrastructure Age, Tech Market

We have reached a plateau in consumer technology as far as information devices are concerned. Smartwatches suck, tablets haven’t changed profoundly since their conception, portable music players and digital cameras (at least for the amateur) have become obsolete thanks to the consolidation of media into our phones, and new generations of smartphones and computers no longer offer groundbreaking features but mostly upgrades on existing features (better cameras, faster processors, more storage, higher resolution screens, etc.) We’re left wondering what, if anything, will be the next big thing, but there just aren’t any huge gaps left to fill with these gadgets. A major shift is taking place in tech, and the future isn’t in information devices. The future is in infrastructure.

What Tesla is doing with home battery is far more important than what Apple is doing with watches. Tesla is changing the way we think of owning and providing power in our homes, a utility once run entirely on a grid owned by the county. It’s not that these small iterations and upgrades to our devices are bad or unnecessary, but we’ve gotten to a point where all we need as a consumer is a better version of what we already have. The next real revolution of gadgets isn’t going to to be about your phone, it’s going to be about the world around us and how we live within it.

Technology is constantly transforming and permeating into every part of our lives. It no longer exists in just our phones and computers. It has moved into our homes, our transportation, and our public spaces. You can control and interact with your air conditioner, refrigerator, or security system right from your phone, no matter where you are. Large IT companies like IBM and Cisco are developing new technology to manage and improve public safety, city planning, and government agency administration. NASA is using satellites to measure soil moisture to study weather and climate cycles. Technology is now responsible for connecting us to and informing us more deeply about our physical world.

Google has shown a huge interest in this new age of infrastructure that we are entering. They’ve expanded broadly beyond their internet search and advertising origins, getting involved in self-driving cars, Internet glasses, smart thermostats, and even research on the biology of aging to find ways to extend our lifespans.

Google is now looking to get involved in the smart city space alongside the aforementioned IBM and Cisco, and they’re doing it in the form of their latest start-up: Sidewalk Labs. Sidewalk Labs will be headed by Daniel L. Doctoroff, former deputy mayor of New York City for economic development and former chief executive of Bloomberg L.P. It will be based in New York with a team at Google, of course, and led by its chief executive, Larry Page.

Sidewalk Labs claims that their mission “is to improve life in cities for everyone through the application of technology to solve urban problems.” Some of the problems they aim to tackle include cutting pollution, curbing energy use, streamlining transportation, and reducing the cost of city living. Doctoroff says Sidewalk Labs plans to work in “the huge space between civic hackers and traditional big technology companies.” Bike-sharing programs, like New York City’s Citi Bike, is an early example of the kind of technology-assisted innovation they want to pursue.

Large companies aren’t the only one’s interested in innovating our cities technology. Academia has also had it’s eye on this prize. New York University established the Center for the Urban Science and Progress in 2013 to research and unite The Digital Revolution with Global Urbanization. They’ve recently been analyzing large sets of data around the city including using the city’s 311 data, wireless sensors, noise meters on traffic lights and street corners, and more in order to inform policy choices. By looking at things like noise limits for vehicles and muffler costs, they can create computer simulations that could predict the effectiveness of enforcement steps, charges, or incentives to buy properly working mufflers. Their goal above all is to make urban living less severe.

As the physical and virtual world meld ever more intricately, we’ve seen a new threat arise that becomes increasingly dangerous: hacking. As new devices emerge that hold more data and more power, the risks of hacking rise exponentially. We’ve already seen huge breaches in security with our own government at the hands hackers. Security is going to become increasingly important as more complex developments are made.

The internet has brought us together, but infrastructure is what’s going to make this ever growing connectedness feasible, bearable, and efficient. The globalized world needs innovation if human beings are going to survive. Populations are multiplying, urbanization is on the rise, and the world needs proper infrastructure that is going to support the aggressively growing demands of a physically and virtually connected world. To me, that is far more exciting than anything Apple is going to come out with for your next iPhone release.

The Privacy App That’s Challenging Google

November 14, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, iPhone & Android Apps, Privacy

Everyone is concerned about privacy these days. With the Snowden revelations coming out that the NSA had been spying on Americans’ digital behavior and activity, and were allegedly partnering with such internet companies as Google, people have been concerned about privacy solutions to keep themselves protected from prying eyes.

Disconnect, a San Francisco-based startup, specializes in building software that can cut off intrusive advertisers from grabbing user’s data, and protect web activity with encryption. However, the average Android user won’t have heard much about it, not through Google anyway. Google has removed the tool from it’s Google Play application marketplace.

The startup isn’t backing down in it’s fight for protecting people’s privacy, though. The young firm, who’s CTO is ex-NSA engineer Patrick Jackson, has been wrestling with Google over the past year to get it’s app back on the Google Play marketplace, in an effort to get more Android users the ability to protect themselves from government snoops and digital criminals. While it’s pretty much a losing fight, Disconnect won’t let Google slow it down. Yesterday, Disconnect launched a completely refreshed application that does a lot to protect data by encrypting communications, routing traffic through different servers across the globe, filtering out more than 5,000 “invasive” services, and much more.

All things considered, at the end of the day it’s a VPN software – though it has plenty of bells and whistles. It isn’t particularly pricey in the grand scheme of downloadable software prices: the full desktop and phone application that covers up to three devices comes at $5/month, or $50/year. Some pieces will continue to be free of charge, such as the tracking visualization browser add-on.

Disconnect has some significant voices in the security industry on its side. Blackphone – a privacy-specific smartphone based on a forked version of Andriod – has made it a standard install on each of it’s units. And the “next generation” version will come pre-installed on future Blackphones. Disconnect isn’t the only company with this kind of product and service, it’s just the first major one to have an established partnership with a secure phone maker. Disconnect has also announced another significant partnership with German ISP giant Deutsche Telekom, who is offering a special promotion to their customers, allowing them to try Disconnect Premium features free for a year.

The company itself isn’t only in the business of pushing products on the privacy-concerned consumers, as it explains. CEO Casey Oppenheim is of the belief that Google doesn’t want Disconnect in its Google Play store because the app educates consumers about how advertisers collect people’s digital data and that the software allows users to block them. Basically, it’s shining a light on the existence of the option to not be tracked digitally. In September, things came to a crescendo when Google sent a letter directly to Disconnect informing it the app would no longer be available for purchase or download on it’s marketplace. It apparently broke one of Google’s cardinal rules: you cannot interfere with other apps “in an unauthorized manner.” However, Disconnect is in perfectly good standing on other platforms, including Apple’s iOS marketplace.

You could look at this more cynically and make the conclusion that Google’s pulling of Disconnect from it’s marketplace is an effort in self-preservation, in that Google relies on advertisers to make revenue, no matter how intrusive they are. Essentially, in a scenario where privacy and security conflicts with Google’s business model, Google will choose the business model. This isn’t a revelation really; any company would behave exactly the same way. People don’t want to believe that Google is like every other corporation, but in reality it is.

Disconnect is aggressively pursuing being welcomed back into the Google Play store again at some point, though it’s possible to tinker with Android settings to allow downloads from unauthorized developers (warning: do not do this, it could badly harm your device as well as open you up to malicious developers as well as helpful ones). Though, it’s re-introduction to Google’s application marketplace is predicated mainly on Google updating it’s outdated user agreement before that happens.

The only question remaining is why Apple and not Google? It’s hard to say. Maybe Apple considers privacy to be more valuable to it’s success than Google. But, given that the public has ben increasingly upset with Google for it’s alleged collusion with the NSA, it’s probably in the tech giant’s best interest to lift it’s ban and give its users the option of flying under the radar if they choose too.

11 Things the Andriod Phones Can Do That The iPhone Can’t

October 1, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Android Vs. Apple, Blog

Upon the launch of it’s latest generation of iPhone (the iPhone 6 Series) and it’s latest iOS 8 software update, Apple has introduced a host of new features that once were not available to iPhone users. And though these updates are very substantial in the context of what the iPhone is capable, that being said, they are all features that have been standard for Android platform phones for quite some time. For example, the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be Apple’s first generation of smartphones that will come standard with NFC (near field communication) – a technology that allows phones to talk to each other via short-range radio. This essentially means that you can share data and make payments simply by tapping your iPhone against a compatible device. This has been something standard on the Android platform for some time – however, it is now something available on the iPhone platform. But there are still plenty of things Android phones can do that iPhones cannot.

11. Battery Swapping

Many Android phones, such as the Droid Razr and the Samsung Galaxy series, allow you to remove the battery from the back of the phone by removing the back cover of the phone. This opens up the availability to swap a low-charge or failing battery with either a new one, or a higher capacity battery. This is an immensely helpful feature for many reasons. Sometimes the battery is well secured with micro screws, but there are plenty that allow you to simply just pop the battery out like a flip phone. The iPhone on the other hand still doesn’t allow you to access the interior of the phone. The iPhone still relies on a single lithium-ion battery pack that can only be removed or replaced by Apple technicians.

10. Opening Multiple Applications

Software layering is an immensely useful feature; many manufacturers will layer their own software over the plain version of Android, which often includes them adding their own features. For example, on Samsung and LG phones you can open more than one application up and run it side-by-side simultaneously as another application. On LG phones, you can even move the apps around and reposition them in such a way to make some applications more transparent or opaque than others, resize them, and do much much more. When you’re doing GoToMeeting on your phone and need to reference a presentation without losing the window, you can open that presentation and view it simultaneously – something that can really come in handy.

9. Unchanged Charging Port

With each major overhaul of the iPhone, from the 3 to the 4 to the 5, and now to the 6, you have had a changed charging port-type, requiring a completely new charging chord. The Lightning port is a great charging mechanism, however, with just about any Droid, regardless of manufacturer, all you really need is a micro-USB port, which has served as the charging mechanism for several years now. There’s no change that’s on the books for the charging mechanism, and every single manufacturer seems content to keep it that way.

8. Micro HDMI Connection

Some Android phones come with micro HDMI ports, which allow you to hook your smartphone directly up to your television. This isn’t all that common in most flagship products, but many Motorola phones come with this capability. The only ports that you have on your iPhone are your headphone jack and your Lightning jack. Not to say that this is a huge deal; when you think about it, in all smart televisions, you can wirelessly impose your screen on to your television through an Airport type of mechanism – which eliminates the need for this type of port in the first place completely. But, if, say, you don’t have a smart television, then maybe having a micro HDMI port to show your favorite Youtube video on a large screen could come in handy.

7. “Touchless Voice Controls”

The Moto X, one of the more superior Android phones in my opinion, is a feature called “Touchless Voice Controls”. In the device’s settings, you can configure them so that Google listens for your voice to perform search queries, set reminders, get directions, and so much more. On most other phones, you would likely need to hold down some kind of button, such as on the iPhone with Siri, or a microphone voice controls application would need to be opened. With the Moto X, you can train your phone to answer to your voice specifically, when it hears some kind of trigger phrase.

6. Additional Storage Capacity

Androids allow you the ability to replace existing SD cards for ones with greater capacity. Generally phones, when they are first issued out with SD cards that don’t have a great deal of capacity – and generally the amount of storage capacity is directly related to the price of the smartphone. So, you can get away with getting a cheaper Android that has limited space, and then bulk it up with a larger SD card separately. Androids will generally come with a separate SD card slot to add a larger card, but with the iPhone, you’re limited to the amount of local storage you have based on the type of iPhone you purchased. You can always store files in iCloud and upgrade once that’s full, but there’s no expandable storage option for the iPhone’s hardware.

5. Shortcuts to Settings

Most Android phones, specifically those made by Samsung and LG come with a ton of “quick settings”, similar to on most Mac-type of devices, that are accessible when you swipe down from the top of the screen. The Galaxy S5 comes with 20 quick settings, including power saving mode, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Buttons, and controls for proprietary features such as Stay and Smart Pause. By comparison, the iPhone comes with roughly 10 shortcuts when you swipe from the bottom-up, and none of them are customizable.

4. More room for Customization in General

If you’ve ever used both platforms before, then you know that the Android is basically just a much more customizable smartphone on the whole. Essentially, if you’re somebody that likes to customize their phone, then Android is just simply a better option for you. Apps like Aviate and Buzz Launcher, you can actually change your Andriod’s interface entirely. In Aviate, for example, apps are arranged alphabetically in a more list-like format rather than the standard grid layout. With Buzz Launcher, you can decorate your smartphone in such a way so that your design capabilities are boundless.

3. Widgets, Widgets, and Widgets

This is huge. The fact that the iPhone cannot support widgets yet is ridiculous. Embedding widgets directly into your phone’s home screen, and then being able to move them and shape them as you please is a pretty fantastic feature. It allows you to get the information you need, without even having to open an application – which is sort of where everything is going at this point. Embedding a widget in your home screen also allows you to give your phone a little more personality. With iOS 8, there are some widget functionalities, such as with the calendar and notification drawer, but you can’t move them around or put them on your home screen.

2. You Can Use Your Droid as a Remote Control

The HTC One, Galaxy S5, LG G3 and other flagship Android products come with an infrared blaster – which is exactly what your remote control is, essentially. This means that you can set it up as a remote control to control your television, instead of using a regular remote, which are big and not nearly as much fun. But the fun doesn’t stop there, you can also use it to replace the remote for your air conditioner, speaker, and nearly any other household device.

1. Swap Out the Back Cover

Like I said earlier, you can’t remove the back of your iPhone. How are you supposed to put on an awesome back cover for your phone, while also keeping it naked without a case? You can’t. But, if you want a transparent back to your phone, you can do that with your Android product pretty easily.

Google Announces Android Wear

July 9, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Wearable Technology

A Google App is now available for Android Wear. There was already a lot of Android in the Google smartwatch, but now with Wear you have Google notifications come directly to your wrist. Wear also seems like it was made just for Google Now and helping Now live up to all it was cut out to be when it was introduced. Android Wear can now link up with your phone and provide every notification and alert that your phone does. Google allows you to pick and choose what notifications you would like to be pushed from apps on your phone to your watch as well. The same concept of Google Now that gives you the right information at the right time is now applied to your wrist. For example, if you need to drive home, the watch will know where you are and get you directions when you need them. Additionally, it can produce the barcode for your flight at the airport, which is so much more accessible, right on your wrist. Google has added more information to Now and made it more accessible and streamlined for customers. Wear and Now both include many of Google’s services into one product. Wear is the next level of Now in that it uses new information that they have learned from Android and the ecosystem it inhabits to be better for customers. New features on Wear include voice recognition and a better, more efficient design. Essentially, the best thing that Wear does is bring Google Now straight to your wrist with a few improvements. Right now the price is a little high, at $200, but it is really worth the investment for all of the convenient features it provides. The only thing that could come in the way of the new Google Wear experience is if the iWatch turns out to be better. Until then, try Google Wear and see what you think.

Unicorn Acquisitions

May 14, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Tech Market

Apple made a big splash in the news when people started talking about the possibility of the computer giant acquiring Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The reason for the big stink is that it would have been the largest acquisition ever for Apple in their 38 years. The other, closest acquisition is the $429 million the company paid out for NeXT in 1996. The larger picture indicates that the real reason the Apple acquisition was such a big deal is that it comes in a string of, almost $1 billion “unicorn” acquisitions by major companies over the last year, more specifically in tech. The most notable of these acquisitions include WhatsApp and Oculus being acquired by Facebook, Waze and Nest Labs being bought up by Google, Microsoft absorbing Nokia, and Yahoo buying Tumblr. The real reason this surge of transactions is so significant is that prior to this year the last eight billion-dollar acquisitions of tech companies occurred over the span of ten years. The media flocked to these unicorn acquisitions covering the amount of money being exchanged, how the financing was going to work, the strategic ideal behind the deals, and the chance for success, the real story is how companies and investors need to adapt to enter and exit the market with this radical shift in who is buying and owning companies.

Enterprise acquisitions traditionally have made up most of the transactions over the past ten years. These, more traditional companies, include EMC, Oracle, IBM, and Cisco and they regularly make these multi-billion dollar transactions. For a more specific example consider that Cisco has made seven of these unicorn acquisitions for $25.2 billion and Oracle has gone through 10 unicorn acquisitions for $42.9 billion. Although these enterprise transactions occur frequently, the density of transaction in the tech/start-up industries in the past year have been unprecedented and it will be interesting to keep an eye out to see where things go from here.

Microsoft: The Tech Market’s Comeback Story

April 30, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Tech Market

Microsoft, up until the past few years, was always considered the pinnacle of technological innovation in the realm of consumer products. The name itself would strike fear in the hearts of technology executives of all backgrounds; a wolf amongst sheep. However, Microsoft’s name has become a punchline amongst today’s technorati, a joke about the diminishing marginal returns on putting all your eggs in one basket as far as innovation goes, a formerly dominant company becoming a plodding kludge. Recent history of Microsoft has been rife with missed release deadlines, delayed products, and cancelled features, to the point of disheartening consumer and enterprise users the world over.

The rest of the tech market has moved vastly quicker than Microsoft has. Between 2006-2008 Apple introduced the iPhone, Amazon introduced AWS, Google brought about Andriod, and Facebook debuted its News Feed. Those innovations alone encompass a great deal of innovation in their wake, making those four companies the “quadrumvirate of tech” making some comment that Microsoft simply no longer belongs on the list of top tech companies.

However, Microsoft has always had the critical ingredients for success. Consumers want always-portable, always-available, always-usable data across all our devices and applications, allowing us to constantly be in touch, productive, or entertained depending on our mood. From Office to XBox, Microsoft has all of the individual tools and products it needs to fulfill all of our wildest tech fantasies. Yet, by the same token, Microsoft has seemed plagued with constant inefficiency and political strife which inhibited the company from permanently establishing itself as the key brand in the tech market; a position that has been usurped completely by a dominant split between Google and Apple.

However, as Bob Dylan once said, the times they are a changin’. Sampling from some recent news out of Microsoft’s camp in the past few weeks, it seems Microsoft is making a push to become relevant again. Recently Microsoft announced that it launched Office across all devices, including on iPad and Android to some decent acclaim. Additionally, Microsoft is building a very disruptive startup lab headed by a well known executive from DARPA to take on the likes of GoogleX. Bing is now responsible for nearly 19% of all search queries in the United States, slowly pushing against Google’s dominant search engine market share. It’s even making Skype group calls free as of just days ago.

Most importantly however, Microsoft seems ready to embrace the cloud. Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, published a letter a month ago outlining a renewed focus on positioning Microsoft at the center of this new cloud based world by creating a “cloud for everyone, on every device.” Almost over night it seemed that Microsoft was finally ready to make the next big push by harnessing its full energy, it’s $20 billion in revenue and $5.66 billion in Q1 net earnings that it had announced only days ago. A Microsoft with a strategy, a vision, is a deadly force in the race for tech supremacy, a race that’s comparable to the US/USSR cold war arms race at this point. All four of the quadrumvirate are highly vulnerable at the moment due to the market convergence created by similar products that depend on devices and the cloud. Continuous engagement is at the heart of these companies’ strategies, and consumers are salivating over a new entrant into the market.

The Changing Face of Charity

February 28, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Startups

Technology has made it easier to donate towards philanthropic causes. However, this has changed the game for the ways charities usually function and how they interact with donors.

The biggest change is in the demographic of those who are giving and how they are able to give. Millenials can’t donate in traditional ways. Charity used to thrive on banquets and large gifts, but the younger generation doesn’t have the capital to give that way. So, targeting smaller gifts, online is the best way to rope them in. As millenials age and have more economic leeway, they will remember the charities that they made relationships with early and possibly give larger gifts.

Charities that are ahead of the game are using technology to their advantage when targeting those who may donate. For example a service called Centscere donates a few cents every time you “like” something on facebook or send a tweet. Other companies are doing similar things, like Google’s One Today that donates a dollar a day to a charity of your choice, or Check in for Good. Check in for Good utilizes the check-in habits of millenials in restaurants, coffee shops, theatre, etc. and donates money when they post that they are there.

The biggest change for traditional philanthropists is that donors and activists are organizing on their own. They have the tools with the Internet and the various app interfaces to collect money and put it towards the causes they see fit. The need for institutions still exists, but the way these institutions interact with people and how the donors interact with them is changing. Gone are the days of word of mouth. Charities need to have an online presence that clearly outlines who they are and what they do via a website and social media. There is still a place for charities, but they need to be aware of the changing market, especially as sites are linking donors directly to people with need. For the future of established charities, they need to make it transparent exactly how what they do impacts the final step, those in need.

Facebook/WhatsApp Buyout Considerations

February 21, 2014 by Doug MacFaddin Filed Under: Blog, Tech Market

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum have joined with an impressive $19 billion deal. The two met in February about the deal and Zuckerberg added the incentive of adding Koum to Facebook’s board. The advantage for Facebook is that WhatsApp is used internationally in areas where Facebook isn’t. This will give Facebook a more varied user population with a varied demographic. The deal will give Facebook access to WhatsApp’s 450 million global users. It is not quite clear how this will continue Zuckerberg’s quest to connect the whole planet, but he clearly has a plan.

This acquisition makes Facebook Silicon Valley’s top Dealmaker. They have made large deals before, but the large sum they forked over for WhatsApp makes Facebook the largest dealmaker over the search engine giant, Google.

It will take many steps for Facebook to connect the whole world. WhatsApp is one important step. They have many users in emerging countries like India, Mexico, and Brazil. Next, Zuckerberg may look to chat apps like WeChat, Kakao Talk, and Viper, which are primarily used in China, South Korea, and the Middle East respectively.

Facebook has just spent billions of dollars acquiring Instagram and now WhatsApp. It is unlikely the company will now continue to pursue the ephemeral photo app, Snapchat. Although Zuckerberg has made acquisition offers and campaigned hard for the company before, he is unlikely to continue his pursuit. Beyond Zuckerberg, the co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton has issued some pretty harsh remarks against Snapchat and what the company offers so it is very unlikely a deal will occur.

Investors initially seemed wary of the Facebook/WhatsApp buyout, but after Zuckerberg and Koum spoke the shares went back up. Now only time will tell how the market will respond to this new acquisition.