Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Going Mobile (Minnov8 + MIMA Movie)

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Our final interview for our friends at MIMA had us heading out to Carlson Marketing. There we had a chance to sit and talk with Doug Rozen, who has a rather all inclusive title…SVP, Global Lead – Creative, Interactive, Media & Mobile. Doug shares a some insight on mobile marketing and trends as well as highlights of his MIMA Summit presentation.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHI90Icw-o

The MIMA Summit is on October 5th and is sold out. Never fear….the Minnov8 Gang will be there with our tweets, video and photos so you won’t miss a thing. If you can’t make the MIMA Summit, join Minnov8 for the Unsummit at the Hennipen County Central Library on October 10th. There will be plenty to learn and share….and it’s free.

Minnov8 Gang 44: Tech Stuff & Mobile Trends

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mobile-n-stuffFor half of the show, the Gang discusses several tech topics and then welcomes Lisa Foote, CEO/cofounder of Kwingo.net, the mobile solutions company here in the Twin Cities, to talk about “Mobile Trends to Watch“, a key trend since the I.T. consulting and analyst firm, Gartner, predicts that in 2012, smartphone sales will reach over 700 million units, accounting for 65% of all handset sales. This rate will represent a nearly $200 billion market.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson. (Note: I apologize for the unfortunate ‘clicks’ heard in Lisa’s audio which were indeterminate)

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:54 — 29.1MB)

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Discussed During the Show Notes:

+ The music was provided by the Podsafe Music Network, the song is PJ style Blues by artist AjT, a 39 year old french geek and Apple lover.

+ Crunchpad and Mike Arrington on Charlie Rose

+ Twitter 101 and how Ashton Kutcher has come out about the fact that “Twitter Will Change Media”

+ Best Buy:

  • Twelpforce: the Twitter account and a Techcrunch article
  • The Twitter fight between Doug Beacham & Best Buy CMO, Barry Judge (and social media thought leader, Chris Brogan, has his own take on it here)
  • Best Buy Social Media Director job that was crowdsourced and an update #2 on it here

+ The iPod as a multi-function device (can tie Touch to local app devs)

+  BlogWell on August 13th at General Mills (get Minnov8 discount code in this post)

+ Our guest, Lisa Foote, sent over these links for our show notes:

+ Finally, as a special tribute to Phil Wilson’s curious and instant recognition that the bumper music for this week’s show was, in fact, very “Cialis commercial-like,” I offer up this Cialis spoof video starring the actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. (possibly NSFW) in honor of Mr. Wilson.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 39: A Conversation with Codemorphic

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codemorphic-iphone2The Gang has a great discussion with Bill Heyman, co-founder of Codemorphic, a rock-solid iPhone development shop (based in Eden Prairie) with significant application credibility through their creation of over a dozen apps such as:

  • Public Radio Tuner (#2 in iTunes store, 2M+ downloads, iTunes link)
  • Cisco/Linksys Media Hub Control
  • Blausen Medical (high resolution medical imagery/videos, iTunes link)
  • Smarter Agent Real Estate*
  • Bacardi*

*Shipping this week.

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

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:05:33 — 38.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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Discussed during the show notes:

Whip It Out: Your Smartphone Extends Your Mind

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smartphones

Competition in the mobile phone space is heating up and the smartphone — a mobile phone with computer-like functionality — coupled with ever faster wireless network speeds are changing the way we access news, information, connections with our friends and family, and so much more.

A quick story illustrates one amusing (though not to my wife) use of my iPhone when I first got it. We were at a dinner party when the conversation came around to a particular song, but no one could recall who sang it. As the conversation continued I quickly used the web browser to Google the song name and roughly 30 seconds later blurted out, “Woody Guthrie!”

“Yes!,” everyone cried out simultaneously. “How did you know that,” one woman asked and I whipped out my iPhone to show how I’d quickly and almost instantly found the answer and we then had an interesting conversation about how the world was shifting toward one where we all could have instant access just like that.

A few years ago smartphones were few in number and came from manufacturer’s like Palm (e.g., Treo) and Nokia — and devices powered by Windows Mobile — were robust but somewhat limited in functionality and required an (arguably) geeky nature to use fully. The Blackberry device by Research in Motion (RIM) was a more limited one as far as applications go, but its external keyboard (to many the most important feature) and easy access to email (which was “pushed” to the device automatically) made it the perfect communication appliance for daily business use.

When Apple demonstrated and delivered the game-changing iPhone in June of 2007, its surprising ease of use and simple way to manipulate applications (e.g., pinching and zooming in on a photo or webpage) made a device like this easily accessible to the masses. Because of quick sales of the iPhone and a developer kit to build applications, Apple quickly saw a huge array of applications delivered on the device (more than 25,000 to date). Because of the simplicity of the device and the base of applications already available, sales accelerated to the now installed base of 21.2 million units and the announcement Monday, June 8th of a third generation model (and the second generation lower price point of $99) has caused most observers to see those numbers doubling within a year or so.  …  [Read More…]

Broadband Perspective

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perspectivesMike O’Connor, urban representative on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force, recently interviewed the “father of the internet” Vint Cerf, as well as the head of Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Robert Stephens about their perspectives on broadband.

After the jump, you can watch Mike’s interviews (broken in to chunks due to YouTube’s limits on filesize). They’re very enlightening if you care about this topic!  …  [Read More…]

Kwingo Launches Mobile Language Apps

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What do you do when you’re a successful, female, mid-career IT and operations executive with several big-name companies, and you decide to try something different? Why, you launch a mobile web apps company, that’s what!

Actually Lisa Foote first took some time to give back by using her executive skills for a year or so of non-profit charity work (with the United Way of Minnesota), after successful stints at Target, GE Capital, and Prudential. But it wasn’t long when the for-profit drive was back, and soon she was plotting, with husband Brad Roberts, a new business idea for solving language challenges in today’s increasingly global economy. And it just so happened that Web 2.0 technology was going to play a part — because Brad, who has a highly eclectic creative and business background, had become a self-taught Ruby on Rails developer.

The Birth of Kwingo
Foote and Roberts newly discovered life as entrepreneurs soon resulted in the birth of Kwingo.net, a venture they introduced earlier this year. Its mission is to bring simple, useful productivity tools to professionals working in field occupations using web-based mobile devices as a platform for delivery.

With her experience working in large enterprises, Foote knew that labor workforces were continuing to globalize, and that language challenges would just continue to multiply. Kwingo would provide the tools workers in the field needed to communicate with coworkers who speak a different language, helping everyone work more productively and safely….  [Read More…]