And people say...

And people say "Oh well, an iPad is not a real gadget, it's just trend luxury, just a gimmick, nothing more than a piece to fulfill any apple lover's ego", well, if you are one of those, you should think twice... again.

An iPad (imho) is not an accessory, it's a full capable gadget to deliver something common computers couldn't, portability of information, but let us be realistic, ONLINE information, not stored one. I remember my mom trying to find out some kind of info, and her never ending hatred mantra about "but I need to turn the computer on, login, wait til it loads, search, find, read, and then decide if I will turn it off or not, again", well... now she can just grab an iPad, type, search (quicker thanks to so many apps available) and just take her findings to anywhere around the house, or even outside.

Of course there are so many other things you can do with an iPad, from business management to simple administration, in any case, an iPad has demonstrated it's power and ease of use, which makes it one hell of a gadget. Luxury? think twice.

Just got a twit from my gf saying "oh look! a MacBook Pro and an iPad just had a baby, the new MacBook Air 11" " Well, yes, and it was kind of logical, even though I don't agree it's an actual hybrid between those two gadgets, it represents Apple's aiming to find (or generate, as they use to) new market or needs.

The question here is, what's the point of having such a small laptop?

• It takes a stake into the "Netbook" market, size and price (999 dlls) do have a chance there.
• Helps to keep on the already known "teaching" process of having a device with alternative local storage (flash memory), by selling an affordable piece of tech to test, instead of having to spend a lot on its.
• Believe it or not, there are some people that would like to have an iPad but with steroids, where the OS can be as clean and clear as their desk or lap top is, but without all the extra stuff a laptop has, well.. Apple is trying to get there little by little.
• Probably the MacBook model will disappear soon.

So then again, there are reasons for everything, and if not, Apple creates them.

From netbook market, to demanding users that need more power than an iPad but not as much to spend a nice amount of money in a laptop, why?

iPad market became a new one, and like in any other market, competitors started to arise, that means, that even Apple keep on updating it's new gadget, limitations are clear, battery, OS, apps, connectivity, and processor, and surely the upcoming image processing features (webcam for FaceTime). For that, Apple has a small field to update, appart from design, but it's clear competitors can actually stand a good fight for the market, then Apple creates new ones, as easy as that. MacBook Air family hasn't been attacked yet, since it's beginnings, and while the rest is now trying to keep along with the iPad market, Apple now focus into the Air one, clever.

Wan't to see how BIG was iPad's impact with competitors?

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab
   Based on a similar design to the Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, this 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet is loaded with strong specs and will be available on multiple carriers. It will likely be the iPad's most serious competitor to arrive before the end of 2010.
   
2. Cisco Cius
   A former enterprise communication/collaboration device, is now a 7-inch Android tablet with a heavy layer of Cisco customization on top. This one is actually aimed for existing Cisco customers, and not aimed for common users.
   
3. BlackBerry PlayBook
   Aimed at stopping the iPad's momentum with executives and business professionals, the 7-inch BlackBerry tablet will be built on its own QNX operating system. Battery life may be an issue and it won't arrive until 2011.
   
4. Toshiba Libretto (this one could give also a fight to Air's laptop)
   One of the more innovative tablet competitors with its dual 7-inch multi touch screens, but... it runs windows 7... at the end it acts more like a netbook, but still, cool concept.
   
5. ASUS Eee Pad
   ASUS has developed a multi size family of tablets (which is clever), from 9" to 12" models, running windows 7 or Android, apparently available Q1 2011.
   
6. Lenovo U1 Hybrid (another possible Air's competitor)
   How about a convertible tablet with a detachable keyboard? Well, lenovo just got it. Funny enough, they say they will sell it as IdeaPad, if it comes with the keyboard, but you'll be able to buy it as the single tablet with the name of "LePad", ... not sure if that will work, but anyway.
   
7. Viewsonic ViewPad 100
   Led display, 1 GB RAM, 10" screen, and of course the quality from ViewSonic, leader in imaging hardware.
   
8. MSI WindPad
   
9. Notion Ink Adam (COOOOL ONE)
   I actually want this one!
   
10. ExoPC Slate
    
11. Motion Computing J3500
    This one is powerful, can run up to a Core i7 processor and Windows 7, touchscreen or MS pen technology, expensive, but again... powerful. I would actually say its a tablet pc, but it stays as a tablet.
    
12. Fusion Garage JooJoo
    Originally know as the "CrunchPad" and intended to be an ultra low-cost tablet primarily aimed at web browsing, the JooJoo is now a 12-inch tablet divorced from TechCrunch (in pending legislation) with a custom OS made to boot into a web browser as soon as possible, but also able to do video calls and multi-tasking.
    
13. Nefonie WeTab
    This tablet runs the MeeGo OS in an 11-inch form factor and is powered by an Intel Atom Processor.

And the list could go on. 

Thats how much competitors will try to keep on, while Apple goes further... 

Facts are facts, clever boys, so if you still think iPad's just a stupid luxury gadget... you will probably think that Mac and PC's are part of a global hoax... xD

Nice evening everyone ;) 

Arte con queso.

Todos tenemos gustos, otros como mi amigo Wadanco, preferencias... JAJAJAJAJA!
Después de varios meses planeando este post, cobra vida.
Bienvenidos al mundo del arte de generación espontánea.

¿Cuántas horas pasa uno en su computer? pffffff... ni caso contarlas, son un chingo, haciendo una u otra cosa se nos va la mitad del día (por lo menos) moviendo el cursor de esquina a esquina; hace mucho tiempo en mis momentos pachecos creativos, se me había ocurrido la "grandiosa" idea de encontrar una manera para que la fricción (CUAL FRICCIÓN!? estaba mal... debo aceptar) del mouse, pudiera ser captada y así generar... algo... hasta energía pensé... JAJAJAJAJAJA, ok... de regreso a la realidad años después, alguien encontró poder crear algo de nuestro cotidiano clickismo... mouseismo... o como le quieran llamar.

Ellos le llaman arte moderno... yo me reservo a decir que es de las cosas más simples y creativas que he visto en los últimos años, una demostración clara que no hace faltan MIL sistemas o programas para generar estética y creatividad.

Les presento IOGraph.
Pequeño programa que corre en varios sistemas operativos, y lo único que hace es tracking del mouse mientras esté corriendo, el tracking es visual, por lo que genera trazos por donde quiera que el mouse se mueva. Para meterle más caché... cuando el mouse no se mueve después de unos segundos, el programa genera un círculo (mancha) de tamaño variable, el cual es definido por el tiempo de inactividad: mientras más tiempo pase sin moverse, más grande será el círculo.

Lo mejor de todo es poder ir grabando el avance del día... digo, por aquello de poder dejar corriendo el programa minimizado, uno puede durar horas trabajando, haciendo cuanta madre se nos ocurra, y cada determinado tiempo hacer click en el botón de guardar imagen, sin tener que parar el programa, maravilla, generando así una secuencia de imagenes que más lejos de demostrar hasta el más mínimo detalle de esos pequeños "me vale madres" (como el movimiento del mouse) , terminan siendo una pieza de arte.


Con características como usar el desktop como fondo de la imagen (coool thing), o usar múltiples monitores, IOGraph rompe con el concepto de la falta de innovación con datos o acciones tan sencillas.

Aquí les dejo una imagen generada mientras jugaba StarCraft 2.
Si les gusta, anden vayan y descarguen el programa... y métanle un poco de arte y creatividad a su día de cybertetés.

SEO is dead... 'ish.

It's impressive how "border" the so called "digital gurus" can be, crafting some sort of "exodus mottos" which falsely pretend to transform themselves into the new digital version of Nostradamus.

I must accept I've done predictions, from the upcoming stage for the digital market (a strange R.S.V.P. / I-may-not-accept-you time lapse) to the boosted digital stress that users will suffer in the next 5 years, when everything will toughly pause when it comes to digital innovation (not talking about mobile here, of course).

But I ask myself, HOW IS IT POSSIBLE that an expert in the digital world can state SEO is dead?
I mean, let's be honest... ironically, as in real life, nothing never truly dies, it just evolves, so does happens with digital, SEO can't be dead... it's actually not even close to it, it just became faster and wiser. So how everyone's shouting about it's days of glory and death after Google Instant came out last week?

Rather than compromising SEO integrity, Google Instant it's just YAGE (Yet Another Google Enhancement), based on search time optimization, and of course taking advantage of the new Caffeine search index also officially launched late this month.

Let us be realistic, it's NOT Google Instant what's changing SEO (and not killing it, as many would think), the user asks for less time spent on searches, less hassle to find appropriate/accurate results... isn't that what SEO stands for? Well, then Google Instant it's a new way to achieve SEO better, so why everybody's making a big deal about it? it means that finally there's a better way to offer clients and companies what the pay for, efforts have been compiled and simplified.

Google's updates in 2010 have sent us a message, it's not just about "keywords" or "tags", things can't be just systemized, there's always something that matters the most, and thats the user's habits. Even when we have several different analytic tools to retrieve and learn from those, we always found it a 24 hour job to do so, and then apply it, things couldn't be express (fractions of seconds), technology wasn't strong enough, but today is a different matter. GMail's Priority Inbox is another good example, where habits and actions from the user defines key invisible filters, customizing their experience with the service faster and better.

So what about the classic SEO strategy?... Still there, but now it will be just a part of the whole thing, as I said earlier in my GMail's Priority Inbox post, the time to listen users directly has come, to understand them in matter of fractions of seconds, is the new goal for any SEO person,  which means... PageRank still works as it should, AdSense and AdWords too... thats for classic SEO and it will work just as usual (among trillions of other tools), but to make the user go to your site as a detectable habit will depend on the CONTENT of it, seems that finally we reached one of my predictions earlier this year... it's time for QUALITY through channels... and if we think about it, it's the common cycle within the digital world...

We will never forget how SPAM mail became successful in the early years of internet... until users get fed of it, and asked for... quality... then SPAM filters appeared, or how so many knew about Nettalk (old PC Telephony company), they launched a nice piece of software late 90's, they didn't make it through... until a couple of guys decided to craft something with REAL user needs attended, Skype.
We could even talk about not so old examples, like Hi5 vs Facebook, or MySpace and its declined success... it's just part of the cycle.

So whoever stands for the murder of SEO... is wrong, and probably is one of those so many million "gurus" that learnt about SEO during the last couple of years, took a diploma or workshop about it, and just understand the logic behind it... not its nature, so then again, as I've said before, technology beats digital wannabe's, cause to understand and use these things goes way beyond reading a document or taking a workshop, it asks for prior experience, actual expertise based on reading the user, not defining pure keywords. So... Welcome then Google Instant, even though I turned it off ! (I use normal search time to think about million things, I don't need to loose those time glimpses, ha ha!).

Anyone isn't sure about what kind of impact Google Instant will have, and it's normal, but please, stop listening to the guys that need 2 months to assure that their job is not obsolete anymore because of a new technology appears, they will probably keep on doing the same until someone explains how evolution works, and how they need to do their job now. Instant Impact will be positive, that's for sure, it's time to move on!

App Review - Instructables

It's good to be back with some app reviews, in fact I must accept it wasn't lack of interest or time (got tons of that lately), it was just a simple fact, no iPhone, no reviews. My iPhone kinda died few months ago, well the screen at least which means half ot the phone wasn't working. Went to a gig, rain fell down like some kind of aztec punishment, and then I found out that iPhone is sort of a lady when it comes to water.

For anyone that has some trouble with these issues, here's a link that could probably give you an idea of what happened : http://gsfn.us/t/ah16 , seems it's quite normal to have such a fragile mobile xD.

Anywho, that link gave me the idea, ended up sending it to fix somewhere around the city, and at the end the real thing was about the screen, it burned out, so had to put a new one. Tadaaa, iPhone back working properly, sweet.

Ok, enough of fairy tales, back to the app review.


Instructables.

What about Instructables? It's actually a window of a cool creative online community www.instructables.com, so in few words, this app is just the iPhone digested version of their site. Why to be included in this blog as an app review if its already an online community? Well, most of us, people involved with the creative media find "inpsiration" in many places, Instructables ends up as one of my favourites, not just because it's contents, but also because it's portability, the iPhone app works smooth, easy to follow, and of course... on the go. I find myself most likely browsing Instructables app, than playing Doodle while I'm waiting for a meeting or so.

Best of all, if you fancy any invention, you can find the instructions on how to build it, some materials will be hard to find, but at least you've got the instructions, right? xD

So go on, get it for free at the AppStore , and enjoy it, you'll not regret it, this user powered do-it-yourself community will satisfy any geek's need.

Behold the power of GMail... again. Priority Inbox revealed.

It took a lot of effort for e-marketers and operators to actually find the way to go through GMail, and end up as a mail inside the Inbox, and not into Junk folders. GMail was actually a beta thing, it wasn't until 2009 that Google launched it's alpha version, but for the pain of many mailers, newsletters, e-zines, etc... to comply with GMails junk filters was hell of a challenge since it's early stages (back in 2004).

Worst of all, those great filters were one of their great features, everyone wanted a GMail account, but as most of Google important apps, there was an "invitation" stage, where just few users could test and use it. There are now 176 million monthly users/accounts, which means... it's a BIG potential client cluster, still, it's hard to break junk filter has been also evolving, learning, catching.

If any follows the "anti spam" rules, their mail will pretty much have a 25% chance to go all the way down into the Inbox. So, e-marketers, bulk mailers, and friends had a nice chance to hit their potential market, but now... all this is about to end, for good. It's time to deliver quality, not quantity.

Google just launched a new feature within GMails tools, it's called "Priority Inbox".

"The Priority Inbox alters the way email is listed in your inbox. Emails are now organised in descending importance (as calculated by Google) instead of by time. The goal, which is explicitly laid out in its launch video is to promote emails from people you know, and demote marketing emails that you aren’t interested in." Some of the actions that will help the system determine mail priority are involved with reply rate, and so on.

Seems that one of the April's fool Google's joke will come true, well... kind of.
"On April Fools' Day 2009 Google introduced a service called Gmail Autopilot by CADIE.
According to Google, the service purported to automatically read and respond to emails for the user. It appeared to work by analyzing messages for the emotions expressed in the message and either providing advice to the user or automatically responding to the message."

Well, Priority Inbox will surely not reply to your messages, but it will analyze them (among with your common actions through your mail habits), and it will "advice" you what will probably be most important, interesting and so on.

So how will marketers handle it?
The so famous "creative subject" strategy to create opening status is coming to an end, which means it will be the content that will actually generate the right markers to this new tool to keep it on top of other mails. Finally it's time for marketers to worry about engagement based on information, and not just "fancy clever subjects lines".

How to achieve it? I couldn't agree more with Riaz Kanani, alliances director at Lyris.
RECENT BROWSING behaviour will be the master key to generate both: an actual interesting subject, but most of all, a totally customized mail content based on real user interests. Which means, it's time to listen to the user... without showing up a registration form to receive this data.

Then again, technology beats wannabe's, and I'm so happy about it, it's been a long year where suddenly thousands of "digital gurus" appeared from nowhere, well.. this kind of things will filter (just as the Pirority tech) the ones that do understand and preach digital, from the ones that just repeat what they've heard and bluff about something they barely understand. To understand and use properly any browsing behaviour asks for expertise and time...so BEHOLDDDDD the power of GMail, I'm so much loving all this...!

iAd - back to basics... not.

iAd network, the Apple's publicity (mostly banner based) system for iPhone was planned to set new standards, technology patterns, and brand new open doors for agencies and clients... well, seems Apple's (latest) egocentric posture affected this lil baby too.

The iAd network was launched over month ago, Steve Jobs suddenly decided (as with Adobe's Flash) that there would not be any kind of platform or system to put advertising within an iPhone (eg. AdMob), reason? Well, they developed their own system, one they presumed was the RIGHT one for the iPhone... and of course, one that was controlled totally by Job's company.

They even made a small presentation for a Nissan campaign, and claimed over a $60 million booked campaigns from several other clients, tho a month has passed one extra company has launched appart from Nissan, Unilever. So, what could be happening?

Apparently Apple has insisted on getting involved in creating the ads, from inserting an extra Apple logo where there was no intentio by the agency to do so, or creating any expandable content, which means if you want to expand it... you can't do it, Apple would do. As many say, they probably do it to ensure their impeccably high standards are met, but that's again bullocks... it seems now that they will not just control the technology (flash, admob), they will try to control creative agencies! now... thats rubbish.

As if it wasn't enough, reports say that Apple's approval process for a campaign (yes... jussssst like the process to get an iPhone/Pad/Pod application authorized and distributed) extends over 2 months, if not longer, so... just imagine, how long would it take first to create and design a campaign? a reckon around a month... plus another month trying to Apple to meet the agencies creative standards, and from there a month or two to get it authorized... well Mr. Jobs, seems you do NOT know how the Ad business works, any media planner would go crazy and think twice before planning a campaign with your network.

The question then will be after allllll these issues... will it worth the hassle?
I say... no. Seems that the mobile industry will aslo be Apple's ego victim.
I don't doubt any campaign on iAd will be top of the industry, but as processes ask... few clients will have the patience, and will to get one rolling, Adroid the will benefit AGAIN from Job's sins

#Wave back and say goodbye...

K, I just found out #GoogleWave has been demised last week, and found so many articles from top social and digital marketing communities stating that it was it's complexity that lead them to it's failure... and I just don't agree with them.

a) Google Wave is (or was) a whole new world for project collaboration, if it was difficult to understand then let us blame the lack of organization and process analysis that couldn't help people understand it's benefits... and it's still not that simple.

I'm pretty sure that 50% of users thought Wave was YASC (Yet Another Social Community), and at the end of the day when few of them kind of "found out" it was compromising what they've learnt after so many years to dominate... MAIL USAGE FOR INTERNAL OR PROJECT COMMUNICATION... they just got scared, their  "Mail-itis" ... that lack of ease of communication within internal processes that lead tons of businesses to base their follow ups by 100 mails per day... was now "simple" and easy to use.

Sorry guys, commodity is way to different than "lack of ease of use", so as we geeks say... the PEBKAC.

b) Instead of forgetting about Wave, Google should have been developing a business market strategy instead of a massive social one (thats their sin, the tool had a total different approach), where a few stages of training (mainly for Project Managers) could have seed some great potential evangelists with the right knowledge to guide the rest of the users population, locally and globally.

So is the case of Microsoft Project, that's not an easy tool to use, takes time to get the right idea and benefit (since management asks for time saving steps), but it's now one of the most used project management tools around the globe, you even have to pay for it ! specialization is NOT a failure fact, and as you can see with MS Project, complexity is not... time to time, Wave must have been promoted as the specialized tool it is, a simple strategy transforming the general "complex" feeling to the specialized one that it deserved.

c) Simplicity and ease of use Vs. Specialization and ease of communication.
If you ask me, Google stands for both concepts, while most of their services and tools are simple and easy to use, it's own nature and topic benefits were the ones that helped Google to achieve simplicity, adding specialization by enhancing bits and bytes (unlimited storage, online document revision, stable servers, simple UI's, AJAX implementation, etc...)... where there was already a process, Google pimped it and offered it the right way...

So what about Wave? 
Wave was exactly that!  and more, but project management is NOT common knowledge.
For those who really do management, they surely saw Wave's simplicity and ease of use (it maybe required some extra thinking in some parts, but thats any software's life process), and best of all, they really saw it was an specialized tool that REALLY HELPED AN EASED communication... it follows Google's mottos from A to Z...

So, the only lack for wave was from it's users, lack of knowledge, therefor lack of usage, if they didn't know the benefits, they couldn't find it useful, worst... they couldn't find it logical "what's about all this realtime writing? I wouldn't like people see my grammar or spelling mistakes before I check what I've wrote! What were you thinking Google!?"... LOL

Sad for Wave since the only bit that differed from all it's other apps was that it wasn't for ANY user... yet.

Wave wasn't a massive social tool, it was a "massive collaboration one"... and if you ask me, that is tons more difficult to achieve (and they did it), you can find this need all around the globe, from students to transnational managers, from family to friend groups... this time Google went 10 steps ahead, realizing about a need that users don't even know they have yet, and if some do, they are too confy with their mail-itis, I suppose that makes them feel they "work  A LOT"

We #wave back now and say goodbye, thinking that Google indeed #failed but just by stopping it's development (and their new image search service, but that's another story , and in spanish ;)

Habilitar Discos NTFS en OSX (Mac)

Se sabe que desde hace mucho existen "limitantes" entre tipos de formatos de discos duros, gracias a que Apple y Microsoft usan diferentes modos. Apple usa HSF+ , Microsoft usa NTFS. Si uno quiere leer discos NTFS en mac, lo puede hacer, pero no puede editarlos, es decir, nada de eliminar archivos, cambiarlos de nombre, hacer carpetas... nada, simplemente consultar lo que ya está en disco y copiarlo si uno lo desea a disco duro interno.

Desde el osx 10.5 ya es posible habilitar el sistema para que uno pueda leer o cambiar la información en esos volúmenes o discos, pero... nada que te haga saberlo, es más, ni un programa en sí. Existe la opción de usar un progarma llamado NTFS Mounter, pero la verdad no lo he probado.

 Les paso el cómo habilitar su sistema (Leopard o Snow Leopard) para editar la información de discos con formato NTFS.


1) Abran su Terminal (ubicada en el folder de Utilidades, en Aplicaciones).

2) En la ventana de la Terminal escriban lo siguiente: diskutil info /Volumes/nombre de volumen , en donde "nombre de volumen" es el nombre de su disco con formato NTFS, den Enter para ejecutar el comando.

3) Como verán, les aparecerán muchos valores en la pantalla, háganla lo más grande posible para ver toda la información. Ubiquen una texto que dice "UUID value" o simplemente "UUID"... esta variable tiene un valor a su derecha, un número largo (ej. XXXX-XXXX-XXX...) , seleccionen con su cursor ese valor numérico, y copienlo (Cmd+C o click derecho>Copy), les recomiendo pegarlo en algún documento de texto para no perderlo, lo vamos usar en los siguientes pasos.

4) De regreso en la pantalla de Terminal, escriban lo siguiente: sudo nano /etc/fstab y den Enter para ejecutar el comando. Al hacerlo, el contenido de la ventana de Terminal cambiará de edición de texto, si no lo recnoncen, no se preocupen.

5) En la misma pantalla, donde abrió este "programa de edición", escriban lo siguiente:

UUID=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXX none ntfs rw , donde XXXX-XXX... es el valor numérico que copiaron en pasos anteriores (el valor UUID que obtuvieron al inicio).

6) Apretar Ctl+X para cerrar la terminal, antes de cerrar les preguntará al fondo si quieren guardar los cambios... aprieten Y para aceptarlos, y después aprieten Enter para aceptar el último valor que es en dónde se quiere guardar el archivo (no modifiquen nada, simplemente sigan los pasos así... Ctrl+X, Y, Enter).

7) Cierren la terminal, desconecten el disco NTFS, y vuélvanlo a conectar, éste adquirirá los permisos nuevos para que puedan editarlo sin problemas!

Saludddddd, y finally.

Finally, my first Behance.net project uploaded.

This one goes in english, just because it has to.
I've finally managed to upload one of my portfolio projects to the great Behance.net community.
It's wasn't the app, it wasn't anything but me and my never ending "perfectionist" side what kept me on delaying it. Instead of just uploading images and a brief explanation, I actually wrote and crafted the full project case... when will I learn to keep things simple? I suppose whenever I need them simple, but for now... you can share my joy, go to www.behance.net/samsantoyo , and have a look... it's an old project tho! so... just keep it in mind.

Cheerios!

Llamas a miiiiiiii

Siendo sinceros, ni 4 fantásticos ni que la chi... pero eso sí, el poder generar gráficos en línea es una tendencia que se había limitado a emoticons, banners (detestables... jajajaja), y uno que otro joteo visual como brillos y graffitis en fotos.

Por fin alguien genera algo pesado, y cuando digo pesado es que es realmente pesado, mi MBPro lo corre lentamente, pero como siempre está en pleno desarrollo y prueba, su versión final dista mucho de ser lanzada, sin embargo uno puede jugar cual niño con play doh. Un sistema online para generar dibujos de llamas, interesante ver cómo al cambiar el fondo a blanco los colores cambian de blend mode, pero sobre todo el cómo su algoritmo permite creación de llamas muy interesantes.

El sistema está en Java, lo que lo hace compatible casi con cualquier sistema operativo.
Si les gusta perder el tiempo de manera creativa, es un app para probar! la puedes encontrar aquí

Photoshop, 20 años.

Sin saberlo, me topé con la noticia de que Photoshop cumplió 20 años de vida... pasando por nombres iniciales como Display, ImagePro, Photo Lab entre otros. Es curioso ver cómo la sociedad siempre reacciona a cambios de manera positiva o negativa, en este caso me encontré un video del aniversario, una joya diría yo para todo creativo, en donde uno puede ver los efectos del software hace 20 años en la sociedad. Échenle un vistazo, que vale la pena... como dirían por ahí, el mundo no sería lo mismo sin Photoshop... amén.

App de la semana: ActionMethod

Uno de los talones de Aquiles en el medio creativo es la organización, el management de proyectos, tiempo y recursos, la realidad es que el medio en si está acostumbrado a que creativo siempre implica un desorden lo cual genera mucho seguimiento por parte de otros departamentos, y un exceso de recordatorios para evitar issues con los proyectos y sus compromisos.

Soy creyente de las soluciones prácticas y rápidas, y creo que los creativos podrían mejorar de gran manera su organización y responsabilidades con un simple project management software que, sin complicar la vida de aquellos que utilizan su cerebro para imaginar, puedan aún así respaldarse con pequeños ayudantes, tales como una lista de "to do's" en un tipo de sistema que te permita organizarlos por proyecto, y poder delegar los mismos a otras personas si es necesario, sin perder el track del mismo.

Behance, desarrolla ahora una aplicación para esto, para creativos como no creativos: ActionMethod. Ésta aplicación empezó como un servicio online, con la ya tan reconocida e increíble API Ajax y CSS que desarrollaron, con la logística y estrategia tan intuitiva que caracteriza los desarrollos de Behance, ofreciendo una versión gratuita (con ciertas limitantes) y una de paga que ofrece extras que para muchos no hacen falta, pero para otros sí, depende el nivel de management que uno quiera manejar.

En lo personal, la versión gratis me acomoda sin problemas, sin embargo día con día empiezo a animarme por la de paga, si bien no "necesito" los extras ofrecidos, siento que sería aún mejor adaptarme a esas herramientas y procesos extras, lo cual beneficiaria mi trabajo, más si el costo es de 99 dlls al año.

Su sistema te deja generar action steps, los cuales en palabras más mundanas son "to do's", éstos pueden (y deben) de generarse dentro de un proyecto (el cual puede ser un cliente, un desarrollo en específico, un proyecto a corto, mediano o largo plazo). Cada action step puede ser administrado por uno, pero por igual puede ser delegado a otra persona, permitiendo la colaboración y tracking de manera sencilla.

ActionMethod sintetiza las acciones que en vida diaria aplicarían aun seguimiento, por lo que habilita para cada ActionStep un nagging y un appreciate (Nagging sería lo que en MSN es "Buzz" en una pantalla de chat, appreciate es un "i Like" de Facebook), permitiendo así dar lata cuando se debe, pero sobre todo mantener una comunicación clara.

Esta aplicación puede usarse de manera individual o para grupos (gracias al sistema de delegación y tracking) , sin embargo todos aquellos que lo usen podrá ver su valor agregado que es una capacitación completa de management básico, Crear, delegar y dar seguimiento.

Así que para todos, creo que hoy es una de las recomendaciones más claras, aprendan a usarlo y explótenlo al máximo. El sistema permite acceder a tus proyectos desde web y iPhone, y para aquellos freak del management intenso, ActionMethod existe también offline, es decir, con productos específicos de administración que permiten usar una pluma y sus artículos para mantener el track de muchas otras cosas. Misma filosofía, diferente mercado.

www.actionmethod.com/tour para que vean un video sobre el show.

Antennagate - Una manzana con mucho pecado (Last Bit)

Leyendo un artículo de management, me percaté de qué tan certero fue mi comentario acerca del futuro de Apple, en donde el Sr. Jobs ha demostrado su falta de control en emergencias.
Cual niño reprobado con 5 de promedio, al chavo se le olvidaron las 3 reglas de oro para una crisis como la que está pasando:

1. Aduéñate el problema.
   No culpes a nadie más, el error es el error y si eres cabeza de una empresa, es tu responsabilidad, parece que Jobs y Aguirre cojean del mismo pie. La honestidad y humildad no se llevan con la soberbia, terminar diciendo "Simplemente no agarres el teléfono de esa manera", no aceptar que realmente existe un problema (su intención en la conferencia fue desacreditar el issue realmente), y terminar con un "We're not perfect" mientras comparaba a la competencia, demuestran su gran cagada... al final del día, no quiso adueñarse de su error.
   
2. Haz las cosas bien, como se debe.Los gringos dicen que a pesar de todo, las "actions" sugeridas fueron acertadas por parte de Jobs. Lo siento, el total recall era un must, al no hacerlo perdió su motto (ya comentado en otros posts). Sin embargo acepto que el hecho de permitir devoluciones sin cargo extra (tanto en Apple como AT&T) fue acertado, más no suficiente, queda mucho por ver cómo tan pocas acciones afectarán a la marca.
   Los "free bumpers"? No mamen... eso fue el mexicanaxo diciendo "súbele al volumen del coche para que no suene la carcacha", so... #FAIL de nuevo para Jobs en crisis management.
   
3. Deja que los demás sigan adelante.
   Aceptado el problema, haciendo bien las cosas, y sobre todo arreglándolo, teóricamente debería de permitir a todo mundo seguir con sus temas normales y cotidianos, dejando así morir por sí solo el problema o emergencia. Jobs creo que tiene un concepto muy diferente, por que eso de culpar y mezclar/mostrar a la competencia, no es precisamente "dejar que sigan adelante", generando respuestas como : a) Handset World : Don't speak for us, Steve Jobs  y iPhone Defense  y al final del día, alimentando el fuego que irónicamente quería apagar.

Es por eso que para por fin, terminar los posts del Antennagate (habrá updates claro, pero no más análisis creo yo), Steve Jobs será un muy buen mercadólogo, un genio diría yo, sin embargo acaba de demostrar que ni los genios ni el dinero pueden detener lo más importante, la opinión del público.

iPadece que ya llega.

Como bien comentó ayer el Sr. Jobs, la iPad llega a México y su venta empezará el 23 de Julio.
Obvio no indica quiénes estarán vendiéndola (aparte de las pseudo MacStores en Liverpool Palacio de Hierro). BestBuy confirmado por igual, y no dudo que los OfficeDepot.

¿Costos?
16 GB - 7,498 (1,000 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).
32 GB - 8,999 (1,200 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).
64 GB - 10,499 (1,500 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).

Estos costos son obvio de distribuidores autorizados, así que la neta... conviene comprarla en US si tienen manera de que se las traigan, si no... el excedente en costo no tiene mucho peso, el ir por ella saldría mucho más caro ;)

Para las versiones 3G, las cuales según comentan, no será primicia y exclusividad de Telcel (vaya!) estarán disponibles con Iusacell, Movistar, Telcel, Nextel y Unefón.

16 GB - 9,499 (1,300 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).

32 GB - 10,999 (1,200 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).

64 GB - 12,499 (1,700 pesos más cara que en el gabacho).

Será interesante ver cómo compiten entre marcas para ofrecer el servicio, el cual obvio se concentrará en calidad, velocidad y costo del plan de datos, por que el costo del gadget siempre tendrá que ser el mismo en todos lados por acuerdos con Apple.
UPDATE: Parece ser que son precios sugeridos... ¿no hubo acuerdo esta vez? A ver si los carriers o distribuidores no se aprovechan del término para subirle... sooo México.

Quien quiera regalarme una, ya sabe que con gusto! por que si no... creo esperaré a la segunda generación (que seguramente ya contendrá webcam... y USB... y GPS .... y OLED ... y y y y HDMI?)