It's happening. Ignoring reality, the Establishment hierarchies are taking a hard stance with employees pushing return to the office protocols, policies, and edicts.
For all of us providing office technology services, there is nothing more important than getting the workers back in the cubes, back to the office, computer, printer, desk phone, electricity, coffee machines, fax lines, and Wifi. Nothing is more important.
"We're going to get you in here three times a week, at first. You're going to love the new expresso machine and the monthly, themed lunches so much, you'll want your old desk back in no time."
The other day I Tweeted, “Is #Apple part of Mopria?
With digital content growing, wouldn't it make sense to print from my Apple Watch?” My point was with all the fanfare and hoopla, printing is never mentioned. Users rarely think about printing and when they do, it’s a pain.
The Apple Watch is the latest example of the shrinking relevancy of the printed document. Granted, the category is consumer based, but the Apple Watch and iOS 8 represent the fading frontier between B2C and B2B . More employees are bringing devices to work because the devices are easier to use and present information in the manner that is pleasing to the consumer. That’s all. If paper were more relevant, we’d all have the daily under our arms and my watch would only tell time.
But that’s not happening, is it?
Consider the lowly photocopier. Once the hub of communication, copiers hummed along churning out everything from memos, file copies of invoices and bound reports. Today, more information is read off a screen in your lap, or palm of your hand than ever before. Tomorrow, your wrist.
Kindle, schmindle, I want a PC in the form of an iPAD!
I want the comfort of Windows 1.0 and enough ports to plug in my optical mouse AND trackball- while you're at it, throw in parallel port to boot.
And I want it to print to any and every printer in the world. Dare I say, an Epson LQ-2550 and an IBM 4019 Laser printer.
Yeah, print to those, you goofy, goof-ball.
Those Win8, hockey pucks won't print.Not because they can't, because NOBODY WILL WANT TO PRINT.
Will Win8 be a bust? Will it lock up, like every other Windows version? Has there been a history of new interfaces confusing the hell out of everyone? Whatever.
"One of the iPad's biggest competitors has been paper," said Nick Bilton, a tech columnist at The New York Times, "and now this is better than paper."
So many books and so little printing-
I was somewhat dismayed to learn Britannica is no longer going to print its encyclopedia.
I was a bit vexed when I read that printed, pulp-erotica isn't as hot as it once was.
My confusion cleared upon discovering the hottest thing on E*Readers is ladies' romance/erotica - women and their dirty little Nook's. This makes perfect sense; nobody can tell what you're reading while sucking a caramel macchiato, head down on a Kindle. Poor Fabio.
It was about the A8. It was about calls shifting from wireless to cell, seamlessly.
It was a bigger phone with more Sensors, new gyroscope better camera.
NFC - Pay without Cash
Pay at McDonalds, Disney, Apple, etc.
Apple Pay
"Will forever change the way we pay for things. Online Transactions - Pay with a Finger"
Target, Uber, Open Table and more. Pay online with your fingerprint and keep all your credit card information in the palm of your hand or on your wrist.
"...IBM and Apple sittin in a tree...K-I-S-S-I-N-G...first comes love, then comes marriage, then little Siri-Watson in a baby carriage..."
The last #APPLE announcement was revealing in terms of technology because of the A7 chipset and the deal with Beats. The upcoming #APPL announcement this September , has much in store, here are just a few:
New iPHONE 6
The A8
New wearable(s)
Yosemite
IBM
iPhone 6
By now, we know the new iphone is always awesome. This time, the new phone will set extend Apple's lead in the market, all others will begin to look old-fashioned. The timing is right for upgrades but some who bought the 5 last year will be slamming phones on Ebay looking to replace with a 6.
Why? The new processor.
Y O S E M I T E
The buzz and anticipation around the op-sys roll out would be enough of an accomplishment for any major, technology company. Imagine how happy #MSFT and all those Windows users would be if their OS were 50% of what Apple brings. Yosemite is going to set the bar so high, others will get nosebleeds contemplating the dire situation.
Why?
Yosemite will blow the doors off of every other operating system - EVER.
I've seen things - the square mouse that was DOS 4.0, the smooth, out of this world, not ready for prime-time, pre-emptive multitasking OS/2 from IBM and the shear marketing and social goliath called Windows 3.0(1).
When I look at all the Mac OS/X, the actual operational tasks melt into the background - which is exactly what you and I want. Thoughtless operation. Support me, no matter how many applications I open. Don't make me learn about .TMP files and wait 20 minutes for my machine to start up.
Why in the world do any of us know what the phrase, "blue screen of death" pertains too? Why should I know this?
I want to be able to share my current app on my MacBookPro, iPad and iPhone automatically -handing off to each device as needed. Impossible? No. El Capitan? Yes.
I want to answer my phone on my MBPro - madness? Half Dome? Yes.
You know what else, I'd like the same op-sys on all my devices...jus saying. Craziness? Well, yes and coming.
The transparency between apps and platforms, dare I say the "non-fragmented", congruent approach of Yosemite is one of the biggest shifts in technology, ever. As with most Apple products, the device or operating system does not try to dictate our personal workflow - it pairs up and works with me.
Why do I need to tell Windows I don't want to upgrade in the middle of every Powerpoint presentation?
WeAReAbLeS
Healthkit, iWatch, whatever...love them or hate them, #Apple is about to crack the seal on the atrocious healthcare system.
How about I get to keep all my health records, secured in my iPhone? And how about instead of going in for tests, or scans, my watch is monitoring all that 7x24, data ready to be shared when I want with whomever I want?
Yeah, that's coming.
GUESS Who's Coming to Dinner? IBM.
The very first rivalry in the personal technology realm was between IBM and Apple - it was more of a feud, really. If you wanted to add up numbers and create DBII applications(what?!!), you owned a PC. A 'clone' if you couldn't afford an IBM Model 70. On the other hand, if you considered yourself 'artsy' or academic, a MAC was your status symbol.
The last two powerhouses standing are getting together; soon the accounting firms, engineering companies and manufactures will all be sporting "iSomethings". CRM's, materials planners and project managers will be flicking charts all over the place, from iPAD to AppleTV, to the iMACs in accounting.
This is transactional communications transforming into BI - is a another vista, waiting out there for everyone. But that is for another set of blogs.
