Amazon’s new tablet is much less kindle and a whole lot more fire. The recent announcement of the “Kindle Fire”, is proof that they’re finally ready to break out of the e-reader game and step into the ring with the big boys from Cupertino.

Amazon has been building up the needed infrastructure, from the kindle store to their cloud player, and more recently their video streaming service, to create a content rich experience that consumers have come to expect on a tablet. In fact, they’re counting so much on the profitability of that content that they’re losing almost $10 for each device that they sell. A big risk, considering they’re practically giving them away at an industry low, $199.

The hope is that each user will purchase well over $10 in media. With enough volume, this can be very profitable however, history has also shown it to be more difficult than expected.

At launch in 2006, the Sony Playstation 3 was losing over $200 for each unit that they sold and have only recently begun to turn a profit on the device. The major difference is that the PS3 was still so expensive at $599, that volume was too low and too few consumers were buying games and accessories.

The Kindle Fire’s low price point should get them the large amount of customers that they need to make this model work. At the very least they’re about to steal a solid chunk of market share from Apple. This is Amazon’s big step out of the browser and into your hands, what do you think, is it a step in the right direction?

- Philippe Gagnon

Philippe Gagnon is the founder and writer for Craft Beer Culture. Currently residing in Orange County California, you can find him at the local brewery drinking craft beer or online through Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Using the proper work-flow can save a serious amount of time. These apps help me sync all of my devices and maximize my working hours:

• Dropbox (2 GB Free)
  • Remember the floppy drive? Yeah, we barely do either and we’ll probably be saying the same thing about thumb drives in a few years because of Dropbox. Cloud storage is one of the most useful and time saving applications in the cloud, period. It makes it as easy as saving it in the Dropbox folder to share files between all of your devices. It’s also possible to create shared folders that can be edited by anyone. I used this a lot when making music with producers across the country. It allowed us both to work on the same project without sending files back and forth. That’s revolutionary.
• Wunderlist (Free)
  • Wunderlist is a relatively no frills to-do list application that does exactly what you want from it. Add an item on your phone, it syncs to your computer and vice-versa. Best of all, it’s available on virtually every device (from iPad to Linux) and works flawlessly.
• Evernote (Free/Premium: $5/month or $45/year)
  • If you’ve noticed a trend by now it’s that everything on the cloud syncs. Evernote is no exception and it’s essentially the last notebook you’ll ever need. It has some great features including the ability to “clip” websites and articles straight from your browser into Evernote. Folders and notes are also shareable making collaborations a breeze. Evernote’s uses are limitless, check out their blog for more ideas.
• Google Docs / Gmail / Music (Free)
  • Pretty much everything Google offers lives in the cloud. This makes it possible to access six years of Gmail history without dumping gigs of data on a phone or computer. The newest member of their cloud family is Google Music Beta. With one quick install it uploads all of your music, up to 20,000 songs, to their servers and makes it accessible for streaming on the web or on an android phone. It’s currently only available by invite but you can request one from them on the homepage.
• Backblaze ($5/month)
  • Remote cloud backup isn’t the most exciting but when your hard drive comes to a screeching halt, it’ll be your saving grace. At only $5 a month, you can sleep easy knowing that your projects are safe and secure.

These are just a few of the apps that I use in the cloud. What are your favorite cloud applications and how do you use them?

- Philippe Gagnon

Philippe Gagnon is the founder and writer for Craft Beer Culture. Currently residing in Orange County California, you can find him at the local brewery drinking craft beer or online through Facebook and Twitter.

Stacked, a new restaurant in San Diego, incorporates iPads into the meal experience. - Justin Bridle

People all seem to have the same nightmare at one point or another when grabbing a bite to eat, whether it be in a five-star restaurant, a casual cafe or a swank little happy hour spot. You sit there for upwards of ten minutes before the server even comes to the table. Your server forgets your water, or your beer, or your side of bleu cheese or what have you. Your order gets lost in translation between you, the computer and the kitchen, and it takes forever to get to your table. Your meat isn’t the right temperature. You skip dessert because all you want to do now is get out of there, but the check takes ten minutes. You slip your card in right away but another ten minutes goes by before it’s picked up. You feel betrayed by your server, so you leave a lousy tip and leave with a lousy taste in your mouth.

So where does this madness end? How do we eliminate all this red tape in our dining experience? How can we take back control of our destiny? Enter: Stacked, a progressive new restaurant at Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. Their solution? The mighty iPad.

Upon entering Stacked during a rush, you can put your name in with the host and view your position on the wait list up on a large computer screen, much like arrivals and departures at the airport. That said, it most likely won’t be an issue since dining time is so varied. Upon seating, all you have to do is swipe your card into your table’s iPad, select your drinks and hit Send To Kitchen, and they’re on the way automatically. Your server comes over with your drinks to say hello and explain the system to you. Should you have any additional questions at any point during your dining experience, there is a little Help button on the bottom corner of your screen.

“It takes all the awkwardness out of serving,” says my server, Brilan. “The iPad anticipate people’s needs so well that it lets me enjoy conversation more with my tables and focus on recommendations.”

Stacked has a pretty simple menu; you can choose from an array of signature burgers, salads, pizzas, sausages and ice creamy desserts, but you can also “Stack Your Own.” This is where it gets fun. Customers can choose what type of bun they would like (brioche, pretzel, gluten free, just to name a few), the sort of patty they would prefer (salmon, turkey, angus beef, pulled pork, etc.), their choice of lettuce, cheese, toppings (fried egg, chili and homemade potato chips are among them), sauces and condiments. Every labeled photo modification is dragged across the screen using your finger. The mods and toppings fit together in attractive designs of juxtaposed shapes and colors. Want something on the side? No problem, there’s a special column to drag your sides to as well. Getting a pizza but want different things on your respective halves? Just hit the Split button. While you’ll have to agree on the same crust and sauce, anything else goes. Once you’ve put your personal concoction together, just hit Add To Order, then when everyone’s ready, hit Send To Kitchen. If you second guess your order, just hit Cancel.

When you’re finished, there’s no need to flag down your server and ask for the check, because you already have it on your iPad; just hit the Checkout button to view your total. You can split your check as many ways as you wish, itemized or by dollar amount, and tip using either dollar amount or percentage. And get this: you can choose to forgo a receipt, have it printed up for you, or just email it to yourself.

When a busser comes to clear a table at Stacked, they swipe their card, making the iPad screen go black. This shows the hosts that this table is being cleared. Wow.

“The guys from the Apple Store come in all the time because they’re already so well-versed in the technology and they’ve got only a half hour to grab lunch,” Brilan says. “So they get in, eat real quick and get out well within their alloted time.”

Brilan also points out the Member button, which you can enter your email into and save your previous meals at Stacked, so the next time you come in, you can just log in and it’ll remind you what you enjoyed last time. Stacked also plans to link their program up with Facebook, so that you can Like something you’re especially impressed with, and then your friends can view what you had and try it out as well. Oh, the possibilities of Food Networking…

Is this the wave of the future for the restaurant industry? It could very well be. Incorporating this type of technology lights a fire under the ass of efficiency itself, eliminating waiting across the board and literally putting all the control in the customer’s hands. Next thing you know, they’ll have Angry Birds built in for the customers to play while they wait. But, with that said, there is still something to be said for quickly choosing what you’d like to eat and letting someone take care of everything else; whether that’s done well depends entirely upon the server.

- Jennifer Karnan

Patrick Dillon and Jimmy Hendricks of Deal Current

Local San Diego tech start-up ‘Deal Current’ was one of the first full-service, white label, daily deal software vendors in the world.  The success of the software has grown the company’s revenue by over 1,000% since 2008, and if you’re looking for a cool, hip, energized place to work, they’re hiring. Not too shabby for a couple of highly driven young men who ran their HQ out of a shared apartment in North Park just five years ago.

“Daily deal” companies such as Groupon, Living Social, Buywithme, and CrowdCrave are all the rage right now, but at the forefront of the social commerce market, are two local tech gurus that offer million dollar solutions, at a fraction of the cost. In a recent interview at their Little Italy offices, James Hendricks the CEO and Co-founder said, “What separates us from other daily deal companies is the fact that we have an amazing support team. It’s our service, and our training tools that make us unique. We provide, for a marginal fraction of the revenue generated by a deal site, complete service solutions for constantly evolving space. We  train our clients how to use our tools effectively. If a smaller to mid-size company were to hire their own staff to provide all of these services, it would be cost prohibitive”.

The software itself is ‘white label’ meaning, for all intents and purposes that it’s blank, and can be ‘skinned’, or dressed with, the logo’s and graphics of the company that purchases it.The software allows a company or organization to market their brand to the public with daily deals and much, much more.

Deal Current offers a robust suite of social commerce solutions and unparalleled sales force training tools as well. The training tools include digital videos that teach clients how to sell daily deals to merchants, how to market their website, and how to attract affiliates. Hendricks describes the marketing software platform  as a ‘toolbox’ for virtually any type of web-based business that wants to increase site traffic and grow their business. “The small businesses that make it are the ones that are marketed properly and profitably. If you can do that you’ll likely be a success, but how many times have you been to a great little restaurant, that’s completely empty? It’s all about how you market yourself.”

President and co-founder Patrick Dillon offers a ‘big-picture’ version of his sales and marketing  perspective, “When the internet started, it was all about getting the information out there but there was too much out there.  Then social media came along and changed everything. Now purchasing trends are based on the social influences of one’s peers. Social commerce is where the money is going to be made now.” And that’s exactly how Deal Current works. It taps into social media trends for results that are trackable, increase site traffic, and combines member acquisition and loyalty programs.

Contact Deal Current to see how your business can capitalize on social media  and tap into the social commerce market.

The SXSW PanelPicker 2012 public voting is now open. We’re excited to announce that our own Melani Gordon (@melgordon or @taphunter) was asked to be on an interactive panel. Here’s a small excerpt:

Since the end of prohibition, the craft beer industry has been impacted by a limiting distribution system. This system has made it challenging for fans of craft beer to get their favorite brews depending on the region they live in.  Laws have remained unchanged, shipping via the mail is almost impossible (and illegal), but the demand for craft beer is growing exponentially. How can mobile applications, location based services and social networks disrupt this “old boy” system to improve it?

We’d be speaking alongside some social media icons, including our pals Untappd and Great Divide Brewery. If you’ve got a few extra minutes, throw us a vote! Public voting counts for 30% of the overall decision.

At lunchtime August 9, 2011, Apple was trading at  $367 per share, giving the company a valuation of more than $341 billion, briefly surpassing what Exxon Mobil was worth at that time. The independent valuations of the two companies have since been leapfrogging one another in a  hectic week on Wall Street.

Which company will be holding the golden ring at the end on Wall Street remains to be seen, but the eventual outcome seems inevitable.  According to Reuters,  Apple has seen 80 percent annual growth in sales amid slipping oil prices and a U.S. environmental plan that is focused on reducing the use of fossil fuels and dependence on foreign oil resources dramatically over the next 20 years.  Apple has been gaining ground fast on Exxon Mobil since reporting record iPhone and iPad sales over the last two months. At that time, Apple was worth just $4 billion less than the oil giant. When Apple passed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable technology company 15 months ago, it represented a valuation of $222 billion. According to tech columnist Robert Cyran however, that is not an accurate valuation. “If you put Apple on the same PE (projected earnings) multiple it traded on in 2006, it would be worth almost $900 billion.” Additionally, Apple sells more per quarter than it did in the entire fiscal year of 2007. Could this mean an Apple worth $1 trillion some day? With the emerging Apple  technology leaning toward the expansive growth in areas like social media marketing and mobile device applications, it certainly seems possible.

According to eMarketer data compiled in January 2011, the U.S. virtual goods market is expected to generate $653 million in revenue this year, up 28% from 2010.  Virtual goods, in case you’re not a shut-in, are digital representations of goods for which one pays actual, real money. An example would be a digital sweater for your avatars girlfriend in an online virtual community. …$653 million. Or, a powerful, digital sword or weapon upgrade for  your character in a virtual game online…did I mention $653 million? This ‘fake-goods-for-real-money’ market has spawned a moniker for games known as “Freemiums”, or, free online gaming communities, with premium upgrades available for everything from nicer houses to luxury cars and digital bling. The upgrades of course, cost real money. $653 MILLION.  The popularity of social gaming and social network marketing has catalyzed tremendous growth in virtual goods monetization. Game developers, virtual worlds and social network providers are driving this economy, which is projected to grow substantially in the next several years.   Keep your eyes open for the virtual sweatshops.

• $792 million projected earnings in 2012
• Virtual goods totaled  $7.3 billion worldwide in 2010
• Between 2007-2010, 70% of all Virtual Goods were sold in Asia.
• In 2010, Swedish gaming company Mindark sold a virtual space station for $330,000 USD…… Sucker!

- A.R. Templeton

gWAVE Consulting has created an explosive online campaign for the Breast Cancer Site’s Facebook page that  has sentfans streaming into their online store.

According to Rian Cool of the Breast Cancer Site, “Tens of thousands of users of the ‘Pink Points’ application have been visiting our online store via the app designed for us by gWAVE. The Breast Cancer Site developed a Facebook page in 2003, but felt they lacked an easy, creative, fun way for their existing members to spread awareness and bolster donations as well as invite friends to their online store. Over the last year the team at gWAVE Consulting designed an attractive, simple application for the site’s Facebook page that allows friends of the site to accomplish all three goals, and then some.

The application benefits the Breast Cancer Foundation by helping to fund research for mammograms explained Cool, who added, “We now have almost 15,000 new monthly active users (MAU) that become unique visitors from the app, and most importantly our number of Facebook fans has increased dramatically. That translates into awareness, donations for research and ultimately, saving lives”.

gWAVE Consulting Founder Melani Gordon said, “We were honored to join the Breast Cancer Site and their cause, what they do is so very important. We wanted to cultivate more meaningful interactions between prospective contributors on Facebook and keep it fun. We immediately recognized that when it comes to social media, people who care have friends who care, too. So we designed a way for friends to share their interest, passion, and activism with one another on Facebook in a fun, personal way”.

The genius of the application is in it’s simplicity of design as well as strategic logic; it makes more sense to recruit an existing donor to forward an application to 300 friends who likely share the same interests and sense of philanthropy, than to invite 300,000 randomly selected recipients to ‘like’ an application via a rented email list. The ‘Pink Points’ campaign is highly personal, innovative, and allows varying levels of participation from the click of a button which generates a free contribution, to browsing the Breast Cancer Site online store.

The viral nature of the application has performed exactly as  anticipated with thousands ‘liking’ the app since it went live in May 2011. gWAVE Consulting is at the cutting edge of  social media market trends and the ‘Pink Points’ application is a perfect example of how social media is the smartest, fastest growing way to reach specific consumer groups. According to Paul Lungu, President of Interactive Business Solutions, “Click-for-a-cause marketing is a perfect utilization of social media  which is now the best way to  bulls-eye specific consumer demographics, and gWAVE has hit it dead center for the Breast Cancer Site with this app. It’s a case study in market deconstruction. Well done”.

About Breast Cancer Site: The Breast Cancer Site is proud to be partnered with the nonprofit National Breast Cancer Foundation in its mission to save lives by increasing awareness of breast cancer through education, and providing mammograms for those in need. The site is dedicated to providing innovative and varied ways for contributors to join the fight against  breast cancer. The BreastCancerSite.com is part of the Greater Good Network which has donated nearly 20 million dollars to non-profit charities around the world since 1999. Grants are currently distributed through greatergood.org, and independent 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

thebreastcancersite.com