Archives : August 2010

back to basics for running effective calls

published on 2010/08/31 by Michel Operto

I'm often amazed by the apparent lack of professionalism some people demonstrate in running calls, especially with sponsors, customers, prospects, senior management... I wonder if some of the basics we learned early in our careers have not been forgotten. In my case, I learned these when cell phones, instant messaging, tweets... did not yet exist, and also at a time when telecoms costs were much more significant than Today. This may explain why some of these basics may seem a bit outdated. However, I personally still find them very very relevant in my day to day communications....

back to basics for running effective calls

Enterprise Augmented Reality - An augmented marketing ploy or substantive reality?

published on 2010/08/30 by Adam Odessky

with new smart devices, every employee and every physical object can either be a sensor reader, sensor receiver, or a sensor transmitter, all continuously connected to the internet...

Enterprise Augmented Reality - An augmented marketing ploy or substantive reality?

Robot tweets from space

published on 2010/08/30 by Stewart Baines

A humanoid robot capable of carrying out tasks under its own steam would have been inconceivable just ten years ago, but technology is developing so quickly that robotics is on the cusp of being incorporated into everyday life. iRobot, for example, started out developing robots designed to be used on the battlefield, but has since expanded into robots for the home. The Roomba family of robots will happily scurry around cleaning your floors. Evolution Robotics is launching Mint, a rival robot that does the same thing, while Precise Path makes robots that mow golf courses. These may seem like relatively mundane tasks today, but the likes of Robonaut 2 show where things are headed tomorrow. ...

Robot tweets from space

The supercomputer in your palm

published on 2010/08/27 by Stewart Baines

Google has just demonstrated this with the release of its latest feature for the Android mobile operating system. Called Google Voice Actions, it lets users interact with their Android phones almost entirely by voice alone. Users of the feature (available in Android version 2.2 and above), are able to speak instructions to their phones, and also to dictate text. "Send text to Andy Jenkins. Meet me upstairs at Johnny's Bar" will send the text directly to him - no extra interaction needed. But what if you need to reserve a table, and don't have a number? Saying "Call Johnny's Bar in Madison, Wisconsin" will cause the system to interact with Google Maps, look up the number, and automatically place the call....

The supercomputer in your palm

A single identity for all your web activities?

published on 2010/08/24 by Stewart Baines

We wrestle with the disparity in identity systems every day. We find ourselves logging into many different online services during the course of a week, from email through to back-end corporate applications, and ecommerce services. These online services are proliferating, so that today, we find ourselves filing our taxes and even reserving library books online. For the most part, these sites don't recognise a common identity system. Users are forced to use different username/password combinations for each of them, which creates its own security issues. ...

A single identity for all your web activities?