Killer Apps

  • Siri, Please Teach Google Voice to Listen

    Sometimes using one’s smartphone is like playing a game of, well, ?telephone.? Half the time no one can hear you and when they can, the message gets lost in translation ? even when it’s not actually being translated. I’m convinced that mine is actually a ‘smart-ass phone? given how it willfully drops calls, truncates texts…

  • Phone Drones: Virtual Agents Answer Customer Service Call of Duty

    That a large portion of one’s customer service call are outsourced to India or other exotic locales is old news. We ‘ve all been patched through to a phone bank half a planet away to speak with someone trained to suppress their native accent and make references to your local weather and high school sports…

  • Venture Capital: Start Me Up

    Money makes the world go around’really, really fast?which is why one’s head tends to spin with each new billion-dollar valuation and smug twenty-something on a magazine cover. This isn’t anything new; it’s even something of a Bay Area tradition. Or at least that’s the impression one might get watching Something Ventured, Daniel Geller and Dayna…

  • QR is PR: How QR Codes are changing the media landscape

    They look like the bastard offspring of a crossword puzzle and a crop circle. QR codes, also known as “quick response” or “quick read” codes, are often seen lingering on the corner of magazine ads, clothing tags or band fliers as a bridge for our digital and terrestrial worlds through the aid of one’s smartphone.…

  • iPad App Takes Comic’s Content Over Medium

    Sad Comics droll addition to iTunes’ burgeoning (comic) book store Somehow, someone in every generation claims to have had the inaugural issue of ? insert comic book title here ? stowed in the attic, garage or under the bed only to discover that their mothers had disposed of it with the one-eyed teddy bear and…