Last week, CBS Sunday Morning featured a segment called “Hail and Farewell” that paid tribute to the many influential people who passed away this year. It reviewed the lives of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Jobs, Andy Rooney, as well as the infamous, such as Muammar Gaddafi, Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jung Il. 

There were a lot of people that I did not know in business, sports and entertainment, but that was a chance for me to learn a bit of history.  I learned that one of my favorite tunes from the 007 movies was created by John Barry, and that the Nielsen ratings were created by Arthur Nielsen.  As much as I was fascinated by almost all of them, I was dismayed (though not surprised) that the public media once again neglected some people of immense historical importance in academia and technology. One of the people that I would hope to be mentioned was Dennis Ritchie, who passed away in October 12, 2011. 

 This post originally appeared in AnnArbor.com.

In late October, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) published the results of its 18th Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study.  The survey showed that consumers planned to spend an average of $246 on electronics this holiday season, up 6 percent from 2010.  This rate is double the expected increase in overall holiday gift purchasing.

Even more interesting, however, are the results of the holiday gift wish list survey of adults.  The gifts most coveted by grown-ups in 2011 are clothes, tablet computers, and notebook computers, in that order.  Each of these items polled higher than other admirable desires, such as peace, happiness, and money!

In his article “Mobile Apps May Soon Be Dead” Ben Rooney of the Wall Street Journal humorously (and accurately) points out that, “…there is nothing the media enjoy more than killing off things”. Predictably, there have been several recent articles and blog posts heralding the death of mobile apps.

Here’s a helpful tip: if you want Google to find these articles for you, search “mobile apps dead” and not “is mobile dead.” The latter query results primarily link to Mobile Dead, a zombie-themed location-based game for your mobile phone. The game uses mapping to show where you are in proximity to the undead (your friends and others nearby that it locates through GPS or cell tower triangulation).

Apparently, zombies are still the “it girl” of popular culture. And you have to love a website that has the headline “Location, Chainsaws, BRAINNSS.”

As I stepped into our Irvine office last evening, I was told the very sad news that Steve Jobs passed away. It is hard to think of any great technology company without comparing it to Apple, and when you think of Apple, you think of Steve Jobs. Even when Steve Jobs was at his lowest, after being ousted by Apple's board and subsequently failing to sell the NeXT computer well, I still told everyone that he is the greatest technologist ever. Looking back, I think I was right.
 
When I came to the University of Michigan, I was very impressed by its pervasive use of Apple computers. The University implemented the then largest installation of Apple computers in the world.  Prior to my time at Michigan, I used PCs with CPM and DOS operating systems. Those computers were not fun, but using Apple was fun. When I used the Apple Lisa the first time, I knew that user experience would become the game changer in the field. 

With today's iPhone 4s announcement, the litigious pyrotechnics between Samsung  and Apple, HP’s soapy train wreck, and the release of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, I thought it a good time to review who’s winning and who’s, um…not at all winning, in the mobile world.  

Smartphones
Android is clearly the market share winner.  This Forbes article from a couple months ago (I know, it might as well be a century in “mobile time”) provides a respectable summary of Android’s success, and valid reasons why Apple should not be despondent about the iPhone second place market share. 

Android’s numbers continue to skyrocket since its release.  In May 2010, the powers that be at Google announced they were activating 100,000 Android phones a day.  By August 2010, that number doubled to 200k.  In December, they were activating 300k/day. 

On NBC's Parks and Recreation, Rob Lowe plays Chris Traeger, a character that frequently and with great passion misuses the word "literally". His conviction to his assertions, and his pronunciation of the word itself(super strong stress on the first syllable "LIT...really"), make you think his usage might almost be correct...but it's generally not. For example:

"My body is finely tuned like a microchip, and the flu like a grain of sand; it could LITERALLY shut down the entire system."

Literally is a much abused word in popular culture, especially among teenagers who are literally embarrassed to death about everything. Therefore, I am launching a one-woman campaign to raise the popularity of its oft-correct counterpart in our everyday vernacular. Here goes:

It's been FIGURATIVELY forever since I've posted.

My last post was June 22, which almost precisely coincides with the beginning of our Showcase product launch planning. If you haven't been following our newsletter, Showcase is Logic's catalog mobile app that allows companies to not only display their products in an innovative, beautiful manner, but provides a means for sales staff to prepare quotes and take orders instantly, at the point of sale.

Often I tell our design staff “I want to be a graphic designer when I grow up!” Invariably I say this when they are in the middle of moving something just a hair to the right for the seventy-second time (per request), knowing full well that the alignment is now 72 pixels off.  Yes, inevitably I say this aloud when they are executing a perhaps unwise design decision that someone has demanded of them.

At the precise moment I declare that I think graphic design is the coolest, funnest, bestest job in the world, they are feeling exactly the way The Oatmeal depicts design life in his comic “How Web Design Goes Straight to Hell”. I would link you to said fantastic comic, but it contains a bit of profanity and I truly do not want to offend any of our readers.

This article first appeared in AnnArbor.com on May 26, 2011.

In order to properly discern how (and whether) mobile technology can benefit your business, you must first know the basics of mobile technology.  That sounds obvious, but in the world of early technology adoption, the sentiment is often overlooked. 

So, allow me to give you a brief mobile technology primer.  On a very basic level, mobile apps come in two flavors: mobile web and native applications.  Programming is, and user experience can be, substantially different for the apps.

Years ago one of my closest friends (a “bestie” to those of you not yet in your 30s) decided she needed to create some personal business cards to use during her time out of the professional sphere, as she completed her Master’s degree in Public Policy.* 

In lieu of a standard title, she used “Independent Thinker.”  In fact, the urban image on the card depicted some rusted, corrugated metal with the word “Caution” spray painted on it, so the whole thing in essence read “Caution: Independent Thinker.”

Some months later she attended a conference in which the keynote speaker lamented that the ability to think independently was not considered a legitimate qualification in today’s corporate world, and that he wished someone would have the courage to simply put “Thinker” as the title on his/her business cards.  Little did he know his wish would be immediately fulfilled by an avant-garde woman in that very crowd.

Recently the fine folks at Ann Arbor.com agreed that it was a good plan that I write a blog for them, too, AND they also thought it was a fine idea to dub me the "Mobile Diva".  We love the fine folks at Ann Arbor.com

My first article "Why aren't businesses adopting mobile apps as fast as consumers?" was published on April 14.

If you are looking to this Mobile Diva to find out what’s the hippest, most popular mobile app, you’re in the wrong place (though I could probably tell you that it’s Angry Birds and hit the nail on the head).  Professionally speaking, I could give a flip about consumer apps that sell for $1.99.

Let’s talk business; the business of mobile technology and using mobile technology for your business.

Last week a bunch of Logic’s team members were in San Antonio working on various projects for a great client, and we all had dinner together.  Our bunch was comprised of an eclectic mix of home offices: Nik (Irvine), Roy (Shanghai), and Samson and Me (Ann Arbor).  Obviously, we don’t work together every day, so you can imagine how fun it was to spend the better part of three hours together, laughing, yakking, and occasionally mentioning work.

I tend to be a broken record when I describe working here.  On our way home from a photo op at The Alamo, I again commented that I am highly impressed with my coworkers.  So much so, that one of our primary goals with Logic’s website redesign was to showcase their appeal in our online presence.