Thanks to Our Wired World, We’re Running Out of Numbers

As our dependence on mobile technology grows, our need for more numbers to link those magical devices grows too.

SO much so, mobile service providers and governments are coming up with more creative ways to keep us from running out of numbers.

They can do what is taking place in Canada’s largest city today – Toronto gets two new area codes as of today, 437 and 365.

This adds a millions of potential phone combinations to an already crowded see of 10-digit codes.

Or you can go the way of some big service providers, which encourage you to have one number which is shared among all your mobile devices.

Alternatively, you could cut the cord with your phone company, and go completely digital, using a Voice Internet Protocol (VOIP) based service such as Skype.

Maybe that’s why software giant Microsoft recently bought out Skype – which incidentally is giving out free VOIP calling for one month, to current MSN account holders, to lure them over to their newly acquired messaging platform.

All of these solutions work – for now.

What happens when Apple’s iWatch, Samsung’s version of the iWatch and Google Glass from the search engine company hit the streets later this year?

Think about all the numbers most people currently have – home landline, office landline, their personal smartphone and tablet, and then their work smartphone.

Some even have separate lines for their home office and home – both landline and mobile.

We’re swamped in a vast ocean of 10-digit dialing.

I remember years ago, when we only had to dial seven digits to connect over the phone. That’s before we got the addition of ONE – just one area code to our major urban area.

Now here in Toronto, we have six – SIX – area codes, and you’d never not dial the area code plus the number you are dialing.

As technical advances release us from the cables and cords of the past, allowing us to be free, and still be wired to the world, we’ll need to work together to ensure we don’t run out of numbers to connect our wireless devices.

Otherwise, regardless of how wonderful the tech is, it’ll be useless.

Wearable Tech and Its Impact on the Modern You

As wearable technologies like Google Glass and the rumoured Apple iWatch are making headlines – and neither product has been released to consumers yet – it raises the real question, just how life changing will all this tech you wear be?

Very life changing.

Immensely life changing.

Imagine the cute salesperson trying to sell you a new whatchamacallit starts flirting with you big time. You’re instantly attracted to the bright eyes bashing about you – but you don’t know anything about this person.

Using your Google Glasses, you conduct a Google search of the person’s face, and instantly find from their Facebook profile that they went to the same university, studied Environmental Studies, have a dog, and appear to post a lot about hating their work – which is where you are now.

Hmmm.

You bring up their LinkedIN profile and see they used to be a manager of a bank, and have worked on and off in retail and telemarketing.

Hmmm.

You check out their Twitter page and see they recently had a sex change.

Moving on.

Despite the fictional scenario, all of those things – and more – could be quite possible if the smart folks at Google use technologies already widely available – facial recognition, voice commands, and the ability to access search results from those voice commands.

Aside from a lot of lonely nights for our fictitious sales person, what if the reverse happened to you, but instead of a potential date, you were being interviewed for a job?

We’ve all been warned not to post anything online that a potential employer might take offence too – but who listens to free advice these days?

As you sit there, describing yourself and where you want to be in five years, that potential employer could be seeing your drunken pictures posted on Google Plus, or that video you posted of your old boss picking her nose on YouTube.

Don’t worry, there are lots of other great places to work.

Even the rumoured iWatch – and we all know most products Apple leaks out as rumours actually are released – could be a source of pain for those in the hot seat.

It’s bad enough when friends go out to spend a great time with each other, only to ignore each other most of the night as they gaze eyes-down into their mobile devices.

Only with the iWatch, those eyes will be on each other’s own wrists, texting, tweeting, posting updates, checking the scores of your favourite sports teams.

Kind of defeats the whole point of hanging with friends.

Though I suppose there is one benefit to all this wearable tech – unlike our phones which we put in our pockets, rarely do we take off our watches and glasses, so the excuse: “I accidentally tossed my tech in with my clothes wash,” just won’t hold.

But people lose watches all the time.

Hmmm. 

In the 24-Hour News Cycle Nothing Matters

I remember when I was a kid, and I’d be watching my favourite shows on television, when all of a sudden, the screen would dip to black. You’d swear you could hear mumbled voices, and then a still image of the network logo would appear on the screen, followed by the news anchors voice saying: “We interrupt regular programming to bring you a special breaking news broadcast.”

My parents would often gather around the TV when this happened, because back then, when breaking news was happening, it really was breaking news.

Think about the millions of dollars major television networks lost as they cut from their regular paid programming, to go to a live unsponsored telecast.

This is how the world learned of things that really did matter before the Internet and the always on news channels of CNN, BBC News and CBCnewsworld.

However, thanks to our vast information society, the term “breaking news” just doesn’t carry the same weight. Occasionally there is something really urgent going on which captures the attention of the world.

But because of the Internet and the 24-hour news networks, television and radio stations don’t feel the need to interrupt their regular programming anymore, and so “breaking news” has become a cliché used by these 24-hour news networks to keep people watching.

Breaking news isn’t really important anymore.

Most of the world watched in awe, as man walked on the moon – that was breaking news. Or when US President John Kennedy was shot dead, and the attempted assignation of another American leader, Ronald Reagan – these were breaking news events, as the world rallied around the success, mourned the loss, and feared for the future.

When NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia fell from the sky (in separate, but equally tragic incidents) those were breaking news events because we were reminded as advanced as our tech makes us, we are all still mortal.

Today’s “breaking news” was about Queen Elizabeth’s release from a weekend hospital stay, after a bout of indigestion.

Really?

Yes, the Queen is an internationally recognized figure head, considered a leader of the British people –but because she ate something which didn’t agree with her, we’re supposed to be glued to our “tellies” cheering her recovery?

For all we know, she spent the weekend in and out of the bathroom doing what most of us do when we have a bad tummy – and I certainly don’t want to know about that!

Our information in an instant world is a wondrous thing. But sadly, it has changed our culture and society for the worse.

We no longer all gather ‘round the television when the words: “we interrupt our regular broadcast to bring you this special breaking news event,” are uttered in a rushed state.

Because “breaking news” these days isn’t really as the name implies, we no longer share in the important life lessons learned by our society, as truly globally important events shape humanity.

And that’s perhaps the saddest thing of all about our information age – although we all know what’s going on in the world, we don’t experience it anymore.

Pope’s Resignation Signals the Death of Faith

For the first time in over 600 years – and only the second time in history – the leader of the Catholic Church has let his instincts – and not God – determine his faith.

Today, the world’s media is buzzing with news that the 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI will resign on Feb. 28.

Sighting “advanced age” as just cause to break with traditions, the Pope announced his retirement while most of the western world was asleep.

Organized religion – particularly the Catholic Church – has taken quite a beating over the years. 

As science and technology continues to advance, and we see the world for the way it really is – and not necessarily how our ancestors once thought it was – we are a world which is losing faith.

With the scandalous $2.2 billion the Catholic Church has had to pay to victims of sexual abuse by their clergy, it’s only continued the downward spiral of organized religion even further.

So news of the Pope’s resignation is another blow to the church, and to religion as a whole.

Most Papal leaders don’t chose their own fate – that’s God’s decision – so the only way they retire is literally by death.

Having a Pope decide his own fate, shows a lack in faith by the one person who’s job it is to instill it in others.

This resignation comes shortly after the Pope began his official Twitter account, and began spreading his religious tweets around the world in numerous languages.

Perhaps the Pope’s own experience with technology has shown him his true age, and in part formed his decision to quit his job so suddenly?

Scientific and technological advances have always clashed with the beliefs of organized religion, yet in the end, it’s the science which has proof to back it’s claims, while religion has always claimed it’s a matter of faith.

From Copernicus that found out the Sun was the centre of the galaxy, not the Earth, as the Catholic Church believed, to Galileo’s first glimpses into the heavens using his own home-made eye-piece – both were banished by the Catholic Church for their scientific discoveries which we know to be true today.

The constant tug-o-war between religious beliefs and scientifically provable theories continues to this day. The whole Right to Life movement sprung forth from religious beliefs about the when a fetus is considered a person, and there is still a controversial movement trying to encourage our public education system to teach we all came from Adam and Eve, not from a Darwin-based theory of evolution, as science as proven.

I remember growing up in the suburbs of Canada’s largest city – Toronto – and every morning, my school day started by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

I went to a public school, and not being of the Catholic Faith, I never identified with that prayer. I just did it because everyone else did – and being a young kid, I didn’t know any better.

Looking back, I sometimes feel cheated by the very people that taught me to read and write, because they forced their religious beliefs upon me at a time when I was too young to even think of such things. Not that saying the Lord’s Prayer damaged me in some way, but too make it appear a normal part of everyday life for everyone, when it is not, was an abuse of power.

It was only a few years ago that the Lord’s Prayer was officially dropped from the public school system which I went through, as educators finally came to the realization that not everyone believes in the same religion, and maybe there was something unethical in their preaching’s.

Our society continues to evolve and grow as our world becomes smaller, through technology.

Perhaps the time has come for us all to question our faith – and resign our religious beliefs – just as the leader of the Catholic Church did today?

Why Do You Tweet?

It took me a while to embrace social media. I was a late social networker.

I tried Myspace when it first started, got tired of Tom and moved on over to Facebook, discovered Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and now I’m addicted.

Social networking has become more than a hobby. It’s a daily ritual.

But why do I tweet?

Why do you friend, follow post and pin? Why do you take out your smartphone in a restaurant, and insist on taking pictures of your food in a restaurant, and uploading those images to Instagram before enjoying the taste?

Since social networking began, we’ve been told how it’s all about creating your own personal brand – essentially about making you look good, in a consistent and continuous way online.

You are your own product – just virtually represented.

But many old school social media junkies, or even just ‘newbies’ new to the online world of social networking, don’t have a personal brand, they just post what they are doing, what they are thinking, or what they are experiencing.

And isn’t that what social networking really was about?

Sharing your life experiences in an online virtual social realm, with others doing the same, so you could learn, develop and grow your friends?

Wasn’t the whole point of Facebook to reconnect with family, friends and colleagues that you originally lost touch with?

Twitter’s original homepage encouraged people to tweet “what you are doing right now.”

The essence behind YouTube was the ability to record video of what you were doing, and share it with the world.

Then the friending addiction kicked in, and many of us – myself included – became more interested in growing our friends, fans, and followers.

There may be strength in numbers, and it certainly is impressive to have a million friends following you on Google Plus.

But how many of those people do you actually have real conversations with, and really enjoy getting to know?

How many of those people do you actually care about?

The real test of friendship, is asking yourself if you care about someone.

Social networking has come a long way, but perhaps it has fallen off the rails, as we race to have more friends, fans, followers, circles, subscribers and others we really don’t care about.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink being social?

Why do you tweet?

Bigger TV Requires Bigger House

How big is your television? The common answer across much of North America is 52’ – some are larger, many are smaller, but by in large, the average household with a high definition TV has one in that range.

Coming soon though – thanks to the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) recently held in the States – 80’ TVs and larger.

Yeppers, LARGER.

For the past couple of years, the major television manufacturers have been toying with new TV tech. This new technology uses a combination of filters, screens, and video compression technologies to bend light into moving p

That’s why they are calling it 4K – or technically 4K Ultra High Definition or 4K UHD. This new standard in television viewing produces resolutions of 3840 X 2160.

As with all electronics these days, not only are the manufacturers making things better, but also smaller. So these new 4K TVs are thinner and lighter than even the slimmest full 1080p HDTVs today.

This means they can – and do – make these new 4K TVs even BIGGER.

The smallest one I’ve heard about was 70’ – the largest was over 102’ – remember the average size currently in North America is about 52’.

With a bigger screen and better picture comes a much bigger price. These 4K UHD TVs have been listed at CES and other tech shows in price from $10,000 to $25,000 and up.

You can walk into your local Wal-Mart and pick up a pretty decent 52’ HDTV for under a grand.

Even if you have the outrageous dough to purchase one of these new 4K TVs, don’t – it’ll take a while before anyone is producing content in that resolution.

If you currently subscribe to HD cable, you’ll still see a lot of standard definition stuff on the dial – not everything is in HD even today.

And it’ll take even longer for TV stations, networks and production companies to fork out the millions required to upgrade to the lights, cameras, editing software and other tech to produce 4K broadcast-quality television.

Give it about five years or more. But by then, the even higher resolution will be entering the marketplace. 8K UHD is already being tested by the very same television manufacturers about to unleash 4K on the cash strapped tech world.

102’ TV?

Sheesh.

I need a bigger house just to accommodate that!

Honestly Apple, Really? NO

Today the tech world is swirling with yet another rumour about the latest product that might be coming from Apple – a cheaper version of its flagship iPhone.

The rumour says the “new” cheaper version, will have a larger screen, and a new design, and is economically priced for third-world economies.

For years, Apple’s marketing mantra has been to leak rumours, mis-information and in some cases actually intentionally leave prototypes of their latest tech in public places, to be mysteriously found and leaked to the world.

Remember when the prototype of an iPhone was “accidentally”left at a bar, and it’s grainy amateurish pictures went viral over the social networks?

This is how they “surprise” us with their product launches; to keep is guessing as to which rumours are true, and which ones weren't.

Honesty is the foundation of any relationship, except it would appear, if you are an Apple customer – gossip mongering is hardly an honourable form of communications.

Seriously Apple, when you first rumoured, leaked and yes – lied – about your future tech toys, it proved to be a very successful marketing campaign.

But come on now – we’re all a little older and wiser to this game, and we’re sick and tired of hearing about what may come.

Just tell it like it is. Give it to me straight up and honest. I can take it – and I bet so too can everyone else.

Real trend setters are constantly changing their tactics, because that’s how you set the standards everyone else wants to follow.

If you keep dancing to the same song, eventually others will get bored and just walk away – WALK AWAY I SAY.

We all miss Steve Jobs, and we've all heard the rumours that Apple won’t be the same without him.

Prove those rumours wrong, by giving us something more than just more rumours.

Welcome 2013 – We’ve Been Waiting

Happy New Year to our regular readers, fans, friends and followers.

May the New Year bring personal and professional prosperity, growth, and happiness – and may the lessons learned in the previous year carry you through the challenges of the new one.

Technology is an amazing thing – already there is a Wikipedia entry on 2012 – and yet it is just seconds into 2013 as of this posting.

However, for many of us, 2012 couldn't end soon enough.

It was a year of economic, personal and professional tragedies of global proportions due to a failing economic system, and political and business ideals and values which are out of touch with reality in our ever shrinking global economy.

Let’s work together to make 2013 a change for the better.

Happy New Year!

Look – It’s The Queen – In 3D!

You know technology has made it to the big time, when even the stodgy old Royal Family, used to ancient horse drawn carriages, starts to embrace it.

The annual Christmas Day Message from her Royal Highness, the Queen of England, will be recorded in three-dimension high definition – this is the first time a member of the Royal Family will be in 3D.

The BBC offered to broadcast the recent wedding Prince William to Kate Middleton, but the Royals declined.

Although the annual Christmas Day Message is usually brief – lasting under 30-minutes if that – and usually about the same things – a call for world peace, environmentalism, hope and prosperity for the coming year – perhaps this sudden change towards new technologies means a new fresh message from The Queen?

Perhaps we’ll have a more pragmatic, practical and realistic message, with tangible themes, instead of the usual call to the impossible world peace?

The notion of peace around the world is a nice pipe dream, but that is all it ever was and will be.

So long as we human beings have free will, free thought, and freedom of choice, we will constantly battle one another to express that free will, free thought and freedom of choice.

The constant never-ending war in the Middle East is based entirely on two diametrically opposed cultures expressing their ideological and political thoughts. This battle ground – which began in the 1960’s – has the occasional cease-fire, when the two sides appear to be getting along and moving towards peace.

But peace in the Middle East will never happen – so the notion of a world at peace is a fairy tale. Perhaps that’s why The Queen’s Annual Christmas Day message always includes this notion, because the life of fairy tales and fiction makes up much of the history of the Monarchy?

However, modern day technologies like HD 3D TV are far removed from the world of fairy tales. Technological marvels may start out as a mental image, a figment of one’s imagination, but soon become reality as soon as a method of creating that fiction for real is invented.

That’s just what the Royal Family – and other world leaders need – a way to turn the ideas of fiction such as world peace – into reality.

Then these annual messages from The Queen of England, the Pope, and other world leaders won’t appear so artificial and meaningless.

Has Our Digital World Destroyed the Next Generation?

As I grow my new business, I’m talking to all sorts of folks who are looking for work, and want to join my fledgling new venture.

But I’m noticing a disturbing trend with many of the young adults I’m talking too – sort of a lacklustre aloofness. It’s as if they are just floating through life, without a care in the world.

I’m not unsympathetic, when I was in my early twenties I was still very much discovering myself. 

But at least I was trying different things, taking on the adventures the world tossed my way openly, as I feasted on all the new things I was learning about the world around me, and myself.

But kids today seem to lack that sense of self-exploration which my generation had. They are too tied to their mobile devices, their tech toys, and their small circles of close friends which are also tied to their mobile tech toys.

Has our digital world destroyed the next generation?

Are kids today so enveloped in technology, they have forgotten the world around them?

I’m building an on-demand television network, so when someone tells me they've always wanted to be on television, shoot a camera, edit a video, or just work within a television production, and I ask them why, I expect a long-winded answer.

Usually when someone is really interested in something, you can’t shut them up. If someone asks you about something you are passionate about, you should be able to go on, and on, and on – like the Energizer Bunny. 

But when I ask young adults why they've always wanted to be a TV reporter, host, producer or any other role we have, I usually get a deadpan answer more fitting for someone about to have a root canal than talk about their life-long dream.

When I ask them what they watch, read or listen to for inspiration in their self-admitted life-long dream, they usually tell me they don’t watch, read or listen to anything of the sort.

Even before I did my graduate work in broadcast journalism, while I was doing my undergraduate degree in a completely different field, I watched every major newscast, listened to various radio news shows, read all the daily papers, numerous magazines, and biographies of all the big name reporters, news anchors, publishers and producers.

If someone asked me why I wanted to be a journalist, I’d light up like a tree at Christmas, talking up a storm about the business which fuelled the fire of my soul.

These days, the only thing apparently igniting the souls of our future generations are their tech toys.

They are nose-deep buried in their mobile devices, texting tweeting and updating their social networks.

Although to a degree, I’m also buried in my mobile tech toys, I still have a passion, an interest – hell – a life – outside and away from my digital world.

Although I’m starting a digital media company, I know there is more to it than just being immersed in the digital world – as with any technology-based company.

No matter how dependent upon technology we all become, end of the day, it’s not iPhones, BlackBerry phones, laptops or tablets which make the world work – it’s people.

There’s an old saying, that those who are exceptionally good at what they do, have a real passion for what they do. They don’t just go to work, they go to play.

I've always believed in that – and hoped my passion for my work shone through in my work’s quality.

However, I’m concerned that future generations are so digitally distracted, they lack any passion for what they do.

Not just because the quality of their work suffers, but ultimately their lives suffer too.

How Do You Decide Who You’ll Call Back Instantly and Who You Won’t?

When you receive an email or voice-mail, do you always respond right away?

In our always on, always available world, it’s almost impossible to ignore a message when it comes in – but do you?

My iPhone will signal the arrival of emails, texts, voice messages, even chat requests instantly. I know even if I have the ringer muted, as I get a little vibration, or even if I turn that off, it’ll still light up and let me know someone wants me to stop everything I’m doing, and pay them some attention.

That’s how it feels in our world of instant communications – that I’m to stop whatever it is I am doing, no matter how important, and check to see who sent me what.

And often I do – I just can’t help myself. I could be watching an amazing movie for the first time, have my fork up to my mouth about to chomp on an incredibly deliciously smelling meal, but I’ll put the fork down, and reach for my iPhone.

The office? Oh, I’ll call them back tomorrow.

It’s so easy to make decisions about who we respond to and who we don’t right away.

The girlfriend? I better take this NOW.

See?

We all do it. Make instant decisions about who we will contact right away, the second they email, text, voice message or send a chat request. And we all know this too.

So when you are the person that doesn’t get called back right away, how do you feel?

Pretty bad uh?

Me too.

It sucks to not be important enough to get an instant return email, call, text or even a quick acknowledgement of existence.

But that happens to us all too.

We are all on someone’s mental list of important enough to call back right away, just as we are all on someone’s mental list of not important enough to call back right away.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

Technology has made a world where we all expect – anticipate even – instantly being in touch with those we want to talk to RIGHT NOW – but we know that doesn’t always happen.

Even though we all know they got that message right away.

What’s that saying, a watched kettle never boils?

Maybe in today’s always on high tech world, a watched phone never rings? Or it’ll ring, but whether or not you choose to answer depends on you.

Apple’s iCloud Almost Killed My Outlook

I've said it before, and I’ll say it again – I love my iPhone. From a design, usability, and functionality point of view, it’s an amazing piece of tech.

But, as I've also said before and will say again – I hate Apple’s software which they force you to use on their devices.

Apple’s iTunes often crashes, must be uninstalled and then re-installed to resolve issues, and on more than several occasions, has simply stopped working for no reason whatsoever. One minute it was fully functional, the next it’s hung or “bricked.”

Being an old school techy, I tend to take a while to gravitate to new technologies. I read reviews, read up on bug reports, and wait until I see the initial bugs which come with all early stages of tech are resolved.

I’ve been keeping out of the cloud for this reason – it’s still a new and somewhat experimental technological marvel. I’m used to backing up everything – including my iPhone – to my computer.

However, there are some cool benefits to sharing data with the cloud. Responses to emails from my iPhone would be in my Outlook on my computer, and any other iOS device I share via Apple’s iCloud. All my photos, apps, and other data would be available in the cloud too.

If Apple’s iCloud wasn’t like their other software which is complete and utter garbage.

I’m a very tech-savvy person. You know that friend that you always call when your latest tech suddenly stops working and you can’t figure it out? I’m that friend.

I don’t know why I thought iCloud would be any better of an experience than Apple’s immature iTunes – I read lots of instances of conflicts between MS-Outlook and the iCloud. But there were work-arounds, so I figured, if I encountered one of the many problems I read about, at least I could fix it. (And I'm using MS-Outlook 2007, which is supposedly fully compatible with Apple's iCloud.)

At first, when I tried to just turn on iCloud on my computer, it kept freezing. I did a search, and just like iTunes, the solution was to uninstall the application on my computer, reboot my system, and re-install it fresh.

I did this, and voila – it worked. Though someone should be challenging the Apple software team about why their software becomes corrupted so easily, and OFTEN requires their CUSTOMERS to uninstall and re-install it!

Although iCloud said it would take less than a minute to sync my computer with the cloud, it took about five minutes, and when it was done, my Outlook looked like it had never been used – all my emails, contacts, calendars and notes were gone!

My iPhone, still had all the emails, contacts and calendars which it had originally, but nothing from my PC was on my iPhone which wasn't already there prior to this so-called iCloud ‘sync.’

Now, being a techy geek, I had anticipated potential problems, so I made a backup of my MS-Outlook PST file prior to doing this iCloud thing. I always keep backups, but I made sure to make a current one so I wouldn't lose anything should the iCloud prove as well designed as iTunes.

And that’s a good thing – I immediately turned off iCloud on my iPhone and PC. Uninstalled the iCloud Control Panel on my PC – no I didn't re-install it – are you mad?!?!?

Then I copied the backup MS-Outlook PST file over the now corrupted one by iCloud. All my emails, contacts, calendars and notes were restored. Though I lost a few notes on my iPhone which for some reason iTunes didn’t sync with my PC (which I also did just prior to this iCloud trial), everything was back to normal.

I could only imagine the horror a regular iOS device user (iPhone, iPad, iPod) may go through installing and using iCloud. Most people aren't as geeky as me, and probably wouldn't even know how to backup their MS-Outlook, let alone restore it.

Apple has come under fire recently, as their new iPhone and iPad mini aren't as groundbreaking, heart-stopping amazing tech releases which we came to expect under Steve Jobs.

Many critics claim that since Job’s death just over a year ago, Apple’s once bright star will start to dim.

I don’t think this dimming has as much to do with the tragic loss of Jobs, but instead has been building over time.

Apple started as a computer hardware company, when they launched the first Apple Computers. Their third generation Apple IIe desktop computers back in the 1980’s were the start of their popularity in the home. They were forced to create an operating system – software – for their hardware to run.

Software has always taken a back seat at Apple. Their software has been designed much like their hardware – visually stunning, and extremely user-friendly – almost innate for most people to figure out.

However, as a hardware company first and foremost, their software is always buggy to the point of failing to do what it’s supposed to.

Apple’s iTunes is clunky, crashes, needs to be re-installed, and often fails to sync properly.

My recent experience with Apple’s iCloud – it’s clunky, crashes, needs to be re-installed, and it failed to sync properly.

Sound familiar?

If Apple wants to remain the shining star which Steve Jobs created, it’ll have to start catching up on the software side of things – because although I love my iPhone, as most with these devices do – I can’t stand iTunes or the iCloud – as most forced to use this software probably do too.

Expanding Social – Why Do Mobile Apps Not Have It All?

For the second time in as many weeks, I expanded my social networks over the weekend. I decided to revisit StumbledUpon, Reddit and Technorati.

Being a big fan of the highly graphical and addictive Pinterest, instantly I was a fan of StumbledUpon. I started “stumbling” great content online, checked out the iTunes store and downloaded the iTunes app, and continued my stumbling without wires.

Had trouble uploading my profile picture on Technorati – a lesser known social network exclusively for blogs. I kept receiving some archaic computer mumble jumble, which I sent to their tech support.

Surprisingly – and much appreciatively – I received a response right away the next day, confirming my username. They are still working on resolving the issue, but they responded quickly – even on a weekend, which is always aces in my book.

I couldn't find a Technorati app in the iTunes store – which was a little disappointing.

Reddit was such a sharp contrast to the highly graphical user interfaces so popular now on Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr and as I've already mentioned, StumbledUpon.

Reddit was all text, very few images, and the textual menu bars are in the smallest point type, they obviously don’t expect people in my advanced age group to be reading it. I found this really surprising, as Reddit claims to be the front page of the Internet. If that were really true, we’d all still be sitting in front of our televisions, instead of surfing the net in our spare time.

Reddit also was the least user-friendly. I still am not sure how it works, or if it’ll be of any use for me in my social media networking. I should go back and explore it more, but I don’t really want too. It really didn't appeal to me at first blush, and I’ll have to push myself to check it out again.

StumbledUpon really impressed me – I tried it when they first started and was interested, but just didn't really see any value in it.

But now that the social networks are getting more graphical, it really is quite useful, and relevant in today’s social media world.

I began creating lists, adding my ‘Stumbles’ to these lists – I even added links to my StumbledUpon profile in all my online communications – email signature, my blog and others.

But where StumbledUpon falls flat, is where many websites go dark – their mobile apps. Now, I’m still new at this, so it may be I just haven’t played around with StumbledUpon’s iPhone app enough to get a feel for all of it’s hidden treasures.

However, I tried, and tried and TRIED to add the web pages I discovered on the mobile app, to my lists. As much as I tried, I just couldn't do it!

I ended up logging back into the StumbledUpon website, and adding my recent ‘Stumbles’ to my lists from the website version.

How come so many social networking apps just don’t let you do everything you can do on their corresponding websites?

Facebook won’t let me adjust my privacy or account settings (other than the ones directly for the app). HootSuite won’t let me add or use the apps I have installed in the web version into the mobile app version, so I can’t take full advantage of this social networking management tool on the road.

Even Google Plus has slight differences between their web version and their mobile app version, which drive me nuts. When I add a link to my status updates on the web, it automatically includes a thumbnail image from the linked website. Not so when I do the same thing from within the Google Plus iPhone app!

You can tell when I update my G+ status from my iPhone, chances are it doesn't have a graphic linked to it – which sucks because so much of our online world is becoming graphical.

I can sort of understand why some features and functions within the web version of our social networks are not found in their corresponding mobile apps. Maybe Facebook prevents you from being able to change your user and account settings via their mobile app, because they know if you lose your phone or mobile device, someone else can take over your Facebook account?

But why are some of the basic features missing from mobile apps?

The whole point of StumbledUpon is to surf, stumble and sort content. So how come I can’t sort it, by placing my mobile ‘stumbles’ into lists via the app?

It’s not as if mobile devices are new tech – they've been around for several years.

Until the social networking services enable us to do almost everything from their corresponding mobile apps, we’ll be stuck having to go between the mobile app and the full website, just to be social. And that’s not very social.

Mobile Devices, Meetings, Conferences, and I

I love to be the centre of attention – maybe it’s the Leo within me.

Throughout my career I've enjoyed many opportunities to feed my ego, and share some of my insights, by publicly speaking, at lectures, lunch and learns, and various conferences and workshops.

Years ago, before we were all wired, everyone paid attention. Well, there were the occasional folks who were told by their boss they had to attend, and just didn't want to be there. But they don’t count – you can’t force someone to listen if they've already decided not too.

These days, even those that are supposedly very excited to hear me –or any public speaker – often spend the whole time with their head down, seemingly ignoring the very speech they wanted to hear.

They aren't sleeping. They aren't glancing at their shoes – though sometimes I wonder. They are stuck with their eyes glued to their mobile devices.

Years ago, we’d tell the few that had cell phones and pagers– remember those? – to please turn them off at the start of the session. It was considered rude, and often drew rolling eyeballs of disgust when someone’s cell phone went off during a professional presentation. 

These days, it’s okay.

Wait a sec. . .

NO IT IS NOT OKAY.

We've become so used to people with their heads buried in their mobile devices at all times and in all social and professional situations, that we've been conditioned to ignore it, and just accept it.

But that’ doesn't make it okay.

It’s still the height of rudeness to ignore anyone, while you text, tweet or post a new status update on your mobile device.

It’s rude to take a call, answer an email, or do any of the zillion of other things we do on our mobile devices, when our attention should be on the person speaking.

The problem isn't so much the mobile device, they are just bits of plastic and metal – they can’t control themselves.

The problem is with our increasingly iSociety.

The iPhone was – and still is – a remarkable piece of tech. As Apple founder, the late Steve Jobs said when he first showed off the iPhone “this changes everything.”

Never before has any piece of technology become so entrenched in the notion of our self, that it created a whole cultural change.

Until the iPhone, which now made it possible to spend an entire life, buried head first, eyes glued to the screen.

The iPhone – and now all smart phones and most mobile devices – are so customizable, and so full of every bit of our lives, that we have created a society which is focused solely on the I.

There are few of us or we anymore.

Oh we share everything we think on the social networks. But think about it – when you are tweeting, emailing and texting, and most things we do on our mobile devices, you are engaging in solely singularly one person activities. You don't jointly tweet, email, text or talk.

And as almost everyone these days is wired with one of these mobile devices – or more –  we've become accustomed to living in a world, where eye contact and the thought of interacting with those around us has become a rare – if not unheard of – thing.

We've created an iSociety.

And, sadly, in an iSociety, no one else matters but me, myself and I.

So that speaker you tweeted you were excited to listen to goes unheard. All you remember about the lecture is that cute cat picture someone posted on their Facebook during the speech.

It’s rude to ignore those around you. And it’s even worse that our society has made that an acceptable part of life.

Let’s change that. Starting today, from now on, when you go to a meeting, conference, or any professional or social function, tuck away your mobile device into a pocket, purse or someplace out of sight. And leave it there, out of sight, and out of mind, until you are really alone.

You can do it. I have faith in you.

And you might actually hear that speaker you tweeted you were excited to hear – for a change!