That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows.
We’ve all heard the saying “there is no such thing as bad publicity” – but of course we don’t take that literally.
Apparently, though, research has shown that when it comes to online reviews, negative reviews can result in more sales than positive reviews.
That was one of the points made by Mitch Joel during his keynote address on Monday at Fanshawe College’s eMarketing conference. (I spoke at one of the breakout sessions on “Digital Law”.)
He says there are two reasons for that. First, people tend to trust the business more as they feel the business is being open and candid. Second, what is important in a negative review is what is actually said. The reviewer’s reason may be irrelevant to other buyers.
That’s not to say its a good thing if every review trashes the product – but a few negative reviews don’t seem to hurt.
Many of us have had clients complain about negative online comments about them that they don’t feel are justified, and reputation management is a growing field.
The message here is that when lawyers are asked to advise on these issues, we need to understand this in order to give the right advice, and to avoid the Streisand effect.
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
The annual Ted conference always has thought provoking presentations. One of the presentations this year was entitled “Four ways to fix a broken legal system“. Its worth taking the 19 minutes to watch.
The basic proposition of the presenter, Philip K. Howard, is that the legal system has become so complex that it instills fear to act. People become so self-conscious of their judgments that it skews behaviour towards failure.
We should not just dismiss this as being unique to the American legal system. The Canadian system may not be as extreme in this regard – but many of his issues are still relevant.
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
Microsoft unveiled its much anticipated Windows Phone 7 operating system this week at the Mobile World congress in Barcelona. It is not based on the existing 6.X OS – but is entirely new – based on the Zune.
The reaction by the tech press has been very positive. For example, Gizmodo says that “Microsoft has out-appled Apple” , and “I’m sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple’s industrial design, while the iPhone’s UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot.”
For other comment, see PCWorld, engadget, Wired.
New phones using Windows Phone 7 will be available from several manufacturers and several carriers “by the holiday 2010 season”.
I have not seen any comment on when it will be available in Canada.
The frustrating part for me is that I bought a new phone last summer – I hate 3 year terms!
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads:
Last year a California class action suit resulted in a settlement where each class member received a $10 gift card from the defendant store. The settlement called for the plaintiff’s lawyer to get $175,000 125,000. (sorry – typo)
The judge who approved the settlement didn’t like it, and ordered the lawyer to also take payment in $10 gift cards from the store.
Boing Boing refers to a post on the Lowering the Bar blog that says that judge has been disciplined for that by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.
No word on the fate of the lawyer’s gift cards.
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
Simon beat me to the punch mentioning the iPad. I’ve been watching a live-blog of the event. These are my first impressions.
It’s meant for things like “Browsing the web. Doing email. Enjoying and sharing pics. Watching videos. Enjoying music. Playing games. Reading ebooks” . Jobs says it has to be better than either a phone or a laptop at these,or its not worthwhile.
It certainly looks good in his demo – works like the iPhone – indeed, iPhone apps work on it.
Pricing: $499 for 16GB. 32GB is $599, 64GB is $799. 3G models cost an extra $130. $629, 729, and 829 with 3G.
Wifi versions ship in 60 days. Wifi plus 3G in 90. Apple has negotiated some good 3G rates with ATT. That’s for data – doesn’t seem to do voice. But it has a mic and speakers – so Skype?
So is this really, as Jobs has apparently said “ the most important thing I’ve ever done.”?
Could it, as some have suggested, save the publishing industry, reboot education and maybe even change the way we treat medicine? Or is that just hyperbole resulting from the Steve Jobs reality distortion field?
Frankly, while impressive, there was nothing that was really unexpected. The next few days will be interesting as the tech press dissects the good and bad of the iPad.
This is not the first, or the only, slate type product. The HP slate Steve Ballmer introduced at the CES is another example. It won’t be available until later this year.
But is the iPad perhaps the one that, like the iPhone, will be the disruptive tipping point that will define the category?
Frankly, I want a device like this – especially if I can use it to replace paper versions of newspapers and magazines. It could also be a great alternative to a laptop for taking notes in a meeting, or taking to visit clients. I think I’ll wait just a while though to see how the competition shakes out.
The press on this is hard to miss. Wired, Engadget, Cnet and Scobleizer are as good as any.
That’s my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
The blogosphere and twitterverse are buzzing today about the stand Google took yesterday in China. Google basically said it would no longer censor results for Chinese users as required by the Chinese government, and if the government didn’t like it, they would leave.
Seems that the last straw was a series of cyber attacks on Google and others trying to steal proprietary information, and trying to read the gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google claims the Chinese government is behind those attacks.
This is a bold move by Google. We often see how businesses, governments and courts struggle with applying different and inconsistent international ethical, moral and political standards and laws.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will other businesses and governments rally around Google? Will China stop and ponder about their policies?
For more detail, see this Washington post article.
Robert Scoble has some thoughts on it here and here.
UPDATE: Also take a look at this ZDNET article on why this make sense for Google.
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The annual Consumer Electronics Show is about to start in Las Vegas. Many companies anounce their latest and greatest products at the CES. Indeed, there have already been several announcements over the last few days.
The netbook / notebook distinction continues to blur. Netbooks have sold in large numbers – mainly because of their price – but their performance was not stellar. We are now seeing new netbooks using an updated Atom processor (there is even a dual core version) that will improve performance. And we will see more thin and light notebooks using ULV (ultra low voltage) processors that will be priced just above netbooks.
This results in compact, light, portable computers running Windows 7, with long battery life, for a few hundred dollars. Even if they are not powerful enough, or have the screen size for one’s main computer – they might be perfect for a student, or for a second office computer.
Many are expecting 2010 to be the year of the tablet / e-reader. There is speculation everywhere about what Apple and others might announce either at the CES or later this year. Done right, this could be game changing. The Amazon Kindle has been a huge success. It just needs to be taken to the next level with colour and the ability to read content from various sources. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this video that shows what magazines might look like.
Coverage of the CES can be found on various tech sites such as Wired, Engadget, and CNET
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
Or perhaps, as I mentioned in a recent article, don’t have anything important on it when crossing borders. And take only an old laptop that you can afford to lose.
This incident has been mentioned in a few places. To paraphrase from a Wired post:
US citizen Lily Sussman took a vacation in Israel.
After pulling her aside for questioning, she was left alone. An announcement was made that Israeli security needed to blow up suspicious passenger luggage. They then put three bullets through her computer.
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
2010 will see some interesting and useful developments in the tablet / e-book reader space. The concept of a thin, light, portable device with a decent screen size (i.e. a letter sized piece of paper) and long battery life to read things on – such as newspapers, magazines, books, the web – is quite compelling.
There are a few products on the market already – such as the Kindle. In my view the tipping point to widespread adoption will be colour screens that can render glossy magazine resolution, the ability to get web content via wifi rather than just over a cell network, and a low enough price point. At least that’s what I’m holding out for.
To some extent this is vapourware - but there is a lot of activity and potential competition in this space. Consider:
Several Slaw articles have mentioned the Kindle and e-book readers like the Sony reader.
Another entrant announced within the last few days is the JooJoo, formerly known as the Crunchpad. This one is rather controversial. The story behind it (feuding developers) is as interesting as the product itself.
Of course there is the much anticipated Apple tablet - which many predict will appear some time in 2010.
Microsoft has shown a concept called the Courier.
And top that off with a publishers consortium that is working on digital publishing standards.
That’s the title of my Slaw post for today. It reads as follows:
