Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 166 – Print Me Some Coffee

By

The Gang discusses events this past week, including the Twin Cities debut of a new, consumer-grade 3D printing device called the Cube from Cubify. Having been fans of Star Trek in its various incarnations, many 3D printing enthusiasts have a vision for these sorts of printers that is more Star Trek replicator than what they presently deliver: prototypes and trinkets.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:17 — 34.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 165 – So, Lumia 900, why is your software half-baked?

By

The Gang was at the Twin Cities Windows Phone event at Best Buy and Ovative Group‘s open house this week. That, and a number of other big stories, is at the heart of this show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: “Sugar Rush” by Beau Hall from the podsafe Music Alley

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:28 — 37.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 163 – Is Retail Dead?

By

The announcement by Best Buy on cutting $800M by FY 2015, closing 50 stores and corporate layoffs of 400 people sparked a lot of conversation on this show about retail and its disruption. Online commerce, mobile devices, easy price-checking, big-box competitors cherry-picking hot product categories to sell and more is causing Best Buy no end of headaches.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week)
Music: “Universal Domain” by Dreamline from the podsafe Music Alley

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:20 — 30.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 160 – The de facto ‘Genius Bar’ for Android

By

We are so pleased to have two guests this week: first up is the self-proclaimed “communications passionista“, Mall of America social media expert Lisa Grimm down at the SXSWshow and we get some insight in to her adventure to Texas and that event.

Lisa Grimm

Our second guest is none other than Chief Technology Officer of Best Buy, Robert Stephens, and his just-announced departure and the likelihood his adventure will be heading west to San Francisco. As always, Robert demonstrates how he is an incredibly accessible leader and so willing to connect with those of us in the technology trenches. He has been such a supporter and asset to the Minnesota tech community and will be sorely missed (though we suspect he’ll stay close to Minnesota tech regardless of where he lives)!

We wish them both happy trails and listen for why Robert believes that, “…the Geek Squad is the de facto genius bar for Android.”

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Speed Limit 35 & the song “Throb” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:13:29 — 43.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 158 – Aloha Smartphones & Tablets

By

“Aloha” is an Hawaiian word used both for greeting, or leaving, someone. Aloha is thus a metaphor for both the opportunity and the angst about how to capitalize upon it. That angst many people feel comes when we examine how to publish or develop apps for smartphones and tablets. The Gang discusses the market, tools, and how we all can participate in this mobile digital revolution. (Note: Hawaii as a show theme is brought to you by Steve Borsch, a guy with pent-up desire to be lying on a beach there now).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off today)
Music: Kaimoku & the song “Honolulu Shuffle” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:19 — 28.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 157 – More Donuts!

By

Once again there is SO much going on in technology that we had to do two key things: have on Julio Ojeda-Zapata as our guest host and fortify ourselves with the (possible, but unlikely) Mobile March TC special gimmee for Minnov8 Gang Podcast listeners, donuts!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata
Music: Charlie Crowe & the song “007” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:11:34 — 41.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 156 – Pathgate, Privacy & Phones

By

Imagine what sort of mischief Richard Nixon would have been able to get in to as president, if he’d had the sort of technologies available to him today. The Watergate scandal would have been child’s play compared to the sort of overt and covert tracking that could’ve been done on Nixon’s political opponents with today’s mobile technologies.

Last week a Ruby/iOS developer in Singapore, Arun Thampi, broke the story on his blog that the mobile app Path had been automatically (and without encryption) uploading ones address book en masse to their servers. The Gang discusses what happened and what it means as this one blog post exploded in to what Tim Elliott describes as “Pathgate.”

Who better to talk with us about this entire brouhaha than local mobile developer Justin Grammens of Recursive Awesome, now part of Code42 Software. We talk to him about this “gate” scandal, what else is going on in mobile development, and what you should fear about releasing (or not) with your mobile app.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: AjT & the song “Apple Chunk Guitar” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:14:03 — 43.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 154 – iPad, iLearn

By

Tablets, and specifically the iPad, are being adopted quickly in education.  A leading K-12 education publication, T.H.E. Journal, wrote this article about the top trends in education in 2012: “…education technology will see an increased focus on individualization–from personalized learning environments to digital textbooks designed to connect students to the resources that work best for them. And with a growing number of students using handheld devices to access these learning tools, trend watchers can expect to see big pushes for faster innovation to tie everything together.”

Dr. Lisa Snyder

So does this mean we give tablets to kids and education is magically transformed? Hardly. Fortunately we have one of the thought leaders in this space in our backyard. Her name is Dr. Lisa Snyder, she is the new Lakeville MN School Superintendent, and we were pleased to have her on the show to talk about their new iLearn initiative, whether or not it’s magic, how tablets and tech fit in to it, and her perspectives on the challenges adopting new ways of teaching and learning.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Dave Hole & the song “Keep Your Motor Running” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:12:49 — 42.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 147 – Wanna Buy Some Wheat?

By

The Gang is down at the CoCoMSP Minneapolis Grain Exchange facility and we talk with Don Ball, co-founder of CoCoMSP and a fun guy. It is always a delight to talk with Don about the future of work, what’s happening at CoCo, and why he actually can’t sell us some wheat anymore (Wikipedia article here: “On December 19, 2008, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange ceased operations of the open outcry trading floor, but continues daily operations for the electronic trading platform. Today, HRSW futures trade exclusively electronically and options trade side-by-side.”

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Ruddin & their song “Cover the Distance” from the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:22 — 36.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Carrier IQ scandal:

Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales strong:

Guest: Don Ball:

Other: Julian Assange: iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users are ‘screwed’ – video

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 146 – Is Fire *Your* Tablet?

By

The Gang shows up for the Social Media Breakfast held at Thomson Reuters to talk the new Kindle Fire, tablets and tablet publishing, and mobile. We didn’t have enough time to be exhaustive in our discussion, but we cover a lot of ground in a short time.

Joining us on the ‘cast is our frequent guest host, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, as well as Albert Maruggi of Provident Partners (the moderator for the panel discussion on mobile social media). Toward the end Lisa Grimm joins us to chime in on mobile social media and what she’s up to at Mall of America.

The panel, hosted by Albert, included Liz Giel, Digital Strategist at Fallon; Kevin Hunt, Corporate Social Media Manager at General Mills; and Breon Nagy, Marketer at Code42 Software.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:54 — 19.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

A few photos from SMBMSP:

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events