Dolphin Sonar = Siri (kinda) rolls out

Just yesterday, the Dolphin web browser rolled out a new update (7.4) that includes an addin named “Sonar.”  Sonar allows users to use their voice as a tool to search the web and navigate the browser. Dolphin uses Google’s voice recognition API to convert voice input into text, which their own back-end then interprets to bring you the best results.

I have it loaded up on my Asus Transformer running Android 4.0.3, and it works like a champ. Long hold the faint icon in the bottom left of the screen, and you will be given a choice of gesture or microphone. Chose microphone, then speak your input, such as “Google Mobile World Conference.” You will be presented a Google page with the search term “Mobile World Conference.” Pretty neat.

Dolphin also supports a bunch of gestures to navigate its interface which are also pretty cool. Dolphin is a free download from the Market. They have a “cute” video advert which I’ve embedded below. Hank

The artist who became an architect:

One of my favorite entrepreneurs of all time is Avriel Shull.  I really only just heard of her about a year ago, and since then I’ve been enthralled with her story.  Driving past a neighborhood of small modern ranch homes in Carmel, Indiana while visiting my sister last spring, I spun my head around to get a better view and asked “what neighborhood is that?”  “Thornhurst” she replied. “It was built by some woman in the 60’s.”  I made my sister turn the car around and slowly drive through Thornhurst to get a better look.

As soon as I got home I did a little research and learned that Avriel’s family once owned the land on which Thornhurst was built.  It was part of her family’s farm.  By the age of 15 the lively and talented girl had already become a professional artist, getting paid for her work.   She graduated from Carmel High School at the age of 16, and dropped out of Heron School of Art after becoming too restless to stay in school.  She married, had two daughters, designed her own clothing, planned weddings, had an article written about her in LIFE Magazine, and continued with her art.

She wasn’t a typical housewife of the 60’s, as her restless creative energy couldn’t be contained.    At the age of 23 she had an idea to build a modern house and sell it without the help of a real estate agent.  She didn’t have any architectural training, but she had an eye for design.  It took her five months to complete the home.  On site, housed in a trailer, she took on the jobs of architect, contractor, foreman and workman all at once.  After the job was finished, she had an open house.  Over 600 curious people toured it and gave her positive comments, but no one bought it.  She ended up asking a realtor friend to help her sell it, and when it sold, she began working on another home.  Over the next 20 years Avriel continued to build what we now call Mid-Century Modern style homes and apartment complexes throughout the Indianapolis area.   No two Avriel Shull homes are alike, though they are distinct in her artistic expression.

What I love most about her story is her tenacious individuality.  She was tough and cared not the opinions of others. She bravely entered an industry dominated by men, and did it without any previous experience.  She didn’t listen to those who told her she couldn’t do it, she did it anyway.  And she did it well.   The woman had no fear, apparently swore like a sailor, had wild red hair and was considered quite the bombshell, often showing up to work sites in her bikini brandishing a cigarette like a contractors cigar.  By the time she died, at the age of 45, she had lived an unconventional life by her own rules.  She left us with a legacy in the beautiful homes she built. Beth Carroll

What the future for smart phones potends

Yesterday I blogged about the potential choices I am considering for new smart phones for my wife and I. Sunday evening, at the Mobile World Congress 2012 meetup in Barcelona, Spain, HTC announced a quad-core 4.7 inch smart phone to be rolled out by ATT in April. And so did Huawei. Dual core smart phones with faster cores than Netbooks are becoming quite common.

Tie this with an incentive by Ubuntu, the Linux folks, to port an Android version of Ubuntu running on smart phones, and the future is in your hands: a smart phone that when docked with a large monitor/mouse via HDMI/USB ports, becomes a full-blown pc. Yes readers, a phone by day in your pocket/purse, and a full-blown Linux supported PC when docked in your cave, at your desk, in the library, whenever, wherever, you carry your thin client with you. Your “stuff” is stored in the cloud, as much/most of it is for many of us now, always acceptable via pipes (4G) that are as fast or faster than what many have at home now, me for sure.

I know some of you are going to look down your nose and say Linux? I know nothing about Linux. My response is two-fold: 1. You don’t need to know anything about it – it can be installed to be form/fit/function the equivalent to Windoz/OS-?, and 2, most all of the hardware behind the internet (Apache servers), Google (Google’s server farms run on Linux), and on and on, run on Linux. So you have been using Linux all along and perhaps didn’t even know it (or care for that matter.) See video below for more details. The train is coming. A smart phone is shortly going to be the ONLY “computer” you generally need/want. Hank

Should I: Samsung Galaxy SII ???

I’m seriously considering purchasing two T-Mobile phones on their family plan; one is the Samsung Galaxy SII (for me), the other, a HTC Amaze for my wife. (She doesn’t like the size of the SII.) Both run on T-Mobile’s 4G network, have 8 MP front camera, dual core processors etc. And both are in the queue to be updated to Icecream Sandwich (ICS) in the near future. (BTW, my Asus Transformer was updated to ICS/Android 4.0.3 yesterday.)

From Wal-Mart, total cost of the phones on a two year plan will be somewhere around 200 bucks, and the family plan with 1000 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of high-speed data is $59.99 times two plus taxes. Twenty bucks per phone ups the talk time to unlimited and the data to 5GB. Check the links out above for details of reviews from Engadget.

My question is to readers, what is your opinion, if any, of these smart phone selections? And please, Apple fan boys/girls, lay off; we currently have and have had iPhones for the past 4 years. Been there, done that. Tomorrow’s blog will shed light on more reasons I’m going with Android-based phones. Please comment!!! Hank

Oreo’s Going Global Lessons

Many companies think all they “have” to do to sell their products in foreign markets is to overcome the language, legal and cultural barriers. Oreo found out the hard way how true this is and more. Here’s a link from NPR documenting Oreo’s lessons learned. And to be complete, we all know Oreos have ingrained themselves in the culture of the United States, even to the extent of entering our “blues” music.  See below for an example. Hank

Legos then and now?

Cartoon above from here: When our two sons were growing up, they had every imaginable Lego on the market. So many in fact, that we built a huge toy box with a drawer in it just to store the many many parts. Our sons and their friends spent many hours conjuring up all kinds of futuristic objects and devices.

According to Wiki, “The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, in Billund, Denmark. In 1916, Christiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Billund which had been in business since 1895^[1]. The shop mostly helped construct houses and furniture, and had a small staff of apprentices. The workshop burned down in 1924 when a fire, lit by two of Christiansen’s sons, ignited some wood shavings^[2]. Ole Kirk constructed a larger workshop, and worked towards expanding his business even further. When the Great Depression hit, Ole Kirk had fewer customers and had to focus on smaller projects. He began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature models of stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys^[3].”

Within the past couple of months, Lego rolled our a new “Friends” line of building kits with girls as the target market. Sounds right on, right? Nope! Many women oriented groups find the Friends line to be insulting. Girls, you know, grow up to be astronauts and engineers, love building race cars, boats and other objects just as much as boys do. So what’s your take? Is Lego’s move after decades of success targeting boys (and their mothers by association)  right on, or totally coming from left field? See one of their video ads below. Hank

deadmau5

We don’t always think of entertainers as entrepreneurs, but they are.  Their product is themselves, or the persona they’ve created.    It’s fascinating to see what some people are able to create out of their own imagination.  Here is a story of a kid from Toronto with a passion for electronic music:

Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), better known by his stage name deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”), grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, near Toronto. As a kid he was obsessed with computers and started making chip tunes as a teenager. “They’re musical compositions made using the chips from old computers,” he explains. Soon, his chip tunes attracted the attention of the Los Angeles nu metal community which resulted in him contributing to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee’s 1999 album Methods Of Mayhem.  Deadmau5 debut the album, Get Scraped,  in 2006, followed by others in the next few years.  The name “deadmau5″ originated when Zimmerman claimed to have found a dead mouse in his computer while replacing his video card. He discussed this with chat room users and became known as “that dead mouse guy.” The nickname “Deadmouse” was too long for the chat server, so he shortened it to deadmau5 (A form of leet spelling).

This kid somehow managed to create a successful business with big eared head gear that looks a lot like a mouse from Disney.  Deadmau5 has released 5 studio albums which have sold in the millions.   He has received numerous awards and was nominated for 4 Grammy’s.  He has close to 5 million likes on Facebook, a million followers on Twitter, packs the house with every live concert performance and sells a ton of Deadmau5 merchandise.  He’s a talented musician, a great entertainer, and a pretty amazing entrepreneur.  Just don’t call him a DJ. Beth Carroll

http://www.deadmau5.com/

A video of one of this gigs that has been viewed over 10 million times is embedded below:

Arcamed launches

Arcamed, a provider of  case tray systems to Orthopedic Surgeons, launched just last week. Mike Cassidy, one of the Intro to Entrepreneurship & Innovation instructors, is a partner in the startup which is located in the Indianapolis area. Assuming you are in their target market (how would you define this?), what is your impression of their web site? Hank

Make It Happen – From Kauffman

Have A Happy Friday: Verizon – An old person’s nightmare