KyleLibra.com

When most people think about Aol, slow dial-up internet is the only thing that comes to mind. Most people are actually shocked to hear that the company still exists. After undoing the debacle that was the Time Warner – Aol merger most people thought they just faded into irrelevance and disappeared.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize a company with an obsolete technology as its core business isn’t going to continue to grow forever. Even when dial-up subscribers were its bread and butter, Aol created original content. They were a walled garden years before Facebook. You could either use an ISP that gave you access to the internet, or use AOL and get the internet PLUS original Aol content! I guess this approach made sense at the time. They added value for the customer through original content, which was useful because in the early days of search engines it wasn’t always easy to find information out there on the web.

Fast forward a decade later and they are now a content company that just happens to have a base of a few million dial-up subscribers. I don’t remember their original content being that great to begin with, but obviously no one asked me. In a key distinction from the content farms that clog up search results with keyword laden, but poor quality content, Aol is going to hire an unpaid army of bloggers. Hoping to hire nearly 8,000 bloggers in just eight days, AOL will have an army of free labor to produce content around the clock. This is of course, after they unceremoniously fired most of their paid ones.

Aol is also bolstering its media empire with high profile acquisitions. Back in February, they paid $315 million for the Huffington Post. This is only the most recent in a series of acquisitions where Aol has spent billions. In fact, in the very first acquisition ever made, they acquired an ISP that eventually turned into dial-up era Aol.

Originally I thought Aol was just struggling to stay relevant and spending boatloads of cash to do so. It turns out they have been doing it all along. Throughout its history, the company has been constantly spending tons of cash to stay on top and it seems to be working. My guess would be that these guys aren’t going away any time soon.

Maybe the title of the post is a bit of an overstatement. It is actually very cool and rewarding to see that someone over at The Economist is thinking about the same questions as I was almost three years ago.

Essentially my hypothesis was that increased access to information would make a country more free than those with less access to information. (Disregard the obvious question about which way this relationship goes. Are countries more free because they have access to information or do they have more access to information because they are more free?) My original thinking was related to the internet, but it quickly became clear that I needed to expand that idea into communication in general. There just wasn’t enough solid data available to only focus on the internet. This was three years ago and the best data I could find at the time was another few years old. In the past five years alone, the number of internet users has doubled.

A very simplistic version of what eventually happened was that I took a combination of the percentage of the population of a country with access different types of communication (phones, radios, internet, etc.) and compared that to the Freedom House Index score of the country (a measure of how free a country is). I did this for about 180 countries. In the end there was only a slight correlation and I couldn’t event start to claim there was causation. I can still remember sitting in my professor’s office telling him I think I needed to start over. His advice was great. He essentially told me that it was beyond the scope of this project to actually come up with some big revelation and find out that two things were definitively connected. The point of the project in my case was to go through the process of doing research and learn how it worked. It would have been nice if at that time Freedom House was compiling internet freedom scores like they are today. That would have saved me some serious time and headaches.

In the end, it is really interesting to see how in my case the lack of available data ended up shifting my thesis topic away from the original question. In that vein, it was incredibly satisfying to come across this article in The Economist. With people asking if social media played a role in some of the Arab revolutions, it makes sense that serious thought is going into the question. I’d like to believe that unfettered access to information is making people more free, don’t you?

The image in question is below, here is the original article.

Plan on owning an iPhone in the future? Bookmark this post!

A former colleague recently announced on twitter he had finally purchased an iPhone. Next the inevitable question followed, “What apps should I get?” With the on going Verizon iPhone rumors, I think I’m going to wake up one morning inundated with this question. With this post, I’ll have a response ready.

This post attempts to outline the must have applications for first time iPhone users. I’ve categorized them all and included prices and links to the iTunes download. If you have additional recommendations, post them in the comments.

Games:
Angry Birds ($0.99) – This is literally the most popular iPhone app of all time. There is also a free “lite” version you can download to try out, but trust me, this one is well worth the money. Every few weeks the developers put out an update of 21 extra levels. To date there are 252 levels available. You will be hard pressed to get more bang for your buck than this app.

Shibuya ($1.99) – This one is a fast paced, Tetris-like, puzzle game. Bricks drop from the top and you have to match them up by placing them in the correct order. Occasionally the game developers give this one away for free, so be on the look out. If reaction speed and (simple) puzzles are your thing, then be sure to gives this one a try.

GeoDefense Swarm ($1.99) – Classic tower defense game at its best. This is one of those games where enemies spawn and you have to build defensive towers into a maze to stop them before they reach the other side of the level. There is a lot of strategy and thinking involved here. For the huge fans there are additional levels available for purchase.

Plants vs. Zombies ($2.99) – For a long time this app was the most downloaded in the app store until it was finally dethroned. This is similar to the tower defense game above, but with less intensive thinking and a more playful side.

Music:
Pandora (free) – A simple sign up process is all that stand in between you and limitless, free music. This app generates playlists based on your tastes in music and then learns and adapts to your preferences.

Shazam (free) – This is the app that lets you record a song playing in a bar or on the radio and then tells you the name of the song. It was featured in tons of commercials. Get it just to show off to people.

Movies:
Flixster (free) – Of all the apps that let you search local movie theater times, this one is by far the best.

IMDB (free) – Can’t think of the name of that actor? Look no further. The search function is the most useful part, but it also offers movie news.

Netflix (free) – You can stream content straight to your phone, but the much more useful aspect is checking and modifying your queue.

Social Networking:
Twitter (free) – There are a ton of different Twitter clients available, but the official one known as “Twitter for iPhone” is the all around best.

Foursquare (free) – Out of all the location based apps, foursquare’s is my favorite. It gets frequent updates and rarely crashes. Not to mention there are a lot more users of this service than the alternatives.

Facebook (free) – From time to time there are unofficial versions available, but none of them are ever very good. Get the official app and set up the mobile preferences on Facebook.com from a computer.

Search / Information:
Wikipedia (free) – Probably the best part of owning a smart phone is having a world of information at your fingertips. Most of that information is best found within Wikipedia.

Instapaper (free) – This service allows you to sync articles between devices. It is really helpful when I click on a link from the twitter app. If I see something that is interesting, but several pages long, I’m not going to sit and read it on my phone. I’ll use this app to save it for reading on my laptop at a later time.

Google (free) – If the best part of owning a smart phone is having a world of information at your fingertips, this app takes it a step farther with voice commands. Need to know an answer to your questions? Just speak into the phone and an answer will arrive.

Productivity:
TripIt (free) – Combine all of your flight information, rental car confirmation codes and hotel maps in one place. This will change how you travel. This has literally saved me hours of time on trips, not to mention removing the necessity of carrying around a bunch of different print outs.

Evernote (free) – I keep notes of tons of different things. To do lists, movies I want to watch, books to get from the library, a beer or wine I enjoy, the lists are literally endless. Evernote allows you to sync notes across different computers and smart phones. A lot of my notes are just pictures. Say I drank a beer I really enjoyed and want to remember to order it in the future. I just take a photo of the label and Evernote converts it into text which is easily searchable later on.

Dropbox (free) – Sync important files between your phone and computer(s). Have a spreadsheet of contact info you need access to on the fly? No problem, just upload it to Dropbox. Need to send a file to someone? Done. Need to transfer files between computers? Done. Great app with a ton of different uses.

Mint (free) – If you’re already managing your money with Mint.com (and why wouldn’t you be?), the mobile app is a must have. Out shopping? Just a click away is your budget.

If you have additional recommendations, post them in the comments.

The iPhone will finally be available to Verizon users – Not only will this happen, it will be announced and on store shelves within two or three months.

Photo sharing will explode – In the last few weeks alone we saw the launch of startups like Path and Instagram. Services like Gowalla and Foursquare are adding photos. Photo sharing will be huge in 2011 with tons of different services competing to be the leading service on the mobile platform. Increasingly everyone has a good camera at their fingertips 100% of the time in the form of their phone. People want to compulsively share those photos.

The year of the IPO and talk of the tech bubble – There is strong indication that all of these companies will go public this year: LinkedIn, Skype, Groupon, Pandora, Zynga and Kayak. The FCC has started an investigation into second market which could also force companies like Facebook to go public. All of this will contribute to the media starting to talk about there being a tech bubble just like the dot com bubble.

Further irrelevancy of old media – Time’s pick for Person of the Year confirms it, old media doesn’t get it. As the year goes on, we are going to have more and more stories like this.

Mobile payments will finally take off – While I was in Japan this was huge. A lot of pieces are in place for this to take off stateside.

About a year ago I put down some of my predictions for the world of technology. You can read my original post here. Here is how my predictions ended up.

Foursquare (geolocation) – Correct
Facebook IPO – Wrong
Streaming movies will overtake DVD – Correct
Apple Tablet – Correct
The emergence of the all in one mobile device – Wrong

I think 3/5 isn’t too bad. I think the those two that I was wrong on will still happen eventually, just not as quickly as I thought.

Facebook is making a major announcement this morning. By all indications it surrounds e-mail, or more specifically, they are finally revamping the horrible messaging system they have been using. The company recently acquired the fb.com domain name, leading some to think that they will move the 1400 employees to @fb.com e-mail clearing the way for regular users to register @facebook.com e-mail addresses. Yahoo employees use a similar @yahoo-inc.com method to alleviate confusion.

Despite any on going issues I might have about Facebook, this might be enough to pull me back in. While I don’t like the idea of a company with privacy concerns like Facebook having access to my e-mail, I do like the idea of claiming an important part of internet real estate. If I can have an all but dormant Facebook account and have @facebook.com e-mails forward to my gmail account, I might be sold.

The truth is that this could turn into very valuable internet real estate to get your hands on. Just like having your name.com registered or that perfect twitter handle, it could be the key to making sure you are the person turning up at the top of the search results when you’re googled. It could be the key to controlling your image on the internet, something that will only become more important over time.

With 500 million users, the addresses will go fast. I don’t want to be in a position months or years from now regretting that I didn’t nab a good @facebook.com address and be stuck with something less than desirable. Is this going to be the way people get in touch with me initially in the future? Luckily I don’t have a really common name like John Smith, but I do have to battle with people really into their zodiac sign.

Is this going to be enough to get me to return to Facebook? I’m not sure, I’ll have to wait and see what is actually announced.

In the weeks leading up to the release of David Fincher’s latest film, The Social Network, there has been a sudden surge in interest surrounding the origins of Facebook’s founding. I won’t rehash my issues with the service, instead I want to address the burning questions the film (and book) leave us with.

Should I go see it?
Yes, you should absolutely see it. As of this posting, I’ve already seen it twice.

How accurate is this story?
There is a ton of conflicting information out there. Aaron Sorkin who wrote the screen play claims he tried to get as close to the truth as possible. Without writing 1800+ words Inception style on the subject, I’ll say that I believe it to be as close to the truth as we can get. An article from Business Insider lays out the ten most glaring inaccuracies like the following:

The movie starts with a falsehood: that Mark Zuckerberg never rowed for a crew team. Actually he did, back at Exeter, the super elite boarding school he went to.

Some of the inaccuracies are a little bigger, but tonally the inclusion of these wouldn’t change much.

Who is the actress mentioned as a Harvard student?
Natalie Portman, apparently she had dinner with Aaron Sorkin and told him some stories about what it was like to be a student there at the time. The line of dialogue was probably a nod of thanks from Sorkin.

Did Facebook get involved?
The filmmakers approached the company and showed them early versions of the script, but the two company ultimately wanted creative changes made that director David Fincher was unwilling to make. Facebook also refused to allow the film to be advertised on the site.

Is Facebook really worth $25 billion dollars?
According to Forbes it is actually worth $33 Billion and Zuckerberg is the 35th richest person on the planet.

Who is right and who is wrong?
Finally, a serious question.

Aaron Sorkin’s incredible dialogue has Zuckerberg’s character at one point exclaim, “If you were the inventor of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook!” With this one line, Sorkin captures the heart of the issue. He didn’t come up with the idea of a social network, but he went out there and built one. Not only did he build one, he built the best one.

If I were to wake up today and say, “I have an idea to build this new revolutionary product that is the going to be the next big thing,” I don’t have ownership of that product unless I go out and build it. Having an idea and executing an idea are completely different things. Another brilliant Zuckerberg line states (does) “a guy who makes a really good chair owe money to anyone who ever made a chair?”

What about Eduardo Saverin having his stock diluted from 34% to .03%? Another line of dialogue sums up my feelings exactly. “You’re gonna blame me because you were the business head of the company and you made a bad business deal with your own company?” Don’t forget Saverin settled for an estimated $1.1 billion.

He hasn’t made the best decisions, but I’m not sure you can really hold that against him, given the circumstances. History will come down on the side of the person who actually went out there and did it, which in this case is Zuckerberg. Through the good and the bad, he is an incredible, albeit single minded visionary who hasn’t let anything distract him from his dream.

AT&T’s reception has actually gotten a lot better in recent months (at least in Indianapolis). Funny comic nonetheless.

I played a lot of video games growing up. Then I went to college and despite a stint playing World of Warcraft I didn’t really play many games. Post college most of the game playing I’ve done has been on simple iPhone games. All that is about to change. Sometime this morning a delivery man will be showing up to the office with my very own copy of Starcraft II, a game that has been twelve years in the making. The video below is about the game. More than ever the line between movies and games is being blurred.

It’s well known that most people blame AT&T for horrible service with the iPhone. Available today for all iPhone users is a software update to upgrade the operating system of phones to iOS 4.1. The major change? More bars? Maybe. The update changes the height of the bars, making the smaller ones slightly smaller and changes how the bars themselves are measured. Gizmodo has the full story. The end result will probably be less bars, but the ones you do have will be bigger. This won’t actually change the reception issues, but it should give users a slightly better idea of how much reception they actually have.

In a related note it turns out that the iPhone also takes longer to charge on a usb cable plugged into a computer compared to plugged into an outlet. This probably applies to all electronic devices and shouldn’t be all that surprising. MobileCrunch has the full story.