Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 131 – Deals Baby!

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The Gang talks with Joseph Rueter, entrepreneur and co-founder of Deals.by (formerly “Locate My Deal”), the “Search Engine for Deals Near You“. Also discussed are numerous developments this past week and what it means for you.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins & Phil Wilson.
Music: “Blue n Boogie” by Norman Hedman’s Tropique via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:10 — 36.9MB)

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Discussed during the show:

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T-Mobile Shows It’s Serious About Minnesota, “Not Slowing Down”

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Everyone loves a challenger, and T-Mobile sure seems to be enjoying that role, as much here in Minnesota as anywhere. Yesterday, Steve Borsch and I had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Adams, the carrier’s new VP/GM for Minnesota and Wisconsin (see June 2 news), and have a wide-ranging chat with about T-Mobile’s plans and their latest 4G offerings. Tim has impressive executive experience in tech and retail, and was virtually bubbling with excitement about new T-Mobile’s initiatives in Minnesota and new offerings from the company to keep up, or ahead, of the big guys.

You might think the most important thing happening in T-Mobile’s world would be AT&T’s impending (but not yet approved) deal to acquire the company, and that was of course the first question we brought up with Adams.  Naturally, he could provide no more information than what’s been publicly announced. But he had much more to talk about. “We’re not slowing down. We’re not waiting for the acquisition,” he said. “Minnesota is a very important market for us, and we continue investing heavily and adding staff here.”  Across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, T-Mobile has invested more than $43 million in continuous network upgrades since the start of 2010, according to Adams, and now has more than 350 cell sites operating 4G service in the Twin Cities area.

Which brings me to the most exciting news that T-Mobile was announcing yesterday:  T-Mobile’s Faster 4G Network Now Available in the Twin Cities — America’s Largest 4G Network is now twice as fast in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Its super-fast “HSPA+42” (as in Mbps) network is now available “in the majority of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area,” the company’s release said, and customers will experience “speeds twice as fast as T-Mobile’s current 4G network on compatible devices.”  Before you start hyper-ventilating, it also states this:  the recently introduced Rocket® 3.0 laptop stick, its first HSPA+ 42-capable device, offers “average download speeds on our HSPA+ 42 network approaching 10Mbps, with peak speeds of 27 Mbps.”  Okay, it”s not 42 — but, trust me, I’ll take it!  …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 115 – Mobile March Marchers Marching

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Due to the overwhelming success of the Mobile March Twin Cities event this past Saturday with 250 attendees—and the surprisingly excellent previous evening’s Mobile 3D event—very strong evidence now exists that Minnesota has both world-class mobile developers and business users embracing mobile development and mobile use. (Note: photo on the right was modified from this TwitPic taken at the event by Stewy1000).

That old black and white photo above of the woman holding some sort of portable videophone is from this surprisingly prescient Modern Mechanix article from 1956 that starts out with this:

“ON SOME night in the future a young man walking along Market Street in San Francisco may suddenly think of a friend in Rome. Reaching into his pocket, he will pull out a watch-size disc with a set of buttons on one side. He will punch ten times. Turning the device over, he will hear his friend’s voice and see his face on a tiny screen, in color and 3-D. At the same moment his friend in Rome will see and hear him.“

We can now laugh at how quaint this seems coming from a 1956 perspective, but when you think of the collision of technologies available to us today (e.g., GPS; fast wireless networks; Wifi; voice apps w/video; tools to develop and create apps) and the huge numbers of people rapidly acquiring mobile devices that are ‘always on and always connected’, you can understand why so many ‘marchers’ were marching forward at Mobile March. See the full 1956 Modern Mechanix article, scanned and on their blog, here.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: David Bennett Cohen is the artist & the song is “Blues for a Summer’s Dream” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 36:24 — 20.9MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Minnov8 Gang 114 – Racing Toward Our Mobile Future

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If you pay any attention to technology news you know that we’re racing toward a mobile future that is already changing how we interact with one another, figure out where to eat, how to get the best deal and, in short, how to effectively be connected to the world.

Joining us on this episode of the Minnov8 Gang is Justin Grammens, co-Founder at Recursive Awesome, LLC, owner of Localtone, LLC founder of the Mobile Twin Cities User’s Group, and co-founder of Mobile March. Justin covers the startups that will be demonstrating their mobile apps next Friday evening (the night before Saturday’s MobileMarchTC) during the Mobile 3D event.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: John Gilliat is the artist & the song is “Nylon Heat” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:22 — 32.7MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 113 – Facetime Fever Flabbergasts?

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If you own a tablet (e.g., iPad, Xoom) or are considering one, this is the show to listen to now. We cover Graeme’s trip to DEMO and then immediately move in to a discussion of the iPad2 launch. Probing deeper in to some of the intrinsic value of the iPad and Android-based devices (e.g., pent-up demand to publish to these devices) with guest host Julio Ojeda-Zapata, we have a lively discussion about these and other mobile devices.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Tim Elliott (Phil is off this week).
Guest Host: Julio Ojeda-Zapata
Music by: Charlie Crowe and the song, “Vegas Hard Rock Shuffle” from the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:45 — 33.6MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 112 – Even Monkeys are Mobile

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The “always on, always connected” culture is accelerating due to mobile devices and it seems like everyone has a mobile phone, laptop or tablet (which we know is not actually the case…yet). What does being always on and always connected mean for work, education, and socializing when we can find out anything or connect with anyone in an instant? When even monkeys are mobile, how mobile are you with your work, education and socializing?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: David Bennett Cohen playing “Cookin’ with Cohen” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:22 — 33.3MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 111 – The Throng Can’t be Wrong

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We talk with Aaron Weber, co-founder of an already successful startup (W3i) and now a new, exciting personalized and social discovery engine called Inveni. We talk with Aaron about this new platform, his recent influx of venture capital (nearly $500K) discussed in this high profile article at Techcrunch, and what’s next.

We then shift our discussion to another area being impacted by the “wisdom of the crowd“, namely the newspaper and magazine industries. We talk about Rupert Murdoch’s new “The Daily” iPad app and whether it—following the old publishing model of a small group writing and deciding on content being published once as one, big chunk of content—is the future of newspapers and magazines or is it one where the crowd decides what are the most important stories and then drive them to the top?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Brian Kelly is the artist & the song is “Smiling South” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:38 — 35.3MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 109 – This Mobile Thingy Will Be Big!

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It’s easy to chuckle at a vintage Radio Shack ad like this one on YouTube from 1990 that touted the “Affordable, Portable, Cellular Telephone” from Radio Shack (gee…do ya think that’s a Bill Gates-like character for the boy?). What most of us don’t know is that these ‘brick’ phones, with their six inch antennas, listed for $1,200 ($1,970 in 2011 dollars) and the average cellular phone call cost was $.40/minute!

We’ve come a loooong way since 1990 and it’s likely this mobile thingy is gonna be big.  😉

Joining us on this episode of the Minnov8 Gang is Justin Grammens, co-Founder at Recursive Awesome, LLC, owner of Localtone, LLC founder of the Mobile Twin Cities User’s Group, and co-founder of Mobile March. During the “Gang Mentality” segment we’re pleased to have been joined by Lisa Foote, co-founder of  MixMobi and a pragmatic expert in the mobile space overall. She also speaks at many industry events (e.g., the upcoming Mobile March) and is a strategist with a global perspective on the mobile space.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Beyond the Pale is the artist & their song “Faral O’Garas” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:40 — 39.3MB)

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Twin Cities Premier Mobile Event

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The Twin Cities premier mobile event, Mobile March, will be here in just a few weeks. It’s a day long event dedicated to exploring the latest in mobile technology and trends. The name Mobile March not only denotes the month in which it takes place, it also emphasizes the ongoing advancement and growth of mobile technology and the related lifestyle. If the attendance is as big as last year’s event—and is already shaping up to be more well-attended than 2010’s with even the preliminary agenda looking stronger—it will sell out very quickly. Registering now is the smart choice and you can do so here.

Founded by Justin Grammens, Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings in 2010, they point out the essence of the event on their website, “…Mobile March offers two tracks of learning; Mobile Development and Mobile Business. By offering content that appeals to mobile developers, business people, and users we also hope to facilitate a greater understanding between the constituencies that make mobile happen.  Whether you make money with mobile or just use it to stay connected, we invite you to join us for Mobile March.“

If you’re keeping track of the explosion in mobile devices (and networks like Verizon beefing up their networks with 4G) then you’ll instantly understand why this is such a timely and important event for you to attend.

When: Saturday, March 19, 2011, 8am – 4:30pm
(cocktail party begins at 4:30pm)

Where: Best Buy Headquarters Campus

Register Here

Minnov8 Gang 107 – Is the MacAppStore Good or Bad?

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App stores are all the rage: Apple started the concept with the iPhone App Store, made sure it worked on the iPod Touch and later expanded it to include the iPad, and is now driving that concept further with the new introduction of the MacAppStore. Google has Android market, Microsoft their Windows Phone Marketplace (ironically it’s down, throwing off an “Error.aspx?diagnosticCode=B03/5LZ7” as I write this post);  Blackberry’s AppWorld; and so on.

While the Gang could discuss the “why” and “what it means for developers” at length with each other when it comes to the newest entrant in the app store shift the Mac App Store, our frequent contributor, Julio Ojeda Zapata, was kind enough to recommend and invite in this episode’s guest, Michael Wray.

Michael is the president of Mariner Software, a very impressive, two decade old Mac, PC, iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad software firm here in Minneapolis. Besides the groundbreaking Mac apps they’re known for, this company had apps early on in the iPhone App Store and five (with one pending approval as you’ll hear about on the podcast) in the Mac App Store. Listen to what Michael has to say about his experiences with this new model of software distribution.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson with Julio Ojeda Zapata.
Music: Guitar Jack is the artist and the song is, “Roadhouse.“
Music made possible by the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:00 — 38.9MB)

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Discussed during the show: