Year: 2011

  • 99games

    Ever wondered who makes those awesome games for the iPhone? Meet 99Games, one of the major players, with many t

    op AppStore games to its credit. In conversation with the founder Rohith Bhat.

    [scribd id=60829020 key=key-20dkpswy77bchw37wyas mode=list]

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  • Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North

    Alex Rutherford

    The first of the ‘Empire of the Moghul’ series, which begins in 1494 when the 12 year old Babur is suddenly forced to become king of Ferghana, on the death of his father. Babur feels a strong sense of destiny and is convinced that fate has something special in store for him. His ancestry, which include Timur and Genghis Khan, only reinforces this belief.

    But the events that follow his coronation prove to be a roller coaster ride and he is forced to reconsider his future. From being king of a small state to the ruler of Samarkhand, to being a king without a throne, Babur is thrown into situations which provide him valuable life lessons, all of which would help him establish the Mughal dynasty in Hindustan.

    Rutherford (mostly) remains true to history but has embellished a few characters to liven up the tale. From the Shah of Persia to ordinary foot soldiers, Rutherford manages to show their role in the life and thinking of Babur, quite effectively. The notes state that he has traveled to most of the places mentioned in the book. That is perhaps what has helped him to appreciate and give vivid descriptions of places, events and even people, making it easier for the reader to visualise the richness and grandeur of the ancient rulers, their royal abodes, and even the trials and tribulations that the land forces its inhabitants to live through. Relying perhaps on the Baburnama, Rutherford succeeds in balancing and showcasing Babur, the emperor, as well as Babur, the person.

    In essence, a good read, especially for those who have an interest in history, and for those who don’t, read it as you would, a regular story, it does justice on that front too.

  • Weekly Top 5

    This week's stories include Amazon's Kindle Textbook Rental, expansion of endless.com's free shipping, S3 data, Amazon Prime's deal with CBS, Amazon.com's acquisition of ParAccel; Zynga's IPO filing edits, Google's stake, revenue sharing with Facebook, failed PopCap bid, merger of Lolapps and 6waves; A

    pple's market cap, OS X Lion, MacMini, new MacBook Air, Apple Thunderbolt Display and Kodak lawsuit; Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), phones from Fujitsu-Toshiba, Dentsu-Skype deal, Bing maps update and Microsoft retail stores; Google+ statistics, verified accounts, AnonPlus and the new g.co url shortener.

    [scribd id=60608011 key=key-2n5owflnq7kl6xyuqaok mode=list]

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  • Consumer Tracks

    I heard a very interesting quote recently, attributed to Rishad Tobaccowala –

    When consumers hear about a product today, their first reaction is ‘Let me search online for it.’ And so they go on a journey of discovery: about a product, a service, an issue, an opportunity. Today you are not behind your competition. You are not behind the technology. You are behind your consumer.

    That reminded of the title of a post last month from Mitch Joel – “The Ever-Evolving Consumer Evolves (Again)“, in which he talks about how consumers are now more advanced than marketers in terms of technology and how they communicate. Quite agree in general, though it varies with geography, kind of demographic and so on.

    Simplistically put, word of mouth with a technology assist. You'd say that every 'social media' presentation has a version of it, and I'd have to agree. But the interesting part is how brands react. For the purpose of this post, let me give you a contemporary tool based example.

    Within a few days of the launch of Google +, a few brands jumped on to the wagon. They weren't just content sites, but regular brands. Only to be told by Google to lay off until they were officially allowed to. Were the brands behind the con

    sumers in this case? Or technology tool? Not. But even if they were allowed to operate in Plus, would that guarantee a success story? Not necessarily. That's probably because many a time, when brands (and brand managers) get to know about technology, they choose the easy way out. Order the agency to create a page/handle/group and get x number of fans/friends/followers, post some content to 'tick' engagement and then wait for the next shiny object. The harder way is to understand why people are active on the social platforms and the networks that are created within. In this context, relationship and trust. Something that brands lost when they made full use of the fact that traditional media didn't allow consumers to talk back.

    Mitch Joel is right when he says that brands finally found an answer to the first coming of the web. They answered the 'why' reasonably well – information, and built websites. But with an explosion in platforms and interactivity, the answers this time around aren't that simple. Having a touch point at every new internet nation state is a great thing, but if brands look at the new shiny technology/service through the prism of why users are flocking to it, and go through the data – information – knowledge – wisdom path to figure out if/how they can use the technology/service to anticipate and meet consumer needs, they might be evolving a better and scalable strategy for the days ahead.

    until next time, to corrupt a cricket line, platform is temporary, class is permanent 😉

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  • A clocked up life

    Time has always been one of the most important constructs for me. In most of my actions, it is probably the first parameter kept in mind. The debate on whether it’s a human construct or a dimension that exists anyway is still not resolved in my head. But I still swing more towards a construct because in the words of one Julian Barbour, “Change merely creates an illusion of time, with each individual moment existing in its own right, complete and whole.” He calls these moments ‘nows’ and further postulates that “Time is simply the measure of the space between two separate and unrelated ‘nows.’” Unfortunately, this seems to take us further away from any possibility of navigating that distance beyond the linear flow we experience.

    I was reminded of this because of an article I read in TOI and from my own recent experiences. The article was about an Amazonian tribe called Amondawa that had no concept of time. They live in a world of events and had no words for ‘next week’, ‘last year’ etc. Also, no one had an age. Instead, when their position in life changed, they took on a new name!!

    For a fortnight in May-June, I was in Kerala, spending most of my time in a hospital waiting room. My entire routine had been changed. Nothing can be more disruptive for a creature of habit, but it did gave me a chance to observe time and my relationship with it. I noticed that time played an intrinsic part in my life because of associations – from mundane things like when I had to take a bath/ go online to things like when I would see D next. The associations make memories and our visions for the future, and those make up our navigation mechanism. If the associations did not exist, time’s importance could be reduced to a minimum, if not completely.

    On those starlit nights, it was easy to remember Dr.Manhattan’s  line from Watchmen, though in another context ” I am looking at the stars. They are so far away. And their light takes so long to reach us. All we see of stars are their old photographs.” But for us, it’s a now. So which really is the now -the stars’ now or my now or both? But then again, if not time, what would be my main narrative?

    until next time, anti-clock-wise 🙂