What: Speaking at Learning3Point0 Conference
When: October 3rd 2011 12:30-3:30 (2 Weeks from today)
Where: Training 2011 Conference, McCormick Place, Chicago Illinois. Room C3 Topic: Minority Report Learning — How Augmented Reality Makes E-Learning Kinesthetic
One of the hottest technologies - Augmented Reality. You will learn through this hands-on clinic the easy way to implement Augmented Reality into your training and websites. You will also learn how kinesthetic engagement can enhance the training from a presentation to a viral experience. You will learn the best practices around the technology and how to make augmented reality a user-driven experience.
Learn to:
Think differently about the web, mobile, and devices.
Use AR to engage users in the learning.
Create unique markers to your learning material.
Create 3D objects with open source (Free) technologies.
Learn about viral coefficient.
iPhone market share has been slipping dramatically over the last year as Android has become the dominant smart phone. Apple went from it's peak of 37% now down to 28% and has been eclipsed by Android OS. So how can Apple catch up to the pervasive android phone? Here is the user guide for Apple to at least catch up and maybe be on top again.
The things that Apple can do to catch up to several of the Android phones in comparison to those Android competitors - EVO3D.
Display: iPhone 5 needs to have a bigger screen. The HTC EVO 3D has a 4.3-inch LCD display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, in addition to being able to display 3D images without glasses. The Apple iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch LCD display with 640 x 960-pixel resolution. Apple refers to this high-resolution screen as a “retina display.” Microsoft did a productivity study years ago and the one factor that they said would increase prodcutivity more than any other is the size of the screen in someones office. This relates to the smartphones as well.
Operating system: The HTC EVO 3D runs Android 2.3, while the Apple iPhone 5 is expected to run Apple’s iOS 5. iOS 5 s supposed to be much improved. The deciding factor is - will it have live widgets and customization?
Processor and RAM: The HTC EVO 3D has a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. To compete the Apple iPhone 5 needs a Dual-Core Processor and over a GB of RAM.
Keyboard: Most Android phones have SWYPE which is hands down the best phone input on the market. Apple is still two handed hunt and peck. If iPhone5 wants to catch up it must have SWYPE. You don't have to take my word on this because the world record for the fastest text message is held by Melissa Thompson using SWYPE. This is a clincher for Apple. They will ultimately lose a large portion of the market if they do not speed up the input for the device.
Flash: Android has Flash. iPhone does not. Do I need to say anything else?
OK, a few more words on the subject. 40% of the web has Flash in some form or another. This is the biggest thing that Apple can do to catch up to Android devices. I know in the past the iPhone has had sub-par hardware which they masterfully hid behind no multitasking but now the hardware in the phones is capable. Let the Apple-Adobe war go away with Steve Jobs. (For all the Mac fanboys - I think Steve Jobs was one of the most influential people in the last 30 years for advancing technology.)
Camera: The HTC EVO 3D has two 5-megapixel rear cameras capable of creating 3D photos. The EVO 4G has a stunning 8-megapixel camera. The Apple iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel still-image camera that can also shoot 720p HD video. Both phones have front-facing cameras for video chat, with the EVO 3D measuring in at 1.3-megapixels and the iPhone having 0.3-megapixels (640 x 480). To compete Apple needs at least 10mp camera. Another catch up for Apple is adding the 3D technology to the iPhone5 that HTC has had for almost a year. Apple does own some patents, so we will see.
Battery: The HTC EVO 3D is expected to has a 1,730 mAh battery that is user replaceable. This battery has been reported in several cases to get over 18hours. I myself has run it through a normal (which translates to crazy) day without charging over 18 hours. All smart phones users (except EVO 3D) complain about not having enough battery.
4G: I would be very surprised if the iPhone5 didn't have 4G. This is again an area where they are going to have to play catch up to other phones.
Mobile HotSpot: Most HTC phones have the ability to broadcast a wifi connection for up to eight devices. For example a person can be in the middle of a field with there laptop and as long as they have their phone with them they can connect their laptop to the internet.
Thanks and Happy Flashing on your Android and hopefully iPhone5 next month.
Need a sequence of numbers? Yes this is the right place. Put the starting number in the first box and end number in the last box and the sequence will be generated on the bottom of the page. The box of generated numbers is small so you will have to click and drag down to select all. The great thing about his little Flash app is that it will automatically be copied to your clipboard so you won't have to do anything but hit the button.
So why would you need a sequence of numbers? The reason I created this was for Parker Donat who is doing Lead Gen for FranklinCovey. Lead Gen requires a lot of homework. One major part of the Lead Gen homework is segmenting lists geographically. Zip codes in general are a great way to do Lead Gen geo-segmenting because they are sequential based on geography. Phone Area codes Zip codes start with 0 on the east coast and move across the country until zip codes starting with 9 stretch down the west coast. Zip codes that start with 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96 are all in CA such as the famous 90201. Ben Fry's Zip Code Decoder is the best way to see this visually. If you are using a tool like Jigsaw, NetProspex, Hoovers, or my favorite InsideView then one effective way to search is by zip code. I built this tool for you to do it quicker and more effectively.
So without further ado, here is the sequence generator.
This Flash app goes hand-in-hand with my Comma Maker. Another tool to help speed up the Lead Generation process.
Is money becoming such a commodity that companies just don't need it anymore or was there some other explanation for the bizarre phone call I received yesterday?
It truly was an unbelievable Customer Service Expereince . Jackie from Sprint called me around noon and described that she was with the Sprint "Something or other" team. I really wasn't that interested because I have been very disappointed in Sprint's customer service in the past and even more disappointed with the Sprint Technical Support or lack of it. On most calls with the Sprint Technical Support team I end up teaching them something and I have called upwards of 12 times to get the same issue resolved without success.
This nice girl, Jackie from Arizona, said she had some good news for me and would like to look over my phone plan with me. I was about to politely decline when she said, "It looks like we can save you some money on your monthly bill. It was during the business day and I have had several solicitations like this from Sprint before but, she caught me off guard with her offer to save me some money. I was still skeptical but, she had my attention. She said it looks like from my research... (Did Sprint just say research?) ...that you are paying Sprint too much and I am calling to see if you would like to reduce the amount you pay us each month. Now she really had my attention. The rest of the conversation went something like this:
CM - You are calling me so I can save money by paying you less? Jackie - Yes sir. It looks like you make the majority of your calls to mobile numbers. Even though you have 1,000s of minutes of total calling it looks like you only actually call about 600 minutes/month to land lines. Because Sprint has Free Mobile-to-Mobile calling you can reduce your rate plan. CM - So do I have to renew for another two years? Jackie - Nope. There is no renewal required. CM - So what kind of fee will I have to pay to set this up? Jackie - No fee whatsoever. This is a free service that you can do at any time. CM - What services will I lose. Jackie - You will continue with all of your current services including unlimited texting, unlimited data, GPS and navigation, free any-mobile any-time calling, unlimited hotspot data and eight connected users, free 4G, free etc..., unlimited etc..., and free etc... CM - I half expected you to say a free tablet. Jackie - {Happy Laugh}, No Mr. Morley, no free tablets today. CM - So, this is a little unbelievable. You called to ask me to stop spending so much money with you? No additional commitments, no reduction in service, and no additional fees. Jackie - We just want to let you know that we are looking out for you. CM - What if I change plans and next month bill is crazy because I call all landlines. Jackie - Just call back in and we will take care of you and change your plan back. CM - So how much will I save? Jackie - We can reduce your plan by $40/month and you will still have a good buffer. CM - Really? Jackie - Yes really. CM - This is just unbelievable. Next you are going to tell me that you have made me a creme' brulee. Jackie - I do make a great creme' brulee, but I don't think it will taste as good if I send it through the mail.
Sprint loves money, but in my case they loved something even more than my $40/month. The question is - what? Let's take a look at what Sprint bought for $40/month. From this one simple act Sprint gained:
A fun blog post from an influential blogger.
10+ backlinks.
Slightly higher placement on the search engines
Multiple comments (Hey readers tell me your experiences with Sprint).
About 20,000 people that will read what this post about how amazing customer support Sprint is.
Multiple referrals to my friends and family. (I have already shared this story to 10 people including to the Customer Loyalty Team at FranklinCovey)
For the first time in my history I answered the automated call that followed to rate the experience.
A customer that won't have to be put on a two year plan because he now knows that Sprint has his back more than any other company.
As Head of Global Marketing for FranklinCovey I would easily pay 40 month for all of this. I would pay $120/month if I knew that I could turn demoters into active promoters. I would pay to pay to create a movement toward crowd sourced promotion to trusted individuals. So the ultimate question is -- Is extreme customer support really another form of marketing?
Have you ever had a list in excel or word and needed that list to be separated by a comma and space instead of a new line. Well I have, and still do, so, I thought I would write this little Flash app that creates comma separated values from a list separated by new lines. In other words a list of zip codes will go from this:
84057
84119
84663
84523
to this:
84057, 84119, 84663, 84523
Enjoy and Happy Flashing. Parker, this ones for you.
I used this promo code on iStockphoto today and received $15 off my $75 purchase. So I only paid $60 on iStockphoto for 50 credits. A pretty good deal if you ask me. If you click the link above I will get a small commission thanks.
I am pleased to Announce that I am giving the Keynote speech at Elearning DevCon
Rewiring Your Brain
Curtis Morley Head of Corporate and Global Marketing | FranklinCovey
What is new media doing to our brains? 20 years ago the average number of interruptions and distractions was once every 2 hours. Currently it is once every 2.5 minutes. Urgency Addiction and Information Overload can actually produce Learned ADD and a rewiring of the brain. Learn what research is saying about how we are training our brains to think quickly and shallowly instead of focused and deep thinking and how this plays into E-Learning.
The progress of tablets is fantastic. The future vision of how we would use technology seems to be approaching sooner rather than later. I remember as a teenager watching Jean Luc Picard on the Enterprise thinking that seems so foreign. Now it is a part of daily life. Tablets are doing more than even Captain Picard could have guessed. The hottest of the tablets are the Motorola XOOM and Apples iPad 2. I did a little comparison for my company to evaluate which we would want to purchase and have decided that the XOOM is the clear winner.
Here are the reasons why:
Flash: If you have ever read my blog then you know I am very much into Flash and have been since the early days. The interesting thing is that nearly have of the web is into it also. Over 40% of all websites have Flash content. The iPad cannot view any of these sites. This is an issue when http://www.FranklinCovey.com, http://www.FranklinCoveySpeakersBureau.com, http://www.theleaderinme.org, and several other FranlinCovey web properties are built in Adobe Flash.
Free Apps: Yes the App Store has more total Apps than the Android Market Place yet the number of free apps for Android is nearly double. You can't beat free. Native apps for the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS is very limited right now but most of the apps I tested work just as well on Android phones as well as on the XOOM. (SlideIt Keyboard was one exception)
Widgets: I love having my email, calendar, news feeds and many other important pieces of information available without having to click an icon and wait for an app to load. This seems so intuitive to me that I don't doubt that the iPad will have it in one of the future releases.
Voice Commands: Typing, browsing, opening apps, listening to music and navigating can all happen at the sound of my voice. Being able to say, "Navigate to FranklinCovey" and then having the largest GPS unit imaginable is pretty cool. There are many other Google Voice Actions.
Tabbed Browsing: This is a great feature. It may seem simple to some but being able to see the tabs that I have open and go back and forth is a lot less hassle than the ipad (non-multitasking) method that takes me to a separate screen then having to choose which window I want to manage. The browser acts like the browser on my computer. Did I mention the browser has Flash.
Google Integration: Google maps, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Chat, Google Search, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Navigation, Google Sky Maps, Google Body, Google Goggles, Google Books, Google everything. I love the way it all integrates together to make my life simple.
Expandable Memory: iPad makes you pay $829 for the 64 GB device with 3G whereas for the Motorola XOOM you pay $599 for the 32 GB device and buy a SanDisk 32GB MicroSDHC Card for $70. Note - The expansion slot is not accessible as of the date of this post. This will be coming within 2 weeks I am assured from Verizon. Price: See above. 64 GB Xoom for $670, 64 GB iPad 2 for $829
Internet Speeds: Again the trophy goes to the XOOM. Although Verizon carries both devices the iPad 2 is not capable of 4G speeds. The XOOM will have 4G within a month according to the Verizon reps that I spoke with.
True Multitasking: Enough said.
and.... a
Barometer for when I need to check the weather or altitude.
In summary, even if I were on the Enterprise I would probably still pick the Motorola XOOM with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.Below is a direct comparison chart.
