Simplifying your tech

It’s funny how we purchase things that we think will enrich our lives or that will make things easier and then we realize we own so much we’re more lost than ever. Case in point: you own a desktop because you’ve had it a while, then bought a laptop for convenience. Maybe you also have a smartphone because then you can do work on your phone! Well, now there’s that iPad…

You can easily get bogged down in the devices that were supposed to make your life simpler. You have documents at home that you forgot you need for work. At The Big Money, the app guru, Kevin Kelleher, promotes the way he makes life simpler: an app. You probably saw that coming. You can upload documents and access them from anywhere!

Sounds like Google Docs to me, though. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve never used Dropbox. But I think downloading something else to my devices to make my devices easier to use, is probably the last thing I need.

That’s the problem with the way things are heading. Apps are supposed to make everything easier to navigate and find and use. Except when you download more than two dozen. Then your home becomes way more crowded than your laptop. I dislike having more than 12 documents or folders on my desktop and I have to use them all the time for me to keep them there. Do you really want to be scrolling through five pages to find that app you wanted? It makes me thankful that Apple thought to include folders on the new iPhone. But then it’s just going to become like a regular computer’s desktop soon anyway. And then the idea of apps instead of programs becomes sort of the same thing anyway.

Maybe we can’t avoid complicating things.

Google foiled!

When Apple announced its purchase of Quattro Wireless, some of the happiest people were probably at Google, surprisingly enough. Previous to the purchase, Google acquired AdMob, an ad developer for mobile phones, for a nice amount – $750 million. The one problem was that regulators were likely to step in so the combined entity didn’t take too much of the market.

With a renewed rivalry with Apple in the same field, Google probably thought it had smooth sailing. Not so. It’s now expected that the Federal Trade Commission will block Google.

The concerns are fairly valid. The market for mobile advertising is small and if a large company like Google snags too much of the market right off the bat, there will be very little growth and few new entrants.

On the other hand, the sector is small but the other company in it is one which Google is likely to fight tooth and nail against. Apple and Google just aren’t friends. And as long as those two companies are at odds (considering Google beat out Apple for AdMob, they aren’t going to suddenly become friends), it’s basically guaranteed that the industry will stay competitive.

Why let Apple have all the fun? I’m curious to see what Google’s vision of mobile advertisements look like.

Apple wants to control the world

When Apple comes out with a new concept, it’s like everyone and their dog wants to be a part of it. And it’s clear Apple knows that.

When Steve Jobs announced iAd, I was … ambivalent. It’s a good idea, even though I don’t want ads on my phone. And I realize they are a necessary evil. However, I don’t agree with the pricing model at all. There are mobile ads out there and maybe they suck and that’s the whole point, but I find it hard to believe that Steve Jobs wants people to go from paying less than $200,000 for a mobile ad to dropping a cool $1 million. That’s a huge jump.

And if you want to be one of the first, you’ll easily be paying more.

It seems like a rip off. It seems like Apple knows it can say “jump” and the rest of the world will ask “how high?” It gets worse too. Advertisers have to pay Apple when someone opens an app and just sees an ad. They don’t even have to click on it and Apple gets paid. Then if they do click on it, Apple gets more money.

Plus, Apple doesn’t even trust advertisers to get it right. In order to place an ad, not only do you have to pay a large sum, but you have to use Apple’s developer kit.

Apple is taking over the world.