This was Portland today.
If you chose to go to work from 9-5, instead of hanging out in the sun like the rest of us…
Shame on you!
:-)
Portland on Droidstagram
I definitely love the interaction, but I’m not crazy about the square size image limitation or some of its limited filters.
Nonetheless, great to finally have it for the Droid.
How Amazon Can be a Friend To Small Businesses
March 19, 2012 12:37 PM
I’ve been testing out the Kindle Fire tablet for the last several weeks. At $199, it’s a tremendous value. It’s no iPad — I just upgraded to the new iPad as well — but it provides a solid base-level tablet and reader. I can think of a lot of uses for it: an e-book reader, a video consumption device, and a dedicated Sonos controller. But the most exciting use I can see for it would be for Amazon to turn into a device that helps small, local retailers.
Amazon could leverage its massive scale in searches for online commerce to help drive business to local businesses, while simultaneously generating revenue and cementing itself as the place to go to shop online.
Here’s how I see it working:
- Merchants would use the Kindle Fire to load their inventory on to Amazon.
- In addition to the standard options consumers have for standard delivery, second-day shipping with Prime, or overnight shipping, Amazon would offer the option to buy locally.
- When an item is selected to buy locally, the merchant would be alerted via the Kindle Fire and could confirm the order.
- Once the order is confirmed, Amazon collects payment from the buyer and the merchant sets the product aside. (Larger merchants with sufficient inventory could configure it to auto-confirm orders.)
- The consumer stops by to pick up the item and shows ID.
- Amazon keeps a percentage of the revenue.
Amazon already does this for some merchants who sell through the mail; I frequently buy items from third-party sellers through Amazon’s site.
The key is that the Kindle Fire is a simple, inexpensive device that integrates well with Amazon services. Add in the option to generate revenue with it, and it can be an important step in increasing the connectedness of small businesses.
The Buy Local service could be augmented with local delivery from a company likePostmates.
Amazon has been working to expand its reach into the local market. Its daily deals product, AmazonLocal, is launching a subscriber-acquisition promotion tomorrow, selling $10 Amazon gift cards for $5. Although it has lagged well behind industry leaders Groupon and LivingSocial, this is a sign that it may be getting serious about the deals space. (Amazon sources many of its deals from LivingSocial.)
Beyond local retail there are a number of other compelling services Amazon could offer to make Kindle Fire a must-have for small businesses:
- Deal redemption tracking for AmazonLocal.
- Social media management tools for Twitter and Facebook accounts.
- Scheduling tools similar to Groupon Scheduler.
Amazon and local businesses have had a tumultuous relationship, with some blaming Amazon for the demise of local independent bookstores. But these days, even prestigious independent bookstores such as Portland behemoth Powell’s Books are selling through Amazon. Same-day fulfillment plays to the strengths of local retailers and provides consumers a service that Amazon can’t offer today.
(visit main article link)
WIHP, a French company, built CONVERT to make hotel websites about three things: instantly creating some sort of emotional connection between hotel and guest (big, beautiful pictures), offer ultrafast and smooth booking, and compatibility across desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablet computers. (via Every Hotel Website Should Look Like This)
If only ALL hotel websites look like this…
A few weeks ago he was at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, watching a Timbers scrimmage game…
Looking back at it, it all makes sense now.
smalltimegenius:
“We have a new QB under center sporting the Swoosh. Welcome to the Nike Family Mr. Luck.”
-Nike
A 30-story hotel in Changsha (China) went up in two weeks.
Not just any hotel either, a smarter, safer, cleaner, hotel.
I can’t help but to think of Thomas Friedman’s “That Use To Be Us”.
I’m quite a skeptic when it comes to “social entrepreneurship”, not because I don’t believe in it, trust me, I believe in it greatly, but primarily because most of the time that I see it, it comes in the form of a hand out.
This is a good read.
poptech:
What Would it Take to for social entrepreneurship to help pull people out of poverty? An interview with Solomon Prakash, India’s local director of Ashoka.
What would it take for social entrepreneurship to make serious inroads into poverty?
If you tackle a problem like poverty head on, you need a set of people on your core team who share your vision. This can be a challenge.
The difference between a social entrepreneur and a business entrepreneur is one of commitment and vision. In a business, you might bail out once you’d made enough money. In social entrepreneurship, you believe you can solve a problem and that others will work with you to solve that problem. That core team needs to grow; otherwise, you don’t have the skills to manage the project as it grows. You need talented people who are both committed and dedicated, who are willing to live and work in isolated areas in poor conditions for very little money. Sometimes people want to work in a social enterprise because the work is different. “I may not have much money,” they say, “but my soul is satisfied and I feel happy because I’ve made a contribution.”
We also need to think creatively about funding because there are serious challenges in the kind of finances available. Increasingly, granting organizations are looking at things like returnable grants or interest-free loans to make their money last longer. Some people are talking about “social venture” funding, which is a similar model to private venture capital funding. They’re expecting returns similar to microfinancing, which was hugely profitable. But that’s not going to happen.
(via utnereader)
A phone with a 41megapixel camera?
Today at the Mobile World Congress, Nokia announced the release of the 808 PureView, a phone with a 41 Megapixel camera…
41 MEGAPIXELS?!?
Now, at first I didn’t understand how this would work considering the size of each file, luckily, the phone actually converts each picture individually so that you don’t have to worry about uploading.
Sounds complicated?
Watch this video.
