Too often in the technology game it feels like Bullwinkle’s attempt to amaze Rocky with his feat of magic: Instead of a rabbit being pulled out of his hat something else pops out! On this week’s show we discuss company pivots, crowdfunding projects postponed, an ‘affordable’ knock off of a brand name and more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off)
Music: Too Late To Try To Do Right  Artist: Root Doctor. Brought to us by Music Alley.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:08:00 — 39.7MB)

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Discussed During the Show

Minnesota Stories

• SMBMSP: How You Can Begin Doing the Work of Your Dreams
  • New initiative from CoCo MSP: CoCo Jump School
• A WordPress plugin converts (Google) Glass into a blogging tool 
• NativeX partners with SEGA for expansion of mobile ad network 
• Network Instruments of Minnetonka to be acquired for $200 million
• The Nerdery Names New President
• “Dell exec: We’re ‘fine-tuning’ our cloud strategy”…and the acquisition of MN’s Enstratius is playing a key role
• Kickstarter Project Postponed Despite $41K In Pledges
• Study: Minnesota 3rd In Nation Among Kickstarter Users For Tech Financing
• Retail
  • An Underdog Against Amazon, Best Buy Charges Ahead
  • Strong consumer electronics sales: Good news for Best Buy, Target
  • Target of Best Buy suit defends his use of Geek Squad name
    • Affordable Geek Squad at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine
    • Affordable Geek Squad site today
    • The “sister site” is a hilarious venture into clip art and bad taste
  • BiteSquad

Other Stories

• Apple’s iBeacon
  • The Open Secret Of iBeacon: Apple Could Have 250M Potential Units In The Wild By 2014
  • Why I Want Apple’s iBeacon At Home
  • Step aside iBeacon, Qualcomm has low-cost Gimbal Proximity Beacons 
• Why Nokia Is Building an Android Phone and Why Microsoft Might Not Kill It
  • Microsoft Is Making An Astonishing $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties
• No, Gmail’s tweak won’t stop e-mail marketers from knowing if you open their e-mail

Steve’s Security Tip of the Week

• ATM Credit/Debit Card Skimmers
  • How does ATM skimming work?
  • Watch out for ATM ‘skimmers’
  • How to Spot (and Stop) ATM Skimmers
  • FBI Website: “Taking a Trip to the ATM?”
  • Consumerist posts about ATM skimmers (as well as Bluetooth gas pump skimmers!)

Upcoming Events

• INVESTyR’s Fundraising in the Digital Economy 1st Tue of each month 3:30-4:30pm
• TIES 2013 Education Technology Conference, December 14-17
• Mobile Tech Meetup Happy Hour Monday, December 16, 5-7pm
• MNSearch Holiday Social Wednesday, December 18, 6-9pm
• Mobile March March 20, 2014 – Tickets on sale now!