Digital Changes

Square, which is founded by Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder), is a company that is looking to use a small square dongle that you attach to your iPhone and the digital conversion from the magnetic strip gets converted to a digital signal the phone's special Square software can read.

These dongles cost next to nothing but allow a great new access to the mobile credit processing world.  Not only can small business use this product without all the expensive hardware associated with credit card machines, but it also will allow these small business to process transactions anywhere, giving GPS locations and a signature pad to the consumer and the business owner.  They can even email their receipts to themselves so that they don't have to print out cumbersome (and wasteful) receipts.

Security

The problem or fear many face with digital transactions is that of digital theft.  With Square, they require a digital signature which you sign with your finger, then it also takes into account your GPS location.  They are even working on a digital picture that goes along with the credit card (which it pulls from the credit card companies website) to confirm the person who's card it is actually resembles your customer (I used to be blonde and 150 lbs heavier, I swear!).  This is also more secure because a signature can be copied, while if an image of the cardholder is stored with the credit card company it becomes very hard to replicate in the real world. Some  newer cards even have images stored in an RFID chip on the card itself.

Even the signature can be improved to include a tip or perhaps even in the future show a image of the company your purchasing from (almost like a PayPal verified merchant).

Uses

As a guy who primarily uses a credit card, I sometimes find it hard to go out with friends without cash because the restaurants always have an issue with taking my credit card.  So it would be really nice to have this for myself as a form of fund transfer You can already do this with PayPal by transferring funds to friends or family, but its a hassle and the person needs to have a PayPal account.  If you could eliminate that issue and allow them to take payment via a credit card, you could take payments virtually, from any of your friends.  Or you could also take payments from a group of people for something like dinner, or even an event your having (IE a house party).  The restaurant won't split the check?  Won't take more than one credit card?  Have everyone just swipe your card and give me your share.  The one issue I see with this type of fund transfer is the credit card companies are in it for the money, they want a percentage of the money being exchanged.  So this percentage is passed on to you as the owner of the credit card processor (Square).  It's usually a small amount, something usually under 3%, but for something you trade with a friend (perhaps you bought your friends TV), is now a digital transaction in which you lose 3%.  Not that big of a deal on $10, but on $1000 3% is now $30 lost.  Plus any other fees they charge you monthly for using the service (usually with transactions or not).  If they can somehow overcome this issue of charging for personal transactions (which I highly doubt they will), maybe then this ideal will be a bit more functional for the public as a form of fund transfer. (Please note, at the time of this article, they have not officially announced how the payment structure will be so I am unsure of the exact numbers)  But the really nice thing is there isn't a charge from the company for hardware or from what I understand software.

For now this gives small merchants a VERY easy way to take digital purchases.  I'd even be ok with giving this to my very non-technical mother to use for her business.  Easy to use products are key if you want to capture a large portion of the market.  I'll leave you with a video of Kevin Rose and his YouTube video of the use of the Square product.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the Square website

Related Links:

https://squareup.com/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/18/square-payment-dongle-demoed-for-iphone-toting-hippies-and-you/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coins

Updated on 1-26-2010

Ease Of Use

As an avid mobile phone user, I am always anticipating the next "greatest phone ever".  However, I have yet to find a phone that can do everything I want, the way I want it to.  There are tons of phones that do the things I want, but they don't do them very well.  For example, the iPhone is a great multimedia phone and they do a great job of having developers create new "apps" for the phone, but as a business device it isn't very good.  I hate not seeing my calendar (yes, I could jailbreak the phone and get it to show up on the unlock screen but jailbroken phones are too much work),  as well as the fact that I don't like typing on it, due to lack of touch response.  I, personally, need that tactile feel of a keyboard or at least the fake keyboard that vibrates the phone when you touch a key.  The iPhone does do a great job of keeping all my music together and letting me play it in a clear way (even though iTunes is HUGE pain and loses files and moves music inconsistently around on my PC).  Windows Mobile always had a spot in my heart for keeping me organized, with my calendar always front and center when I turned on the phone and it was easy to create new appointments.  On the other hand, Windows Mobile does not play or store music well.  The backend of the OS was always messy and felt unfinished. Not to mention the OS is a hog on memory and resources, forcing you to clear the memory cache (sorry, but I shouldn't have to do this 3+ times a day).  The Blackberry OS is good for email and surfing the web, but that's it.  Its user interface is a mess and new users are not easily welcomed to the cold, mechanical interface.  Symbian was a good, simple phone interface.  It didn't do much good, but making phone calls was easy.  There are other smaller mobile phone makers many have never heard of, like the company "Else" (formerly Emblaze Mobile).  Their first phone is oddly called First Else.  The interface is a beautiful, simple interface that uses only one finger to access any part of the device.  This new OS looks stunning, and I would love to use it on my phone. The problem? I can't give up my current phone because I'm afraid the interface wouldn't work for me.

Multiple Interfaces

If small companies (hardware or software) want to make it in the phone industry they are going to need to ensure that they are widely adopted by consumers.  Consumers are not always easy to understand, but they fear change, and most people don't want to adopt new things.  That correlates into a lack of new customers and a stable, meager market share. Sometimes a need comes along that outweighs this fear of change, such as a phone breaking, or requiring the device to do something new (as a want or even a necessity).  So if small companies want to break into the phone industry they will need one of two things: a lot of money, or a new idea that changes the way people use their product.

With the iPhone, Apple had both.  They had a phone that incorporated a media player well, and introduced apps that opened up the accessibility of the phone to other companies, on top of the fact they had a ton of money backing their new product).  Else has a great looking phone and its interface is stunning, however, they won't sell anything if consumers don't have a need or want to adopt their product.  As the end user fears change, they won't want to adopt the First Else product because it's different from what they know.  Maybe Else could pair with another manufacturer/OS to create a phone that dual boots two operating systems.  Computers have been doing this forever, and while it is usually left to the more advanced users, even HP does this with the majority of their laptops.  They have a "quick start" product for playing movies and music while only powering the hard drive, screen, and part of the processor/ram instead of the whole unit.  This allows them to have a very simple interface that can access a couple key features while staying lighter on the battery usage. Most customers don't even know that they are dual-booting multiple operating systems, and the ease of use makes it easy for the user to adopt this extra feature.  Personally, I would love a phone that I could use for business during the day, then at night, or the weekend, hell, any time I want, switch to a interface that's more personal and not so industrial. I would simply be in heaven (well, maybe just in a happy place).  This use of two OS' would allow me to step away from work while only using one product to carry around all day.

Now some people say that we don't have the hardware to do such a thing, that is simply incorrect new snapdragon processors are over 1Ghz  and we are cramming 768mb of memory into some phones, without even making the phones overly thick (a great example of this is the HTC - HD2).  If small companies are going to make it, they are going to need to do something to get into the industry and become adaptable my many.  Even the big boys are going to need to start adapting new ideas to improve market share.

Stand Alone Hardware

Google recently announced that they would be selling a phone without any contracts and without any connection to phone carriers.  In Europe and Japan this practice has been in place for a long while now, however their markets are different as they only run GSM and we have 3 different mobile platforms.  In Europe and Japan carriers fight to get customers simply by their phones and services, because the tower technology is all GSM based technologies and they are set to one standard for all the different phone companies.  But Google has the funds to pay for a gamble like this and not care if they loose whatever they put into this project.  Even with the offset higher costs of selling a phone outright, Google can still sell their phones without contract and not make a lot of money on the actual hardware while finding other ways to gain revenue.  But some companies don't want to take that kind of risk, HTC is a great example of this, the majority of their phones sold in the US are sold as contact as a carrier phone (branded by that carrier, IE AT&T Tilt or Tilt2 are HTC phones).  HTC do skin their phones to look better, mostly Window Mobile.  The issue with this is that the bloated Window Mobile interface is still behind the front screen, while you can dump money into better processors and memory, you still don't solve the back-end problem.

Short And Sweet

So in short companies need to change the way they look at hardware if they want their software to work long term.  Specifically companies who are hurting to people like Apple.  Small companies need to find ways to work with big companies to get their name out into the public or they will find it very difficult to gain any market share.  Big companies need to start looking at their problems and fixing them, rather than throwing money at the problems and hoping that the problems will fix themselves.  America is at the heart of this issue, were not going to be able to get out of this technology slum unless we start to become innovative again, sometimes even working with our 'enemies' to create more market share.

**UPDATE**

On January 26th, mobilitydigest.com recently said there will be a dual boot Windows Mobile and Android system!  Follow the link here!

Recommended Links

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/24/emblazes-first-else-unveiled-in-london-promises-to-be-a-game-c/

http://www.firstelse.com/

http://www.htc.com/europe/product/hd2/overview.html

http://www.htc.com/europe/product/hero/overview.html

Why Dress Up?

There are several reasons, but before I go into those reasons you should try going to a nice bar or restaurant dressed in an old t-shirt, baseball cap, worn out jeans, and gym shoes.  If they don't throw you out, order something, stay for about 30 minutes, and pay attention to how they treat you. Leave a 15-20% tip (not matter how they treat you) and then try that same thing in a week, however, dress up this time to see the difference.  Wear a nice suit, a tie, maybe even cuff links and a pocket square, and of course nice shoes.  Now watch how they treat you.  I can promise you that they will treat you better no matter where you went.  Even though people don't do this on purpose, it is a different level of comfort, and you are more approachable.

Importance Of Dressing Up:

Dressing up gives you positive energy but also keeps an open warm feel to yourself.  When you wear a baseball cap or any other hat that covers your eyes, you tend to close yourself off from eye contact with others.  You tend to look down because you have something blocking your view up.  When you wear a t-shirt, you tend to wear something with writing on it, which can be off putting to some, especially if it isn't something they like.  But beyond it making you feel good and others feel like you are approachable, it allows people to look at you without feeling down or disgusted.  Next time you are somewhere public take a look around quickly, then look down, think to yourself what did I just see.  You almost always see the people who are well dressed and pretty.  That creates this image of others in a short period of time and if that's what you saw, most likely it is what others see.

Self Pride:

Old, young, ugly, pretty, fat, skinny, it doesn't matter if you portray yourself well.  I am not a skinny guy and I am not the best looking guy, but when I dress up people will always say, "Wow you look good, did you lose weight or something?"  The key is that you've taken the time to improve you look.  You've made a conscious effort to take pride in who you are and make sure everything is just right.  People tend to look at me when I am in a suit, while when I walk by in a hoodie, jeans, and a hat I almost never get noticed (which you can still look good by adding accessories like bright shoes, or a bright hat, something that sets you apart from the crowd, just remember it shouldn't be too much and it should match what you wear). Even something as simple as your hands, while most men won't notice other men's hands, women do. So take care of your hands.  Don't bite your nails or mess with your cuticles, and get a manicure if it gets bad.  If your worried about getting negative comments from men, don't worry about it so much, men wont tend to notice and women will appreciate it.  But most important you can't get into a suit or nice clothes and tell yourself you look bad.  If you don't feel comfortable in your clothes, go to the store (ideally with a girl who is a friend) and try putting on two things that your not used to wearing and one that you would wear day to day.  Perhaps a color shirt that you'd never wear, or a belt that you think looks goofy, just try some things on (and take advice from your lady friend or the salesman, remember they are there to help you).  With that, go into stores that are well organized and ideally with salesmen who are on some type of commission structure.  You want someone on commission because they want you to come back to them, and if you get something from them and you get a lot of compliments you will tend to go back to them and trust their style.  This builds a good relationship between you and them, which is why commission sales stores tend to do better than the low end clothing stores.  But back to feeling good, just remember that you dressed up not only for yourself but for others, and that open feeling you give off from your clothes will transfer to others around you as well as yourself.

Becoming More Productive:

Unless you're the type of person who once they set their mind to something, you can do it no matter what, you will be much more productive if you dress well.  While I think I am more productive when I set my mind to it, it always helps when I take a shower and clean up nicely.  If I wake up in the morning and don't take a shower right away, I almost always sit around and just relax around the house.  The moment I take a shower and get dressed my mind always says, "Chris, you took this time and effort to get ready and shower, now you have to make use of that effort and accomplish something." Now I never tell myself, "Oh you didn't accomplish anything because you took a shower and got ready for the day" so just remember that it wont 'hurt' to do it, so why not do it?  Now if you go into work and don't care about your look, you almost always tend to not care about your work.  Now there are some people who can still dress down and be productive, but that is the exception to the rule.

Short And Sweet:

Try dressing up, try doing something different with your look, and try taking the time to look good.  Why?  "Why not" should be the question.  It is worth your time to take pride in what you look like.  Plus, whats the worst that could happen?  You actually meet a new contact or get a job offer?  I am not going to promise it changes your world, but I can almost always promise it will improve your day to day life.

So here is my first attempt at filming with a production Canon Eos7D just one hour after receiving it from my local camera store. Starting at 10pm I spent about 2 hours in total filming this an the Nanluoguxiang Hutong in Beijing which is popular with locals and tourists alike. Due to the lack of light its shot mostly at around 1600 to 6400 ISO.

Lenses were the Canon 50mm f1.2L, 35mm f1.4L and the 70-200mm f4L IS. I attached my Zacuto Z-finder straight to the camera, then added a prototype of the new Genus d-slr bars supporting their wide angle mattebox to prevent any excess lens flare. I shot mostly handheld using a small Redrockmicro shoulder rig at times as well as on my fantastic Miller DS-20 tripod. Audio was from a Zoom H4n feeding the camera audio directly using a custom cable from Pinknoise systems (living with AGC to speed time in the edit).

Found through an Engadget link The orginial Viemo link can be found here

Also Matt Jasper's main website can be found here - dslrnewsshooter.com

"Audiosurf always reminded me of of DDR. Several years back I bought two USB dancepads over in Irsael for cheap. I originally used them for Stepmania (a DDR clone) but they have since sat around unused. I finally decided to do what NEEDED to be done and make Audiosurf dance-able. This video is manly a proof of concept. I plan on improving my binds and releasing a new video in which the game is actually more playable." -Mooga

Wow very impressive, you can make a lot of uses from this, can you imagine using the pad under your desk while playing a shooter game to use "peek", you could peek around corners and not have to use the keyboard freeing up space on your keyboard for other binds

Great job Mooga!!! Keep up the hacks!