Competition for Hybrid PC

Looking into the hybrid computer design I found that there are several competitors. The first is the laptop / docking station combo. This solution allows the user to have a full size computer layout with a keyboard, mouse, monitor, ect and be able to carry the main portion of the computer in laptop form.

Another competitor is VPN / remote desktop software. This would also allow a person to have access to files and programs located on a computer without having to be sitting at that physical system. This can be used from the work / home and is a reasonable alternative to our product.

Finally there are ultra small desktops. These desktops are usually contained within the monitor component and are easy to move and set up in a new location. They cannot however be used without being plugged in or set up on a desk as a laptop would.

Overall I think our product will face a lot of competition but with the value added features we will develop should be able to overcome this and become a reasonable solution to business computing needs.

Gas Caps

Today while filling up at a gas station I wondered why there are not two gas caps on cars. The extra cost in parts would be minimal to add the convenience of being able to use a pump on either side without having to shuffle around a crowded gas station. This is just one small thing that I thought could make daily life more simple.

Avoid Closing Doors

I thought the game showed an interesting behavior. My score was significantly higher in the round that the doors did not shrink. This is because I was trying to keep all the doors open in the previous round. By wasting clicks to keep the doors opened I missed out on clicks that would have actually brought me points. I think this symbolizes a trend for people to keep their options open.

It is interesting to think of other times in our lives that we have kept our options open and possibly missed out on great opportunities. I know that I am personally guilty of this on a constant basis. Sometimes I think that keeping your options open is a good idea. I would never want to completely close a door and seal it off from being opened again. Putting an idea on hold and capitalizing on current situations is generally a difficult thing to do.

Making Money on Metacafe

Our next project involves uploading a video to Metacafe and trying to get more hits than the other groups in the class. I spent some time surfing around Metacafe to see what kinds of videos were making money. I was expecting to see amazing inventions and really crazy ideas, but instead found normal ideas and great video work. Kipkay had many videos up. Each video was a how to video creating some sort of easy contraption. The ideas were novel but nothing we couldn’t come up with on our own. This shows that the marketing and video work is more important for this particular project than the actual thing being created. Hopefully my group will come up with a few good ideas that we can try out within the next couple days.

The Bubble Organ

I found the bubble organ while searching for experimental musical instruments. This instrument was created by Aaron Wendel. It is made out of old pieces of furniture, rain gutters, and other random items collected around his apartment. The balloons hold air and when keys are released the air is forced through the tubes containing a few inches of water. These tubes are made of different materials and contain different levels of water to created tones.

After our experimental music attempt it is easy to see that this would create a sound that is pleasant to many people. Most of my group’s ideas involved short sounds that did not sustain at all. After talking to Matt we realized that this is why nothing we did sounded quite right. Once we added some sounds that lasted more than an instant we were able to produce “music” that sounded alright. From the other groups in our class it was obvious that many instruments could be made with a little time and creativity.

Why do US companies lock cell phones?

I recently bought a T-Mobile shadow from a friend. To use this phone on my ATT cell plan I knew that I would have to unlock it. This is an easy task. I had a friend that uses the T-mobile service call and ask for the unlock code and had it within 12 hours. I put in my SIM card and the phone worked just as it was supposed to….or so I thought. When I went to change the settings for the internet and multimedia messaging I could not find where these settings where located. After some searching online I found that T-Mobile had actually hidden these settings and there was no easy way to get to them. I ended up having to go into the registry of the phone using a program on my computer and change a few values. This allowed me to get to a set of menus that T-Mobile never wanted me to find. After finally getting everything working I started wondering why US companies feel the need to do this….and why they are legally allowed to. I feel that if a person buys a phone for a few hundred dollars they should be allowed to do whatever they want with that phone. It shouldn’t be tied to a service. I know that cell companies use their phones as a way to get customers to switch to their service, but if this was not allowed they would have to attract customers with something more meaningful. Lower prices, better coverage, more features could all be used to bring customers from other carriers and would also benefit the community as a whole. I know that the US is one of (if not the only) countries where companies are allowed to do this, and feel the need.

Cost of Living

	Month	Year
Rent	400	4800
Electricity	50	600
Cell Phone	37	444
Gas	90	1080
Car Insurance	100	1200
Medical Insurance	25	300
Gym Membership	50	600
Food / Alcohol	300	3600
Total	1052	12624
Including Tax		16411.2

 

This cost of living is very approximate and I feel is probably a low guess. Especially when trying to compare this to how much money I am going to have to make to support this lifestyle. I am currently a college student living in a college town where the cost of living is generally very low. I am not driving long distances or paying tolls like I will probably be doing for work. It would be very interesting to do this same analysis after living on my own as a recent graduate when my expenses are better known. This would be a useful tool to decide exactly how much new car you can afford, or if that big screen TV is going to create problems after you buy it. It is very important to know the numbers for these kind of decisions. My cost of living per week is about $340. This is about the same as my group was able to make in the 3 weeks of crash and burn. Obviously I would be in some trouble if that was my only source of income.

Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band

This weekend I went to a friend’s apartment who had just bought the game Rock Band. This game was developed by one of the original partners of the Guitar Hero game. It was very interesting to see how they took an idea that was already on the market and added so much more. Guitar Hero only has support for up to two players on two different guitars. Rock Band on the other hand can handle four players. They still have two guitars but have added drums and a microphone. The addition of these extra features makes the game more like playing in a real band, and who doesn’t want to do that? This game has taken a current idea and added significant value.

 

 

Thinking of this situation makes me think that there could be millions of products on the market that could be improved and remarketed by a new company. Finding out what makes a product successful and expanding on that feature is one way to make a ton of money on an idea that started with someone else. Also, by adding these features and changing a few details it is possible to circumvent any sort of intellectual property laws in relation to the original product. I think that the creators of Rock Band have shown that this is possible and should be expanded into other products.

Microsoft Zune – Failure

Today I saw a commercial for the Microsoft Zune mp3 player, and I thought does that thing still exist? When the Zune first came out it was being called the IPod killer. This new media player had the same functionality as the Apple IPod, plus a FM tuner, and wifi connectivity. The Zune is also not tied down to new software like the IPod is. In order to use your IPod you must use ITunes on your computer. The Zune has the ability to work with windows media player, which is already installed on most PC’s since it is included with windows. With these improved features you would think that the Zune would quickly capture a large portion of the business from Apple.

In reality the Zune is still underselling the IPod and it does not seem to be gaining much more ground. How could Microsoft have gone wrong? I believe that a big portion of the IPod’s success is tied to its looks. Apple took the normal black music players of the time and went in the completely opposite direction, a white player with white headphones. Walking around town you can immediately spot an IPod due to these characteristics. This helped to make the IPod a more “hip” device. The Zune has none of these distinctive features. The IPod also has many more accessories available from a variety of different companies. That is why I ended up buying the IPod myself, for its ability to dock to my home theater system and car stereo.

The Zune is still being made and improvements have been made over the previous designs. It will be interesting to see if these continued improvements will help Microsoft break further into the portable music industry.

Volkswagen Autostadt

A friend recently showed me a picture of the Volkswagen Autostadt car storage and I thought it was a fake picture. Apparently in Volkswagen needed a way to store their cars after production. They realized that huge parking lots were not acceptable because they would require a large amount of space. This led to the development of the Autostadt. This is sort of like a large automatic car garage. The cars are automatically put into a compartment by the lift shown in the middle. When the car is needed a computer remembers its location and directs the lift to retrieve that car. I thought that this was a very interesting and innovative design for car storage. I wonder if there is any way we could implement something like this as a common parking garage. People could park their car on top of a lift and the car would be taken up into the tower. They could use a magnetic card much like the current design to have the machine retrieve their car for them. If this could be designed effectively it could eliminate the annoyance of driving around in circles looking for a parking space.