You know I love lists. My favorite is the annual Washington Post in and out list that gets published every new years day. I usually imitate it with my own.
This year it’s short:
- IN:
I-Phone
- OUT:
Crackberry
The blackberry is a device that lets you get email when you’re away from your computer. The I-Phone is a tool that helps you communicate and organize your data in logical and convenient ways.
It’s a parenting tool: from about the end of August until the New Year, when my kids act bad, I remind them that Santa (as they know from their diabolical song) is stalking them, much like Sting describes in “Every Breath You Take”. Nothing quiets them as quickly as this video, which plays on the I-Phone:
The Easter Bunny works the rest of the year. I’m not a palavering fanboy, nor do I have a gizmodo tattoo. I simply recognize that this tool will soon filter down to the suburban moms of America, and that future apps will do things like manage the power consumption of our homes, track our children and pets’ movements and simulate fart noises.
There’s an online class for developing your own app that Stanford University has put up (as an app) for free. Abilene Christian University is experimenting with using I-Phones as an interactive classroom tool for testing, homework and lectures. Smart small business models include not only developing an I-Phone app, but incorporating tweeting into keeping a 2-way dialogue with customers (or fans or clients, depending on the product or service) open and current.
Current business plan for wife: The Cookie Lady: a curbside service that features a modified vehicle with a service window which sells fresh cookies and is staffed by cute and fun women wearing shirts that say cOOkies with the Os strategically placed, a la’ “Hooters” logo. They’ll park in busy disctricts downtown, then tweet their location until all the peanut m&M/mexican chocolate chip cookies are gone.
thievery is the sincerest form of flattery
