QR codes are suddenly everywhere

Posted by & filed under Apple, EXAM ARTICLE, QR codes, smartphones.

Description: Instead of custom packaging, the company puts a sticker on each bag of coffee bearing a blocky QR code that, when scanned, links the customer to more information about the bag of coffee than ever could have been printed on the package in the first place.

Source: theglobeandmail.com

Date: Sept 26, 2011

The people at Ethical Bean Coffee Co. Ltd. had a challenge on their hands.
The company wanted more flexibility in where it was sourcing its coffee beans, in an effort to catch the best produce from around the world that met its standards.
This led to a logistical hitch: Disclosure was important to the company, since, as a producer of fair-trade, organic coffee, it caters to a clientele who cares about what’s in their cup.  But it would have been impractical to produce different packaging for every different source of beans.
The solution: QR codes.   READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. What do you feel are the benefits of QR code technology?

2.  How can businesses use QR codes to generate real value for customers – and not just extra layers of advertising, or technology for technology’s sake?

Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech’s Hottest Startup

Posted by & filed under Cloud Computing, EXAM ARTICLE, industry analysis.

Description: Dropbox’s ascent has been just as stunning. The 50-million-user figure is up threefold from a year ago, and it has solved the “freemium” riddle, with revenue on track to hit $240 million in 2011 despite the fact that 96% of those users pay nothing.

Source: Forbes.com

Date: Oct 18, 2011

What Houston does is Dropbox, the digital storage service that has surged to 50 million users, with another joining every second. Jobs presciently saw this sapling as a strategic asset for Apple. Houston cut Jobs’ pitch short: He was determined to build a big company, he said, and wasn’t selling, no matter the status of the bidder (Houston considered Jobs his hero) or the prospects of a nine-digit price (he and Ferdowsi drove to the meeting in a Zipcar Prius).

Jobs smiled warmly as he told them he was going after their market. “He said we were a feature, not a product,” says Houston  .READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why has Dropbox been so successful?

2.  What is the “freemium” riddle? , and how has Dropbox solved it?

With Fibre Internet, the future is here, but not for most Canadians

Posted by & filed under bandwidth, fibre optics, ISPs.

Description: The exponential growth in the use of the Internet over the last decade and a half has meant that Canadians now require more robust internet connections.

Source: Globe and Mail.com

Date: Oct 5, 2011

In Canada, the big Internet service providers to have responded to this explosive growth by blocking or restricting service on their networks in order to provide an acceptable level of service to all of its customers. For example, Rogers Cable restricts upload speeds on its $60 a month “Extreme” internet package to just 1 Mbps upload speed and a bandwidth cap of 100GB per month. In addition, online gaming and peer-to-peer file sharing are capped at a dial-up modem era speed of 80 kbps.  READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why is bandwidth such a large issue for both business use and personal use in Canada?

2.  Do you feel that technology called Fibre to the Home or FTTH will ever make widespread inroads in Canada? Explain

Why Some Folks Can’t Live Without Gadgets

Posted by & filed under addiction, Blackberry, digital divide, Hardware, industry analysis, social impacts.

Description: With the recent BlackBerry outage, psychologist Linda Papadopoulos discusses how society is intertwined with technology.

Source: CNN.com

Date: Oct 5, 2011

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why can’t we live without our gadgets?

2.  List 5 positive impacts of technology on our lives and list five negative impacts technology has had on our lives.

Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

Posted by & filed under Amazon, industry analysis, IS ethics, publishing.

Description: Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers.

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: Oct 16, 2011

Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.

Several large publishers declined to speak on the record about Amazon’s efforts. “Publishers are terrified and don’t know what to do,” said Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, who is known for speaking his mind.

“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon,” said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an e-book publisher. “If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out.  READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Is what Amazon doing in the publishing business just another example of disintermediation on the web?  What other industries have gone through this process?

2.  In reference to Michael Porters industry analysis model, how does Amazon’s actions affect the forces in that model?

Did The iPhone’s ‘Find My Friends’ Already Out A Cheating Wife?

Posted by & filed under Apple, Cyberforensics, EXAM ARTICLE, FaceBook, IS ethics, Privacy, Security.

Description: Welcome to iCheers, where everybody knows your whereabouts. Both Apple and Foursquare are offering new tools for iOS5 that will let us know where our friends are at all times.

Source: Forbes.com

Date: Oct 17, 2011

Late Saturday night, “ThomasMetz” posted to MacRumors (via 9to5Mac) about how he turned his wife’s iPhone into a spyPhone:

I got my wife a new 4s and loaded up find my friends without her knowing. She told me she was at her friends house in the east village. I’ve had suspicions about her meeting this guy who live [sic] uptown. Lo and behold, Find my Friends has her right there.

via Divorcing wife. Thanks iPhone 4s and Find My Friends – MacRumors Forums.  READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Will being given technology tools that make law-enforcement-style surveillance so easy a baby could do it transform us (more than Facebook already has) into a society of spies?

Will we start expecting our friends to be part of our locati

A fond farewell to Steve Jobs

Posted by & filed under Apple, branding, business models, smartphones.

Description: New York Times technology columnist comments on how when Steve Jobs died, the country lost not one but four of its greatest minds.

Source: CBSNEWS.com

Date: Oct 9, 2011



Questions for discussion:

  1. Can Apple be just as successful in the next five years with out Steve Jobs as the past five years with Steve Jobs? Why?  Or Why not?

2.  What do you feel is Steve Jobs greatest contribution to information systems?  Explain

Hackers learn to ditch black hats for white collar security jobs

Posted by & filed under cyber terroism, cyber war, EXAM ARTICLE, hackers.

Description: Computer hacking has always been a pursuit driven more by geeky passion than a quest for profits. But it is now becoming a pathway to earning serious money.

Source: globeandmail.com

Date: Oct 10, 2011

A decade ago, a skilled hacker who discovered a software security flaw had two choices: he could tell the company about the problem, or he could publish his findings. The former brought the risk that the company could quietly fix the problem, yielding nothing for the clever hacker who brought it to light. The latter brought praise from his peers, but also possible accusations that he was aiding criminals. READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Do you see this development of a market for hackers, a positive development for the IS industry? Why? Why not?

2.  Are their any ethics that hackers should have in order to bring their skill to a legal market for their services?

New iPhone Conceals Sheer Magic

Posted by & filed under Apple, smart phones, smartphones, Software, System development, telecomunications.

Description: What’s in a name? A lot, apparently. Apple’s new iPhone is called the iPhone 4S. But what people really wanted was the iPhone 5.

Source: NYtimes.com

Date: Oct 11, 2011

The rumors online had predicted the second coming — or, rather, the fifth coming. It would be wedge-shaped! It would be completely transparent! It would clean your basement, pick you up at the airport and eliminate unsightly blemishes!

Instead, what showed up was a new iPhone that looks just like the last one: black or white, glass front and back, silver metal band around the sides. And on paper, at least, the new phone does only four new things.      READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. What do feel are the three best new features of this new iPhone?  Do they make the iPhone more business friendly?
  2. What is SIRI  and is this reason enough to consider purchasing the new IPhone?

Global glitch bruises RIM

Posted by & filed under Blackberry, branding, business models, Denial of service, EXAM ARTICLE, RIM, wireless networks.

Global glitch bruises RIM

Description: A major technical glitch affected BlackBerry service across much of the globe Wednesday, delaying e-mails and messages for an estimated 30 to 40 million users – about half of RIM’s customer base of 70 million.

Source: CNN.com & Globe and Mail.com

Date: Oct 13, 2011

The problems, which began earlier in the week in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere but have now moved to North America, RIM’s largest market, come at the worst possible time for Canada’s leading technology company.

BlackBerry shipments have fallen two consecutive quarters, it is losing market share in the United States, and it has been stung by a number of executive defections and delayed and botched product launches.

Its share price, which fell 3.5 per cent yesterday, is down 58 per cent this year after a series of profit warnings.  READ REST OF STORY

Questions for discussion:

  1. Can RIM survive this latest problem with their system? Why?  Or Why not?

2.  What path can they take to restore the “Blackberry” brand to that of a leader in this sector of the industry?  Explain