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Lowe’s Adds 42,000 IPhones to Spur Sales

September 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Lowe’s Cos. is enhancing its website and equipping store employees with iPhones as the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer seeks to catch up to Home Depot Inc. (HD) and boost sales from its existing locations.

Image via Apple

Next month, Lowe’s will introduce its MyLowes online tool that customers will be able to use to store owner’s manuals, warranties and paint formulas, Chief Information Officer Mike Brown said in an interview. The Mooresville, North Carolina- based company is arming workers with 42,000 iPhone 4s to answer shoppers’ questions and ring up purchases.

The company is working to catch larger Home Depot, which gave employees Motorola Inc. handheld devices last year to let them spend more time helping customers and less on behind-the- scene duties. Atlanta-based Home Depot has had stronger same- store sales than Lowe’s for nine straight quarters.

“Home Depot is ahead of Lowe’s in that regard,” said Tim Hoyle, research director for Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Haverford Investments, which oversees $6.5 billion, including 370,000 Home Depot shares and 20,000 Lowe’s shares. “The two are fierce competitors. To believe that Lowe’s can’t catch up would be naive.”

After years of expansion, Lowe’s and Home Depot have saturated many markets and are shifting capital spending from opening new stores to technology that can help them squeeze more sales and profit from existing outlets.

Capital Spending

Home Depot spent $60 million last year on the handheld devices from Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola, which has since been split into two companies. Total capital spending for Home Depot was $1.1 billion last year.

Lowe’s will spend a record amount on technology in the fiscal year through January, Brown said, while declining to say how much. The company has said it will boost overall capital spending 20 percent to $1.6 billion this year.

The retailer is replacing 72,000 computer screens with flat panels in more than 1,700 stores, increasing bandwidth for transmitting data and adding Wifi for shoppers’ smartphones, Brown said. It’s adding thousands of items for sale online and last month introduced a Spanish-language version of lowes.com and an app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

See Full Article (Bloomberg): Here

 

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Talent and vendors

September 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

You may be purchasing services from people with magical talents (artists) and it’s a mistake to confuse them with vendors.

As we get more and more service oriented, it’s an easy mistake to make. You’re busy buying cleaning services or consulting or design, and sometimes the person you’re working with is a vendor, and sometimes they’re not–they’re an artist, “the talent.”

A vendor is someone who exists to sell you something. It doesn’t always matter to the vendor what’s being sold, as long as it’s being sold and paid for.

The quality of what’s being delivered is rarely impacted by the method of transaction. The turnips will still show up, the house will still get painted. You can send an RFP to a vendor, bid it out, get the lowest price, sign the contract and if you write the contract properly, will get what you ordered.

The quality of the work you get from the talent changes based on how you work with her.

That’s the key economic argument for the distinction: if you treat an artist like a vendor, you’ll often get mediocre results in return. On the other hand, if you treat a vendor like an artist, you’ll waste time and money.

Vendors happily sit in the anonymous cubes at Walmart’s headquarters, waiting for the buyer to show up and dicker with them. They willingly fill out the paperwork and spend hours discussing terms and conditions. The vendor is agnostic about what’s being sold, and is focused on volume, or at least consistency.

While the talent is also getting paid (to be in your movie, to do consulting, to coach you), she is not a vendor. She’s not playing by the same rules and is not motivated in the same way.

A key element of the distinction is that in addition to the varying output potential, vendors are easier to replace than talent is.

Target understood this when they reached out to Michael Graves to design a line of goods that sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of items. When I interviewed Michael a few years ago, he had nothing but great things to say about the way Target invited him in and gave him the ability to do his work. Threadless embraces this when they treat the designers of their t-shirts in a non-corporate way. Etsy is built on this single truth.

Most industry is built on vendor relationships, and vendors expect (and sometimes value) the impersonal nature of their relationships. This scales… until you lump in the talent.

See full Article (Seth Godin): Here

 

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A Steve Jobs infographic

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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5-Minute Guide to Getting a Job in Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

September 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Are you looking to get a job in social media? Of course, we’d highly recommend jumping into this lively line of work, but the field is highly competitive and there are lots of people looking. This infographic from online training software company mindflash.com can help you stand out from the crowd.

Even though spending five minutes might not be enough time to put you on the road to working in a social media paradise, there’s sound advice within this infographic.

We’ve already firmly established on these pages that social media can help you score a new job, so you might as well use social media to score a job in social media, right?

The best news is, social media is in such a booming stage right now, hundreds of big companies with lots of money are looking to get into the game, and they all need experts — perhaps someone like you. Take a look at this infographic, check our job postings to help you find a gig in social media, and then let us know in the comments if you have more suggestions:

See Full Article (Mashable): Here

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MacBook Air Used By Tribe in the Amazon Rainforest

August 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Now this is too cool!

This is one Mac setup you don’t see every day. Deep in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, Chief Almir can be seen surfing the internet on his 11.6 inch MacBook Air. He leads the Suri people of Brazil, and he helps his tribe utilize technology to protect the Amazon from extinction.

OS X Daily passes on this fascinating story from FastCompany’s ‘Most Creative People in Business 2011′ list. Chief Almir has partnered with Google in an attempt to use YouTube, smartphones, and Google Earth to fight against the illegal logging of his tribe’s land. In an effort to maintain the tribe’s ‘traditional’ way of life, Google has partnered with the villagers to help equip them with the tools to report those that exploit the Amazon’s natural resources.

“For a man whose way of life has been threatened by modernity, activist and tribal leader Chief Almir of the Surui people of the Brazilian Amazon has looked to a surprising source to help his tribe maintain its traditional way of life: Google. In 1969, shortly before Almir was born, the tribe had its first contact with outsiders, who brought disease, violence, and death with them. Then loggers arrived, laying waste to the Surui’s homeland. Chief Almir decided survival depended on outreach.”

Since 2007, Google has been working with the Suri people to create a crowd-sourced “cultural map.” Territorial boundaries have been clearly marked out with tools like Google Earth, and tribe members can take and upload pictures of the illegal activity in the rainforest for the authorities to see. That way, officials cannot claim ignorance.

Besides the fact that technology is being used for good in the depths of the Amazon Rainforest, it’s interesting to see that the MacBook Air has made its way into such a rural environment. In terms of industrial design, this is proof that the MacBook Air can withstand the humidity and high temperatures of even the Amazon jungle.

See Full Article (CultofMac): Here

 

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Are Replacing Their Playbooks With iPads

August 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The young Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an innovative bunch both on and off the field.

Image via Business Insider

The Bucs are among the first professional sports franchises to replace the old-fashioned style of playbooks with iPads.

According to this report by Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times, 34-year-old Bucs coach Raheem Morris convinced the team brass to buy every player on the team his own iPad 2.

He got the idea earlier this year when he started using an iPad to scout potential draftees.

Morris told co-chairman Bryan Glazer, son of billionaire owner Malcolm Glazer, that not only do the iPads allow for the entire contents of a playbook to be easily accessible on-the-go, they also can provide an outlet to watch game film, practice films, and situational films for all thirty-two NFL Franchises.

Glazer agreed to this idea after only two-minutes of discussion.

Tampa Bay’s roster is mostly comprised of twenty-somethings who aren’t foreign to the concept of new technologies, so the idea has already more than taken off with them. Regarding the iPads ease of use when it comes to studying, second-year safety Cody Grimm said, “”It’s convenient. It’s fast. I was snacking out on the couch and watching some film, and realized I was, like, two quarters through [a] game already.”

See Full Article (Business Insider): Here

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IPad-Powered Mass Transit Kiosks Catch A Ride On Charleston Trolleys

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Slicker Interactive (http://www.slicker.com) and Charleston (South Carolina) Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) have launched the first iPad-powered mobile kiosk that gives CARTA riders a whole new perspective of Charleston.

Image via Slicker Interactive

The kiosks — installed on all 12 trolleys servicing the Carta Dash routes – allow bus riders to interact with and search Slicker’s City Slicker app. The app provides users with information about cultural sites and businesses. In addition to the interactive kiosk, the iPad powers a flat-screen monitor that displays videos and images of establishments the bus is approaching.

One of the champions and primary backers of the new kiosks has been Charleston Mayor Joe Riley. “I am pleased to announce that Charleston is the first city in the world to benefit from City Slicker’s brand new technology,” he says. “There is so much content and useful information, it will be a tremendous help and first class guide for anyone traveling in our city. The additional attraction of City Slicker is sure to be a critical step towards increasing mass transit ridership.”

See Full Article (MacTech): Here

 

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Patient check-in moves to the Apple’s iPad

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Just three weeks after its iPad-native EHR made news for gaining ONC-ATCB-certification, drchrono has launched an iOS app to replace paper-based patient check-in.

Image via Healthcare IT News

Company execs say the OnPatient app can be downloaded to the iPad for free and integrated into a medical practice as a standalone application – the patient check-in software also integrates with with the drchrono’s iPad EHR.

“The OnPatient check-in app digitizes the waiting room and eliminates significant barriers to mass adoption of patient check-in technology,” said Michael Nusimow, co-founder and CEO of drchrono. “Proprietary check-in hardware is prohibitively expensive and integration with existing EHR systems is too complex. We designed the OnPatient app to be intuitive for both physicians and patient users to create a better patient check-in experience.”

On-Patient features customizable templates that enable physicians to eliminate paper forms and clipboards in the waiting room. Upon download, the OnPatient app allows patients to:

  • Complete family medical history and demographic information
  • Complete insurance information
  • Snap a profile photo
  • Sign the HIPAA consent form with a digital signature

The information auto-populates directly into the drchrono EHR platform. On subsequent visits, patients do not have to complete duplicate forms, they need only review their information and make any necessary changes on the iPad.

That saves “time and money” says Nusimow. “Putting in insurance info and all that minutiae takes a lot of time.” With medication and allergies pre-entered, “the next time [patients] go to the doctor, they can just engage with the doctor.”

Surinder Saini, MD, a gastroenterologist in Fountain Valley, Calif. who was an early user of the app, says OnPatient “has benefited my practice in many ways.” Patients like it too, he says. They enjoy the novelty of being “given an iPad to register in the office,” and they “love to enter information” on the app.

Officials say OnPatient meets all industry security standards ensuring the privacy and safety of patient data.

See full Article (HealthcareITNews): Here

 

 

 

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WSJ: Sprint to Get iPhone 5

August 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, closing a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier’s lineup and giving Apple Inc. another channel for selling its popular phone.

The timing, however, indicates Apple’s new iPhone will hit the market later than expected and too late to contribute to sales in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in September. Most observers had expected the device to arrive next month.

Top U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless and No. 2 AT&T Inc. will begin selling the phone in mid-October as well, two of the people said. Sprint had more than 52 million subscribers at the end of the second quarter, compared with 106 million for Verizon and nearly 99 million for AT&T.

Landing the iPhone is a big win for Sprint, whose results have suffered without being able to sell the iconic device. This February, Verizon Wireless began selling the iPhone 4, while AT&T has relied on versions of the Apple device to drive sales since 2007.

In the second quarter, Sprint blamed a decline in its contract subscribers on more pronounced “competitive head winds,” most prominently, “the first full quarter both major competitors offered the iPhone.”

Sprint will also carry the iPhone 4, starting at the same time, one person familiar with the situation said.

Richard Doherty, director of the research firm Envisioneering Group, said that the addition of the iPhone would help Sprint to retain many of its customers who want to upgrade to the popular device. The iPhone will also increase foot traffic in Sprint stores, which should help the company to sell high-margin iPhone accessories.

“Sprint needs it,” said Mr. Doherty. “There are a lot of families that will embrace the iPhone.”

The cellphone business is increasingly driven by hot smartphones, which are growing more sophisticated and expensive. Apple commanded an average of more than $650 apiece for its iPhones last quarter. Carriers subsidize the difference between that cost and the phone’s $199 or $299 retail price, hoping to make up the difference with the data plans they sell over the course of two-year contracts customers must sign to get the subsidy.

Apple created additional leverage for itself by signing exclusive deals when it first launched the iPhone in 2007. In recent years, the company has changed strategy, inking deals with multiple carriers in countries around the world.

The new iPhone is expected to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but thinner and lighter with an improved digital camera and a new more sophisticated operating system.

Apple said in June that a new version of its mobile operating system would be available this fall, leading many analysts to conclude that an upgraded iPhone would be introduced at the same time. On a July earnings conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company’s September quarter would be affected by “a future product transition that we are not going to talk about today,” increasing anticipation.

While Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 at its June developers’ conference last year, its successor wasn’t ready in time for this year, according to a person briefed on Apple’s product plans. The company then aimed to launch a new iPhone by the end of September, though two people familiar with the situation previously told The Wall Street Journal that the phone could be delayed again if its contract manufacturer couldn’t improve its production yield rate.

See Full Article (Wall Street Journal): Here

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United And Continental Are Giving Every Pilot An iPad

August 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

United Continental Holdings just announced that it has begun equipping all of its pilots at Continental and United with iPads in order to create a “paperless flight deck.”

The 11,000 iPads it began distributing this month will replace conventional flight manuals, paper aeronautics charts, and reference handbooks.

All of those papers each pilot is responsible for weigh 38 pounds in total, so the 1.5 pound iPads will lighten a pilot’s “flight bag” in a huge way.

Pilots will no longer have to wait for paper flight material updates to print, since they can just download the updates to their iPads.

The iPads will be pre-loaded with the Jeppesen Mobile Flight Deck app, which anyone can grab for free from Apple’s App Store.

See Full Article (Business Insider): Here

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