Microsoft Office has remained the industry standard for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations for many years, an impressive feat. But in terms of meaningful innovation, there hasn’t been a whole lot lately. Sure, there have been plenty of Office updates (too many, some would say), but they are mainly cosmetic changes and bundles of new […]
Technology
Is Amazon Poised for World Domination? Is It Even Profitable?
Amazon is often portrayed in the media as an unstoppable behemoth indiscriminately crushing everything from indie bookstores to big box stores on its way to world domination. But recently more have started to question that narrative. Amazon’s July attempt at entering the smartphone market was a highly-publicized disaster, but critics are pointing to far more […]
Is Staring at Screens Too Long Harmful to My Health?
These days, not many of us earn our paychecks by laboring out in the fields or at a factory. The transition to a knowledge economy has resulted in some great advantages, but it also means that more and more jobs now consist of sitting at a desk all day starting at a computer. New research […]
Is Amazon’s eBook Subscription Service a Big Deal?
Last week Amazon launched a subscription service called Kindle Unlimited, immediately dubbed the “Netflix for ebooks” by just about everyone. It costs $9.99 per month to subscribe, which works out to be $120 per year. For that reasonable price you get unlimited access to a library of over 600,000 books as well as around 2,000 audiobooks. That […]
Taking a Virtual Field Trip: What’s the Appeal of Location-Based Apps?
Location-based mobile apps are a hot trend these days. These services allow people to use a smartphone to interact somehow with their surrounding environment, such as earning rewards and discounts for “checking-in” somewhere using the popular platform Foursquare. Other big-name apps that incorporate some location-aware features include OpenTable, Fandango and Yelp. And still others allow […]
Are Digital Gifts Less Special Than Physical Ones?
Today it’s easy to exchange gifts completely digitally, and there are certainly some advantages to going this route. You can shop from the comfort of your own home. You don’t have to pay for shipping. You even help the environment by not driving to the store or generating waste in the form of envelopes, boxes […]