High Gravity Consulting

Mobile Payments

Not About the Benjamins

The last couple of years have been a fascinating story about the failure of mobile payments to achieve any signficant traction in the mobile payments space. Until the last few months, retailers and restaurants have dipped their toes into the mobile payments space, testing different solutions and trying to replicate

HGC

Introducing the new HGC.com

It seems odd to think that it has been nearly 2 years since HighGravityConsulting.com came online. Even though I've been doing private technology consulting since my college years, its been a crazy couple of years since I brought this site online. Not that the site is heavily trafficed, it

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Vinyl & the Uncanny Valley

The first time I saw John Siracusa's posts about the forthcoming Mac OS X on Arstechnica, I thought to myself, "What a sad life this man must have to spend so much time on something that won't last more than a year or two." As my appreciation for Apple has

Magnetic robots... HOW DO THEY WORK???

By far one of the most amazing demos I have seen in quite some time. An army of miniature robots to do my will? Count. Me. In.

accessibility

Is Google's Project Ara a phone in search of a problem?

Purchasing a smartphone is something most consumers do about once every two years, assuming they don't destroy their phone before its natural life is up. Google wants to change that model so we can upgrade our phones any time we want for a much lower cost than buying a new

Let's do the Tango!

Way to go Google (really Motorola) with this new prototype. This is one of the first novel ideas I've seen in a couple years. For too long has virtual reality (VR) relied on the single camera in an app. Its always felt like a clunky solution and I'm glad to

How car touchscreens could work

I find there are a lot of limits to this design (namely, 10 total gestures so if you've got more features you're out of luck), but I like how the designers are thinking. Car UIs have been awful for far too long. I hope they continue to refine and hit

Gartner Hype Cycle on the Gartner Hype Cycle

Gartner Hype Cycle on the Gartner Hype Cycle - Boing Boing. For those of us who know much about Gartner, this will have you laughing so hard you cry. Too accurate of their services.

On First Thought — VintageZen

This is where I think he actually gets Apple and what they were trying to accomplish. It wasn't about the specific geeky features or specs, it was about the experience people had when using the device. The iPad went on the become hugely successful because it was such a simple

A Conference Call in Real Life

A Conference Call in Real Life. "Have you been here the whole time?" This rings so true to my life.

Hey, ya'll! "Watch" this!

iWatch Concept on Vimeo on Vimeo I've hated the 'wearables' concepts for a long time, but its a hate based on the idea of requiring me to have yet another 'thing' on me. I don't wear jewelry (except the wedding ring and even that gets annoying). I don't carry keys

Google's purchase of Nest

This Nest acquisition makes me think Google didn’t want these things to be jokes. That they want to make devices that tens of millions of people will buy and use in the way that they buy and use Apple devices. via Daring Fireball Linked List: On Google and Consumer

Google Glass is a borg mullet - Boing Boing

Google Glass is a borg mullet - Boing Boing. I completely agree. Remember, no matter how cool you believed them to be, the Borg were the bad guys.

Vast Majority of Smartphone Users Care About Privacy - eMarketer

As more of consumers’ lives depend on mobile devices, the chances they have something on their phones they want private has become very high. According to research, about four in five US smartphone users have private files on their devices—and the share is even higher among the youngest adults.

The Best Approach to the Worst Conversation: "You're Fired"

When you’re a manager, no one is going to make the first move for you. People on your team may have hinted around it. They may have submitted subtle or even assertive feedback. But until you sit down with Jeff and try to turn things around, you’re the

Microsoft Sets a New Threshold for Windows Development | Developers | TechNewsWorld

Developers are key to Microsoft's efforts to gain a foothold in the apps market and create a cohesive Windows ecosystem. Its upcoming OS refreshes, code-named "Threshold," will strive for commonality across its three main platforms -- Xbox, Windows and Windows Phone -- making it easier for developers to work on

Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2 | Ars Technica

Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2 | Ars Technica. The trouble was that GUIs took a while to develop, and they took up more resources than their non-GUI counterparts. In a world where most 286 clones came with only 1MB RAM standard, this was going to

Mobile app market continues its meteoric rise: report - Mobile Marketer - Research

“The most surprising finding is that the rate of new apps being created is accelerating,” said Simon Khalaf, CEO of Flurry, San Francisco. “You would expect it to be flat. The rate itself has doubled year over year. “Nothing seems to indicate a slowdown, every indicator is up and to

Capital One introduces pattern tracing to simplify mobile banking log-ins - Mobile Commerce Daily - Banking

Capital One is making it easier for customers to sign into its mobile banking app replacing passwords with a pattern that users trace with their finger. The new feature is designed to address two of the biggest issues with mobile banking: Bill-pay security and ease of account sign-in. SureSwipe is

Review: The Galaxy Note 3 is big—and it pulls some benchmark shenanigans | Ars Technica

USB 3.0 is still going through some growing pains. As you can see above, the Note 3 won't let you keep USB 3.0 on all the time. You have to enable it just before your transfer, and it will automatically disable itself after four minutes of inactivity. Every

Delta to Use Microsoft's Surface 2 Tablets in Place of Paper Manuals - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD

Delta said on Monday that it plans to buy Surface 2 tablets using the Microsoft hardware to replace paper flight books for the airline’s 11,000 pilots. via Delta to Use Microsoft's Surface 2 Tablets in Place of Paper Manuals - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD. Two points.

Mayday for Mayday?

Billy Joel famously sang that we didn't start the fire, but Amazon definitely has with their latest Kindle Fire HDX and its Mayday feature. While the feature itself has received lots of praise and amazement, the biggest question people have been asking is, how on earth does Amazon plan on

Settings Things Straight

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Having a round-trip commute of 106 miles, with around 24 miles of that through construction, it takes me a little while to get to work and back home every day. Even with that long duration, my podcast addiction is so great that I

Jobs on Innovation

Twenty years ago, Steve Jobs described innovation without actually using the word itself. What really fascinates me about this is the metaphor he uses regarding the technology industry as sediment; layers in a rock. All metaphors break down at some point, but he's right when you think about all the

Interview Questions by the Vampire

The first time I heard about the interview questions asked during Google's interview process, I had a few thoughts that basically went like this... 1. Whoa… that's crazy cool. 2. You know, I'm not sure I would be able to come up with a good answer to those questions. 3.