In this week’s episode of Fly or Die, we cover two big launches—Amazon Cloud Drive and Color—and a Quirky DIY pocketKnife called the Switch. Just yesterday, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive, which is a general storage service in the cloud which is being pushed as a media locker, starting with music. Amazon beat both Apple and Google to the punch with an online music locker. Anytime you buy an MP3 or album from Amazon, you can back it up in your Cloud Drive, from where it can be played no matter what computer you are on (unless it is an iPad or iPhone).
When you buy a digital song, there should always be a backup available to you. That’s just obvious, and Amazon just took an important first step in that direction. Is it the best online music service? No, there’s no radio, no sharing, only playlists you make yourself. It’s kind of boring, to be honest. But it is useful.
Color is the $41 million photo app nobody can figure out. Is it the future or is it a dud on arrival? Color actually works impressively as a social camera when more than one person is using it simultaneously in the same place. It taps into all the iPhone’s sensors to gather data about places and people in proximity to one another—conjuring images of that scene in Batman where he tracks signals from all the cell phones in the city to find the Joker.
The app creates more of an experience network than a social network of people experiencing the same things, and then creating visual connections between those people that must be reinforced over time. But the big problem is nobody knows what to do with it when they launch the app by themselves. CEO Bill Nguyen joins us as our special guest and explains how his team is going to “solve the loneliness problem.” We also talk about the funding, the backlash, whether Steve Jobs is an investor, and his thoughts on Amazon’s online music ambitions (his previous company was Lala, which he sold to Apple).
Finally, we take apart the Quirky Switch—literally. This DIY pocketknife, which my co-host John Biggs shows off in this video review, lets you assemble your own Swiss Army Knife, picking which tools you want. It sounds better than it actually is. Trust me.
Check out previous episodes of Fly or Die, and subscribe, on iTunes.
Color is advancing the post-PC revolution by inventing new applications that bring people together through proximity, social and visual presentation. Founded and led by a team of proven engineers and entrepreneurs, Color is located in Palo Alto, California. To learn more about Color please visit http://www.color.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), is a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet retail destinations worldwide. Amazon is one of the first companies to sell products deep into the long tail by housing them in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. Amazon directly sells or acts as a platform for the sale of a broad range of products. These include books, music, videos, consumer electronics, clothing and household products. The majority of Amazon’s...
Quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation - from ideation, design, naming, manufacturing, marketing, right on through to sales.
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