Rockfish Blog

Adobe Flex Cook-off

Posted by Justin Bryant on Monday, November 10, 2008 in Emerging Technology

The only thing better than working with cutting edge technology is being recognized by your peers for those efforts. A few days ago one of Rockfish’s very own was recognized for his contributions to the Flex community. Nathan Daniel took the grand prize in the O’Reilly\Adobe Flex cook-off for his “pagination control”. You can read the full story here or see his flex control in action at genofish.com

 

Kenshoo Automates SEM

Posted by Mallory Smith on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 in Emerging Technology
At some point, we have all thought to ourselves, “if I want it done right I am just going to have to do it myself.” While this isn’t always the best leadership philosophy to live by, it does get the work done, and that is the bottom line, right? Well in some cases, like search engine marketing, just getting the work done isn’t always enough – it is a process that takes careful consideration and copious amounts of time, a resource that seems all to hard to come by these days.

This is why Sequoia Capital just invested in Kenshoo, an Israeli startup that automates the entire process of SEM. Hopefully launching in the US in 2008, the company competes with bidding software, and it is thought that its success managing many other successful campaigns will translate into winning campaigns for others.

So am I scared that this will eventually replace my position managing pay-per-click accounts. Well, maybe – just a little, but we will have to see what comes from this innovation. Until then, I don’t think there is any substitute for a well-managed campaign…by a human.

 

A TV as Thin as a Dime

Posted by John Scott Bull on Monday, October 01, 2007 in Emerging Technology

Sony announced the release of the first production OLED television, the XEL-1, today. 

In case you are not familiar with the term OLED, it stands for Organic Light Emitting Diodes.  I’m sure you have played around with LED keychain lights and other gadgets.  This is a similar technology, but an OLED uses organic electroluminescent materials that naturally emit different colors of light. 


If you are not a technophile, you may not understand the true significance of this launch, but it is the next big step for several reasons:

  • OLEDs organically emit light naturally, so there is no need for a backlight on the display.  This has two advantages.  First, they can be incredibly thin.  Second, the natural light saves somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% of the energy versus a traditional LCD.   When OLEDs transition to laptops, you can expect 30-50% better battery life. 
  • LCDs have a bad habit of showing a blur or ghost images during fast moving scenes.  The XEL-1 can render video up to 1,000 times faster than an LCD.  This equals no more blur.
  • Contrast is a major issue with current LCD and Plasma displays.  They usually reach around 3,000:1 and seem to fight for every additional multiple.  The XEL-1 boasts a contrast of 1,000,000:1!  It is not even a competition.

So what are the disadvantages? 

  • Well, it’s not exactly a big screen at only 11”.  However, the breakthrough is that it is only .12 inches (3mm) thick.  As technology progresses, they will get larger and probably even thinner. 
  • OLEDs would have been released by now, but the life span has not been up to par.  With the XEL-1, Sony estimates the screen will last 30,000 hours, or about 13 years for the average user.  Not sure about you, but I am not planning on having the same TV in 13 years, so this is not much of a drawback for me.
  • Finally, PRICE.  The cost is about $1,750 USD.  Since you can get a 42” HDTV Plasma for that, it seems extremely high for an 11” screen.  Remember, we are talking OLED here.  Early adopters do what early adopters do and that is buy early with less sensitivity to price.

Well, if you are one of those early adopters and are ready to plop down a couple grand for the latest and greatest, your only option is to wait for the December 1st Japanese release and have one shipped over the Pacific. 

You can find the Sony XEL-1 Japanese website here.

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