There have been a lot of discussions about bad store practices of late in which Apple ends up consistently in the hot seat for overcharging for services that are provided by the application developer, not Apple … In contrast, Microsoft has announced it will charge if you use Microsoft’s more reasonable financial services but, if you choose to implement a store from inside your app, you can do that for free. Thus, with Microsoft, you pay for the service you get and, as is generally the case in the real world, if you do it yourself, you don’t have to pay a “tax” to anyone for that privilege.

Let’s talk about the difference between Microsoft and Apple’s market approach in the context of this, admittedly, rather obvious better approach to building revenue.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

Doesn’t IT own the policies around which technologies and systems get deployed? Not always. If your organization does, then this post may not be relevant to you. If your organization delegates authority to lines of business and business units for non-centralized IT, then you will want to read on.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Cisco had an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) event this week and one of their practices, focused on creating a 360 Ecosystem, is in sharp contrast to Dell’s Concept Luna in terms of approach. But the two approaches aren’t contradictory and could be layered to create an even more sustainable effort from both firms. Cisco is arguably the leader in ESG across the segment largely because they are, as a company, the most focused on making progress on a variety of fronts including homelessness and working with governments at scale to improve communications and governance strength.

Let’s explore that this week.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

The metaverse arms race is really picking up speed and new announcements are being made all the time. The most recent development is the coming together of two great tech worlds: the Metaverse and the cloud. That’s because of tech company Nvidia, which has led the switch to move its metaverse over to the cloud, where it can be more easily accessed. The question remains: will the rest of the metaverse do the same?

– TGDaily

Digital transformation isn’t a project. It isn’t just a concept either. Digital transformation is the foundational act of IT. All other activity stems from the ongoing shifts in technology, policy, and practice. This post offers 4 to-dos that don’t appear on most CIO to-do lists, at least not yet.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Want to show off with the coolest looking earbuds around? Read Serious Insights’ latest earbud review to see if the sound from these new GravaStar Sci-Fi-inspired earbuds lives up to their looks. 

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

AMD and Mercedes may be one of the most powerful and interesting technology racing partnerships currently in existence. AMD had a prior partnership with Ferrari, but it seemed to be more of a marketing relationship than an operational one. This time, the AMD relationship highlights one of the market advantages in terms of server performance, making it more powerful than the earlier effort. It showcases how these things both should and should not, be done.  

Let’s talk about AMD, F1 racing, and Ferrari this week.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

HP was once one of the leading innovators in high-end video conferencing and collaboration with its Halo video conferencing effort. It was the first to wed high resolution video conferencing to a service that could link two sites at opposite ends of the world in a seamless experience. However, it failed and was sold to Polycom. Polycom was acquired by Plantronics, which had also been developing market-leading sound solutions for video conferencing rooms. Now, HP has acquired the combined entity which had been renamed Poly.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

The landscape of docking stations has changed significantly over the last several years. USB-C docks now predominate for laptops and desktop computers. This post from Serious Insights offers guidance on what features to look for and how to choose a USB-C dock.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Comic-Cons return in 2022 with a vengeance. In 2021 some cons wandered into the tepid social waters of a Covid world with their few celebrity guests sequestered behind negative test paywalls for photos and autographs. The large stages were dark, and the cheering crowds murmured behind masks as they wandered the greatly diminished show floors.

But the biggest of cons returns full steam on July 21-24, 2022, after its abbreviated Thanksgiving 2021 outing. Comic-Con International in San Diego is back, and with it, the opportunity for tech professionals to learn from the event in ways they might not consider.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights