Author: Colin Henderson

Progress in era of productivity
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Music and how we listen to it

Colin Henderson

The whole music streaming thing is becoming one of the the next big things. There are lots of apps out there and when Apple announced Apple Music it seemed clear they could leap above the fray. This piece at recode exemplifies what has bothered me. Simplicity. In Battle of Streaming Music Services, Simplicity Is the Killer Feature In the battle of the streaming music services, when most of them can claim the same number of tracks, offline listening, a multi-platform approach and some basic cloud services, the standout feature might just be the least sexy: Simplicity. Of course there is … Continue reading Music and how we listen to it

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Social media meets lobbying meets activist meets Industry Powerhouse Taylor

Colin Henderson

Social media meets lobbying meets activist meets Industry Powerhouse. Taylor Swift conducted what was obviously a well thought through campaign on her blog, presumably because 140 characters sometimes is just not enough. (Go blogging, but I digress). To Apple, Love Taylor. To bring everyone up to speed, the Apple Music streaming service was proposed to launch with a 3 month trial period. This is longer than the normal 1 month trial. The kicker was that Apple were not planning to pay an artist royalty during that 3 month period. Apple had dealt with that potential dissonance with a 2 – … Continue reading Social media meets lobbying meets activist meets Industry Powerhouse Taylor

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Apple WWDC 15

Colin Henderson

Its Apple WWDC 15 day, and I watched the keynote tonight of course on my Apple TV which was handily added for the event. The detailed engineering stuff is handled over the week in ‘tracks’. Back to the keynote. First off was software upgrades for OS X (El Captane) and iOS 9; both coming this autumn, with a summer customer beta. As expected not too much realy exciting except speed and efficiency. They have introduced Apple Metal which a method of bypassing Open GL and basically ensuring apps interact more efficiently with the computer. There are updates for some apps … Continue reading Apple WWDC 15

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City of Toronto asks court to shut down Uber

Colin Henderson

Toronto is on the verge of a major step backwards as 2 days of court hearings on the City request to shut down Uber finishes. The judge is practically telegraphing a negative result by indicating this will surely go to Appeal, although Uber note they may not bother. Court hearing into City of Toronto’s request to shut down all of Uber’s operations wraps up after two days of arguments Continue reading City of Toronto asks court to shut down Uber

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Google I/O

Colin Henderson

I’m watching Google I/O and some interesting developments. Watching on Apple TV and nothing blew up so far. Biggest item of note.  Mobile is not a section of the conference.  Mobile is the conference with Android front and centre.  There is much voicing between comparisons on iOS and Android and I’ll avoid that  here are some real differentiators from Google Some notes: Android pay- super simple especially when tied to fingerprint recognition. This outs pressure on hardware manufacturers to get on with this feature. type c USB support for Android sleep mode that provides long battery usage Watches – even … Continue reading Google I/O

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Krebs has it right – you are the one who has been hacked

Colin Henderson

How many times do we hear that another site has been hacked, whether icloud, twitter, Facebook, Sony and now Starbucks. The media generally does an extremely poor job on describing these situations, and the average user just gets confused. This is a different scenario than Target Krebs sums the recent Starbucks situation up well here. Starbucks Hacked? No, But You Might Be Those customers had all chosen to tie their debit accounts to their Starbucks cards and mobile phones. Sullivan allowed in his story one logical explanation for the activity: These consumers had re-used their Starbucks account password at another … Continue reading Krebs has it right – you are the one who has been hacked

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GCHQ marks the importance of Alan Turing in a symbolic gesture

Colin Henderson

This is definitely in the so sad, but never too late category. Alan Turing is a god to anyone who knows anything about computing history. He also happened to be one of the single greatest contributors to the Allied victory over the Nazi’s as documented in the recent film “The Imitation Game”. His brilliance is obvious. “Turing was elected as a fellow at Cambridge at the age of 22, and he published his most influential paper, “On Computable Numbers,” at 24. While his brilliance is undoubted, the film takes liberties no doubt to make it more viewable for mass audiences. … Continue reading GCHQ marks the importance of Alan Turing in a symbolic gesture

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California Business Bank introduces MyCBB

Colin Henderson

“My CBB is a technology focused internet based bank with a personal touch – concierge level service when you want to speak to a real person” – Peter Braunz, CIO. In speaking to Peter Braunz, he considers MyCBB is almost unmatched in the industry with their flagship product which is MyCBB Free Checking with interest. The account offerring is very clear, simple to understand and with no complicated terms. Similarly the all important mobile site is clean and simple. Making the switch to digital first is a big change for any existing bank and in speaking with Peter the bank … Continue reading California Business Bank introduces MyCBB