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Phil Butler Unplugged

Illme Uses Facebook To Stop The Common ColdToday

Post from: Phil Butler Unplugged

Illme Uses Facebook To Stop The Common Cold

The big challenge for developers and marketers utilizing Facebook and other similar platforms is turning an idea into an application that transcends the digital world into the physical one. This hurdle leaves us with apps ranging from the intricate and refined, to the down right goofy or even scary. Last week a startup called Illme was presented at Slush Conference in Helsinki Finland, signaling peeraps a new trend for Facebook and other social enterprises. If simplicity atop a massive demographic mean anything, Illme’s “digital cure” for the common cold is pure genius.

Of the seven early startups presenting at Slush, Matt Marshall of VentureBeat named Illme the best company presenting. A glowing assertion given the competition there and Matt’s reputation for picking winners. Illme is drop dead simple and potentially viral a

Firefox 3 and the WareBrowserNovember 30

Post from: Phil Butler Unplugged

Firefox 3 and the WareBrowser

It is about time for a rant over Firefox’s latest upgrade. After using FF 2 for some time, and growing to depend on it as many do, the latest version leaves alot to be desired in my view. 100 crashes and untold reboots later, finally I am about ready to switch to Flock, Safari or even . yes. IE. Switching browsers is a time consuming, mind numbing experience even for die hard Internet users, but “aggravation” is and always has been the number one cause for change on the Web.

Crash Without Actually Burning

Okay so what is the problem with a few crashes? Well, if it were just a few, then it would be no big deal. I know some will say; “You just have to visit the forums or the Mozilla this or that2, but beyond the cursory blocs and other safeguards, who the hell wants to redesign a browser every time they want to download or view something? The bottom line is - a browser is supposed to facilitate simple surfing and utilization of services - period. Crashing once at least per session is not the worst of it. having to reconfigure the browser and turn off every safety device and still be unable to download even the most prolific of tools is ludicrous.

Adobe Flash and

The Why, To, For and How of Online MusicNovember 14

Post from: Phil Butler Unplugged

The Why, To, For and How of Online Music

Like most other traditional business, the music industry is engaging customers via the Internet. Music, like all the other commodities, is also stumbling to a degree in its approaches to people in presentation, methodology, monetization and the use of technologies too. From iTunes to LastFm, people on the web are “engaged” or approached with a rather vast (if somewhat similar) array of interfaces designed to essentially allow a traditional media product to integrate into the digital realm. This is a great happening for music lovers. However, as proponents of “a new Web”, we must understand that all these sites are really only infantile attempts to produce a better musical mousetrap.

Popularity, as most of you know, is perhaps the biggest driving factor for online (or any other kind) success. Digg, TechCrunch, YouTube and even Google are far more viable because of popularity and branding than actual innovation. Enter the popularity equation for streaming and music dispersion. LastFm, and all the rest are in effect popular simple conduits for data. They loosely or directly push sales of tracks for any number of artists, middle men, companies and

The World’s Greatest Toys - LeapFrog The WebOctober 25

Post from: Phil Butler Unplugged

The World’s Greatest Toys - LeapFrog The Web

Of all the things we are drawn to on the Web, none is more important nor down-right cute than the stuff kids love. The Internet was and is the most revolutionary education and communication tool ever devised, but somehow the very people who should be engaged most - are often overlooked. It is about time for Web users and business developments to take better note of children’s needs. What could be more appropriate?

A company called LeapFrog not only produces some of the finest educational toys for kids, but is also reaching out to parents and kids from both ends of the PC/Internet perspective. The company has introduced a dedicated online portal called Learning Path*, from which kids and parents are introduced to the PC world via award winning innovations like Clickstart for the home and now LeapFrog Tag – a fantastic reading tool for early readers. LeapFrog can teach us alot about exactly how to use the digital realm in our daily lives for the greatest benefit, and how traditional

Gray Truths And The Inspiration Of Barack ObamaSeptember 8

Post from: Phil Butler Unplugged

Gray Truths And The Inspiration Of Barack Obama

I swore I would not write another post about the Presidential campaign after my last foray with the incredibly obtuse and “inspired” constituency of Obama over “Is this the best we have to offer?” Well, being a Web dweller to a large degree, not noticing something about Obama and having thoughts on the Web these days is all but impossible obviously. He has so inspired the digital world that soon TechCrunch will offer Obama action figures with the TC logo for only $19.95. So, in order to keep up the pace, here go some more observations.

The preacher of the Trinity United Church of Christ Obama has recently left had officiated at Obama’s wedding and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.

Popular Truth And Distance

What does it take for a person to abandon the place where their spiritual faith was fostered? A bigger question might be; “Why would anyone abandon truth in a quest for it?” I was doing some surfing into the Obama “show” out of an investigat