Virtual Gift Cards

How many times have you received a gift card and never redeem the entire amount?  As many as 20% of gift cards are never or partially used.

Virtual gift cards differ from traditional plastic ones because they're sent digitally and can often be tailored to any value, including small, unrounded amounts. Sometimes, they are delivered just as a shopper considers making a purchase.  These make it easier for consumers to send and redeem gifts, often in small amounts, by relying on e-mail, mobile phones, or a social-networking site.  That would benefit users  as well as merchants, which often can't recognize revenue from gift cards until they are used.  Additionally in late 2010, a website called Plastic Jungle, allows consumers to buy and sell unwanted gift cards.  It is said that virtual gift cards will take off in the next 3-5 years and could possibly steal transactions from credit cards and checks.

Don't Text and Drive

Yes, technology is fascinating.  So fascinating that many people, teens especially, can't even get away from their phones and the web while behind the wheel.  To prevent accidents from occuring from texting and driving, some California labs are selling devices that detect when the phone is in use by the driver.  The system locks the screen, sends all calls directly to voicemail, and blocks message alerts.  For teen drivers, it also lets parents see what is happening with the device while the teen is driving by simply logging in on the web.  Who would have thought that there would be a technology that limits our technology use!

Speaking of Collaboration...

Skype is now trying to gain popularity in the businessworld.  Skype currently allows two users to video chat free of charge.  Their new strategy involves a paid service called GoToMeeting.  Much like Window's LiveMeeting which will be a big competitor, GoToMeeting will allow users to dial in by phone and video chat and share documents among many users.  This will create more participants and capabilites, things that are in very high demand in the corporate world!

Homework Assignment: To Tweet?

Sprint Nextel Corp. is sponsoring college classes and graduate-level research to get help with their online marketing from the young and hyperconnected. Sprint provided students in an online marketing class at Emerson College with 10 smartphones with unlimited wireless access. In exchange, students blogged, tweeted, produced YouTube videos and posted Facebook updates about the launch of Sprint's 4G network in Boston.

This is an interestin approach.  Obviously the two front runner phone network companies are AT&T and Verizon.  Does Sprint have a chance to grow and expand using the social networking media?  To my knowledge, AT&T and Verizon have not already done this, and considering how addicted people are to things like Facebook and Twitter, Sprint may have the right idea!

Facebook Movies?

Does anyone even buy CDs or DVDs these days? Everything can be done online.  In order to boost sales and increases revenues, Warner Bros has said they will begin renting movies through Facebook.  I guess they realize everyone has a serious addiction to the social networking site so this would make perfect sense.  One of the first movies they will release will be hit, The Dark Knight.  How it works is if you "like" a movie on Facebook you can pay to watch it online with 30 Facebook Credits which is equivalent to $3.  For doing this, Facebook will get 30%.  This $3 price seems pricey compared to RedBox DVDs which you can rent for just a buck, however Apple's iTunes movie store charges $3 as well.

Electronic Contracts?

Apparently courts are ruling that e-mail may carry the same weight as traditional ink on paper contracts.  In 2000, Congress enacted the E-SIGN law which validated certain contracts in electronic form and electronic signatures.  Lawmakers designed E-SIGN to recognize that, “a signature, contract, or other record relating to a transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.”

Apples and Pears Used To Be Just Fruits..

The Peel control uses a device you may already own—an iPhone or iPod Touch and doesn't require plugging any hardware into the device, or cables into the TV. Instead of lists of channels, it shows you pictures and summaries of the shows that are on, by genre. You don't even have to know what channel they're on, you just click "Watch on TV" and it takes you to the show. While it can control various devices, like DVD players or Apple TVs, it doesn't require you to recall which input each is on. It switches TV inputs automatically and presents an appropriate virtual remote for each device, controlled by touch and gesture on your iPhone's or iPod Touch's screen.  It consists of a free app, plus a small, $100 battery-powered wireless hardware transmitter that's shaped like a pear and called a "fruit." You can just put it on a coffee table or bookshelf near your TV.

Tablets, Tablets, Tablets

PCs finally seem as if they are being phased out.  With this whole tablet craze, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., said that the tech industry is in the "post-PC" era.  Demand for PCs is predicted to decrease substantially.  Laptop shipments, which are in the high-growth category , are now expected to increase 14.6% in 2011 instead of 25.1%.  The smaller mobile PCs, netbooks, sales decline by 49% at the end of 2010.