Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
So, are the new AppleiPhones worth it? Let’s just say that Apple is leaving their competitors in the dust, at this point.
Big (and surprising) news this past week: Instagram in bigger than Twitter. Is shooting a photo easier than writing 140 characters, or is there something more going on here? My guess: if Facebook acquires Twitter (they already own Instagram), the Internet could be – primarily – Facebook’s platform.
If you don’t think the Instagram news is big, Facebook also launched 360 degree videos for Facebook. The first foray was a new Star Wars trailer. It must be frustrating to YouTube, as they have had this functionality for a while, but what makes it most interesting? Facebook also owns Oculus Rift, the virtual reality platform. Maybe these 360 degree videos are just the next step, as Zuckerberg and his team prepare the world for virtual reality?
And, in case you haven’t heard enough about Facebook, here’s something ever scarier about them. What do you think Facebook is doing with all of our data? Better targeting, right? More ads that are relevant to us, enabling brands to better target us, helping us connect and tag people in a more relevant way? All true… unless… maybe Facebook is using all of this data to build the ultimate artificial intelligence? So says a new article in Popular Science. The thinking is that Facebook is using all of our data to build the world’s best artificial intelligence lab, because they can now blend advanced technology with all of the semantic information we’re sharing. Scary.