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KaaS: Kiss as a Service. Really. Really?

If you think the guy above is slurping down a milk-shake, you’re wrong.  Very, very wrong.   He is French kissing teaching his computer and a remote device to French kiss.    Here’s the formula of kissing digitized:

I can see unlimited prospects for a new Cloud-based Kiss as a Service, where you select your Kiss based on profiles.  Perhaps even sample them first.  iTunes will sell them for 99cents, until Amazon comes along with the 69c price:-)

OK, back to Earth. This is not a prank, it’s serious study conducted by researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo.   How long will it take for them to get to Third Base?  (there’s nothing a straw hooked to a PC can’t do…).

But by then.. why bother… who needs feelings anyway?  Let the machines make digital love to each other. :-)

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Tungle: an Acquisition Tweet by Tweet.

Tungle CEO, 6 days ago:

image

Hm… looks like a broken iPhone.  Get a new one… but is getting a new phone really a life changing moment?

@mgingrasMarc Gingras

Time for a new smartphone.#lifechangingmoment

2 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet Reply

For Marc it is.  And I doubt he’ll be using iPhone, now that he is part of RIM.

I first got to know Marc and Tungle 5 years ago, as a selection judge for the Under the Radar Conference, which is where Tungle debuted, so it’s only appropriate that they announce the acquisition exactly five years later, on the very day this years Under the Radar conference is held … in fact  it starts in about an hour, if you’re in the area, you can still catch itSmile

Congratulations to Marc… and let’s hope the excellent Tungle service remains open for other platforms, too. (?).

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Out of Left Field: Vmware Acquires Sliderocket

sliderocket logoQuick initial reaction: scratching head.

Vmware recently shook up the Cloud Computing world with the launch of Cloud Foundry and I think most of us would have pegged them as an infrastructure company.  Then all of a sudden they buy Sliderocket, the great collaborative presentations company.  Why is this a big deal?  Probably not for the $ value, but it may show Vmware’s intentions of getting in the Cloud Apps business big time.

After all, they already have an almost forgotten asset, Zimbra.  Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Zoho … watch out! Smile

P.S.  I guess the phones are ringing at Vmware, with every single Cloud App startup trying to get bought…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Simon Cowell Left American Idol to Launch CRM Idol. But He Did Not Make the Final Cut.

Paul Greenberg did.  Simon is off doing X-Factor instead Smile

Paul Simon Greenberg Cowell 1

Joke apart,  if you are in the CRM business, or interested in CRM, or even just social software, chances are you’ve heard of Paul Greenberg. Simply said, he is the Godfather of CRM. And Godfathers get to make decisions.  If you follow Paul’s annual CRM Watchlist series it’ll be obvious that Paul keeps on expanding the horizon for CRM, covering lots of vendors not traditionally thought of being in the CRM space.  Now he invites even more CRM-Social-yourfavoritetermhere small companies (“small” < $12M revenue) to the podium offering otherwise hard-to-achieve exposure.  Paul assembled an amazing team of Judges, and I am humbled to be on his Team.  Talk about Judges… just like on the other Idol, you don’t have to “win” to win. Smile

CRM Idol 2011: The Open Season is here – see Paul’s full announcement below.

(PG Note: The post you see below represents the “official” launch of CRM Idol 2011 and is one that all eight primary judges endorse. For me personally, this is my “angelic” side – the side of me that wants to support an industry that has been good to me. On my more edgy side, some of the reason that this was hatched was because of PR agents who basically don’t do their homework and pitch me all day long without an inkling about me as an actual human. They think I’m an influential CRM cyborg. Dealing with that from the other side, Brent Leary and I will be launching a music video in a few months from Playaz Productions. Heh. Heh.

But the side of me that’s grateful to an industry and friends and those companies that actually have honored me by listening to me blather all these years, is enthralled by the idea that we may be able to give back to all of you through CRM Idol. So, thank you for everything over the years and welcome to CRM Idol 2011: the Open Season!!)

Okay, everyone this is the big one. CRM Idol 2011: The Open Seasonis here and we’re ready to take your companies and find out which one of you in the Americas and which one of you in EMEA is not the next CRM Idol but the FIRST CRM Idol.

The Idea

Most of what we’re trying to do was outlined in the pre-announcement announcement of CRM Idol last week. But it bears some repeating:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Facebook and T-Mobile Launch Bobsled. With Huge Privacy Glitch. Or is it By Design? Skype, Google Voice and Telcos Beware, Anyway…

Out of left field, T-Mobile and Facebook launched Bobsled, a VOIP service that allows voice calls to anyone on your Facebook list for free.  At this moment the entire blogging world is busy writing about it, so I skip the basics… and just run to some funny experience while testing it.

First, here’s how you call from your Chat list: click the phone button.. then voila!:

bobslead0

As it happens, none of my contacts pick up my test call – I suppose the feature is too new, nobody knows where the funny sound comes from or how to react.  They will get used to it.  But here’s the real surprise: it has VoiceMail.  To the World.  Literally:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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The Tethering / Hotspot Debate: No, You’re Not a Thief. But Somebody Else is a Highway Robber.

 

Interesting debate at ZDNet over wireless data plans:  James Kendrick claims that unpaid tethering makes you a thief.   Thankfully his fellow ZDNet-er Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has the common sense to dispute  this tethering thief nonsense.

Yes, technically if your wireless contract includes an anti-hotspot clause and you turn this feature on, you are in violation. Of the contract, that is.  Your provider has the right to levy additional charges, or terminate your contract. But does that make you a thief?  I’d much rather conclude your provider commits highway robbery.

Remember this device?

Yes, phones used to look like that.  And there was a time when phone companies (actually, “the” phone company, Ma Bell) charged extra when you had more then one outlet in your home….

Remember the early days of cable TV?   You had to ( well, were supposed to) pay extra for each additional cable outlet.

How about the early days of the Internet, before wireless became pervasive?  Yes, ISPs expected you to pay extra for each outlet…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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The First Thing Microsoft Wants You to Do After Upgrading to IE9…

… is to upgrade to IE9.  No kidding:

It’s not even April 1st anymore…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Variations on Hype Quadrants.. no Magic Hype… no, Hype Cycle.. or is it Magic Quadrant?

Gartner introduced their Real (Magic) Quadrant:

gartner real quadrant

Not bad.  But let’s not forget the customers’ prospective. Welcome to the Magik Kvadrant:

magik quadrant

But perhaps most revealing is Phil Fersht’s Painsharing Paradox:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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History Puzzle

An image is worth a thousand words, and I’ve just given you two.  What’s the relationship?

 

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Now You Can Get Your Google Apps Data Backed Up for Free. Startup Econ 101: When Giving it Away is a Good Deal.

Ouch that’s a longish title. OK, I admit, I am tired, could not decide between two messages and ended up combining them.  Well, let’s see the messages.

The Art of Pricing

The other day I got into a tweet convo with a Startup Entrepreneur whose product I found interesting, at least at first glance.  But he has a problem: the entry point for one user is $20/month – and then the price scales up.  I tried to convince him to drop the entr

y price point to either free, or $1-$2 – something that allows impulse buy.  He defended his pricing on a value basis.  In principle he is right – but there’s the small problem that nobody knows about his product.  In this case “giving away” value would become his marketing, would allow for growth, and he could scale his pricing as aggressively as he wanted. He badly needs enthusiastic users that become his marketing army.

My friend and fellow Enterprise Irregular Charlie Wood (that was my bias disclosure…) understands this…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)