Alexander Falk

Alexander Falk's Blog Social networking sites have taken off over the last few years, and for a long time there seemed to be a clear divide: Doostang, Ecademy, LinkedIn, and Xing for business networking vs. Facebook, Friendster, and MySpace for kids (be it high-school or college). Plus every network had their own particular and sometimes even unique focus (e.g. Musicians on MySpace, Harvard and MIT grads on Doostang, and lots of Europeans on Xing). But things are not so simple anymore. As Facebook grows in popularity amongst "business types" due to several unique features that set it apart from the likes of LinkedIn (more on that later), the character of the network changes and it also gives rise to some interesting generation-conflict issues, such as in Liz Ryan's recent article "Worlds Colliding: My Mom's on Facebook!" in the BusinessWeek Career Insight column. So... (more)

Sony Announces a Dancing iPod Killer-Wannabe?

Alexander Falk's Blog Sony officially announced a new cross-breed between robot and MP3 player (so far in Japan only). The Rolly is a hand-sized device that not only plays your tracks but also dances to the music. In other words, it's a dancing iPod killer-wannabe... An off-spring of the now defunct Sony Aibo robotic dog division, the Rolly uses robotics to "flap its wings" and "roll around" to the beat of the music. I must admit that I've always been a big fan of robotics. Case in point: in addition to two (live, real-world) cats, we also have two Sony Aibos in our home (an early ... (more)

Which One Is Better, iPhone or the Windows Smartphone?

Which one is "better" - the iPhone or the Windows Smartphone? That's the question that many gadget-loving road warriors and cell-phone geeks are asking these days... Here is my personal take: I've been a big proponent of smartphone technology for a long time, and have been chasing the "perfect smartphone" for a while. Specifically, I've been hooked on using Windows Smartphone devices, because of the seamless integration with Outlook and the resulting automatic synchronization of all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and e-mail over the air. And my favorite Smartphone s... (more)

Microsoft Fails to Win ISO Approval for the Office Open XML (OOXML) Standard

Alexander Falk's Blog Last week Microsoft failed to win ISO approval for the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard in the 2nd round of the ISO standardization process. While the Wall Street Journal published a critical article about this, this is by no means the end of the road, nor is it even a major setback - the ISO process commonly requires multiple rounds, and the 3rd round (expected for early 2008) will very likely see Office Open XML becoming an ISO standard. As Burton Group analyst Peter O'Kelly observes in his blog: "FWIW I still expect Open XML to become an ISO standard -- an... (more)

Yahoo! Mash People Can Edit My Profile? I Don't Like That Idea

Alexander Falk's Blog Yahoo has launched Mash as a beta version (by invitation only) this weekend. It's (yet another) social networkig site that appears to be aimed at unseating Facebook, and their biggest differentiator is a wiki-like approach where people can edit each other's profiles. More importantly, you can create a new profile for somebody else and then inite them to "claim" that profile and make it theirs. Hmmmm, I'm not sure that I really like that idea. Friends writing on my wall in Facebook is one thing, but having them edit my profile?! Most things on Mash seem to def... (more)