Google Nexus 4… speaker design

I just got the Google Nexus 4 and I’m liking it so far, but one of the first things I noticed was the odd/bad design for the speaker. When you play music or use the speaker phone, it can be assumed that many people will lay the phone flat on a desk/table/flat surface. When you do that, with the speaker hole being flat as well, the sound is basically blocked by the flat surface, which gives a very muffled sound. As soon as you lift up on the …

Pressure based brake lights

Driving on the freeway the other day, at a safe distance for 65mph, I looked at the traffic on the other side for a moment and was startled when I looked back and the driver in front of me had jammed on the brakes and stopped MUCH faster than I anticipated. Again, I was far enough behind that I could still safely stop, but I was hoping that the car behind ME was paying attention and not driving too closely. That’s when I thought – why don’t brake …

Freeway overpass advertising

Many years ago, I was driving on the freeway and suddenly pictured a simple way for States to make money – without raising taxes! Selling ad space on overpasses. In today’s economic climate, governments need to stop taxing and start cutting – but if they MUST make more money, I don’t see any good reason why they can’t use some of the space that we all pay for as taxpayers, to help reduce the tax burden. There’s a huge number of “blank” freeway overpasses that are perfect canvases …

Interactive Movies…

In the 1950s there were 3D movies, Smell-O-Vision theaters and CinemaScope. The fad of 3D movies has come back around in the past few years, but I suspect it will go away again. So, what’s a new fad that has yet to come around? How about interactive movies? That is, mobile-enabled films… Movie theaters are using ultra-high-end digital projectors more and more these days. Those projectors are connected to hard drives. Those hard drives are connected to the internet. That means it would be pretty easy to deliver …

Mobile phone apps and security

People love their smartphones these days… and with good reason. They can be amazing tools for business and fun distractions from the mundane parts of life – like standing in line at the post office or waiting to be picked up from the airport. There’s a problem though. Those fun and handy apps can be setting you up for embarrassment, failure or good ol’ fashioned identity theft. If you saw the movie “Live Free or Die Hard”, you’ll recall the premise that one bad guy who sold software …

Social marketing and the small business…

It’s been a good five years since “social marketing” really took off in a big way. Big, no HUGE corporations use it in one way or another. It likely doesn’t help their bottom line, but Coca-Cola, Microsoft, NASA, General Electric and even Yahoo and Google use Facebook. So WHY don’t small businesses who actually NEED the help? The simple answer is: knowledge. Most (not all) small business owners are intelligent go-getters who want to succeed in their chosen area of commerce. Those in the retail sector should be …

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