by Jason Wilk on February 2, 2009
- Well, it’s no mystery now, there is an iPhone 2 in the wild somewhere, and two people are walking around with it. Since Apple was recently granted the patent for everything the iPhone is capable of, many are curious if video conferencing and video recording will be included in the next phone. In several areas throughout the document as seen below, there are many mentions of using video. Everything else seen in the patent is already in use on the phone.
“The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a Web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.”
“In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, Web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer-readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.”
“In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user’s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition.”
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by Jason Wilk on January 15, 2009
- If you haven’t heard of Oberon Media, I’m sure you’ve played a casual game or two on one of the many sites that they power. Since their inception, Oberon has become the king of casual games, providing partners like MSN, MySpace, MTV, Walmart.com, NBC and more with their game player.
- Enter Heyzap, the latest product launch out of the Y Combinator college of startups. Founded by serial entrepreneurs, and my friends, Immad Akhund (recently sold Clickpass) and Jude Gomila, HeyZap is to become the longtail competitor to Oberon by creating an easily embeddable casual games player for use by any website or blog. Webmasters now have the ability to offer their users 4000+ casual games with a simple strip of code.
- Immad says “Currently, publishers don’t have easy access to highly addictive, online casual games content, but HeyZap intends to change this. Heyzap will shift where users play casual games and bring casual games to a larger audience”. The player aggregates and filters casual games from major game portals, game developers and Mochi Media, recommending users with the most popular games titles in their favorite categories.
- Some of the benefits to adding HeyZap to a site or blog include increasing user engagement, such as higher on-site time and potentially more page-views.
- The platform also hopes to help promote new game developers who aren’t getting exposure on the major networks, offering them ad-revenue shares and a home for their games.
- Casual gaming is now a $2.2bn market, predicted to grow at 25% this year. With the success of Oberon Media, HeyZap stands a real chance in the market for providing game tools for the rest of us. Somebody like DemandMedia, who offers tools for publishers could be setting their eye on this company very soon (Acquisition maybe?) Stay tuned….
Try it out here:
by Jason Wilk on December 29, 2008
- This was circulating around Digg yesterday, but I feel it’s an important quick read for any entrepreneur. It was written by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos on his company blog. Thanks Tony.
EVALUATING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
- Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
- It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
- If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.
MARKETING AND BRANDING
- Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
- Your “brand” is important.
- Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.
FINANCIALS
- Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
- The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
- The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
- Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
- Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking.
- Play only with what you can afford to lose.
- Remember it’s a long term game. You will win or lose individual sessions, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.
STRATEGY
- Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
- Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
- Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
- Stick to your principles.
- You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
- Be patient and think long term.
- The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
- Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
- Hope is not a good plan.
- Don’t let yourself go “on tilt”. It’s much more cost effective to take a break, walk around, or leave the game for the night.
CONTINUAL LEARNING
- Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
- Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
- Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
- Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You might have just gotten lucky.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.
CULTURE
- You’ve gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
- Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
- Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
- Share what you’ve learned with others.
- Look for opportunities beyond just the game you sat down to play. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts.
- Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.
by Jason Wilk on December 8, 2008
- More bad news for the big newspaper publishers this week, as The New York Times and Tribune, Inc look for ways to stay afloat. Their businesses are being hit hard by diminishing advertising sales as well as competing online papers and professional blogs.
- The Tribune owns eight major daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, plus a string of local TV stations. Many papers will need to fold in coming months, but for both the NYT and Tribune, some internal cash infusions are possible.
- The NYT is looking to borrow against its new Manhattan headquarters. It has hired a real estate firm to raise up to $225 million using the value of the building as collateral. The company owns 58% of the headquarters which is valued at somewhere between $900 million and $1 billion. Pulling money out of commercial real-estate is a good option for property owners looking for a tax free way to raise capital if they are to throw the money back into another investment.
- The Tribune too has their share of investments that it can salvage some money. A sale of its Chicago Cubs baseball team is under way, which will help the company in it’s effort to pay soon to be owed debts.
- Both the NYT and Tribune are under more heat than usual as they both have loans in the hundreds of millions that need to be paid back in 2009. The NYT needs to ante up $400 million by May in debts (ATD) and Tribune owes $512 million come June. Unofrtunatelly selling their paper assets are most likely not possible as the buyers market for old media is getting thin. The amount of money they are both able to pull from their other assets are limited and neither business will be able to withstand the ever-growing transition to new media outlets.
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