Here is some video hot off the presses from Andy Ihnatko from the brand new iPhone 3Gs. It looks better than I expected it would…

Sorry to all the pigeon lovers out there, but this video is mind-blowing…

A brand new book by Mike Thompson, called The Organizational Champion hits the shelves nationwide this Friday, June 5th.  Mike is the CEO of the company I work for, SVI. So, needless to say, we are all very excited about the release.

There is a lot going on online around the book as well.  We have a podcast, forums, a site called ChampEm.com where you can tell the world about your Champions and a lot more. Head over to www.organizationalchampions.com to check it all out and let me know what you think. I am part of the team who has worked diligently to put all of it together.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and yes you can run Ubuntu on a mac on a virtual machine for free with Sun’s VirtualBox. In fact, you can run just about any operating system you want to all within a window inside OSX.

Running a virtual machine is nothing new on Macs. Ever since Apple moved to Intel processors, virtualization came along for the ride. Virtualization means that you can run computer operating systems that are designed for Windows PC hardware on Macintosh.

There are two main players for creating virtual machines on Macs, Parallels and VMware Fusion. Both of those products are great, but they cost $70 each. If you are like me, and you have no real reason to run alternate operating systems, $70 is a lot to pay just to play around.

Last week, while I was listening to Twit.tv’s MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte talked about a program from Sun that allows you to create virtual machines for free. Sun’s VirtualBox is a full-featured machine virtualization solution. Creating a Linux virtual machine was extremely easy.

I downloaded VirtualBox and installed it on my computer. I downloaded the latest ISO file of Ubuntu and saved it on my desktop.

I opened VirtualBox and simply followed the instructions on the wizard that started when I first opened VirtualBox. I created a new virtual machine and then installed Ubuntu.

I was a little nervous doing it for the first time, but it didn’t take too much geekiness to get it all working. If you are somewhat good with computers, this should be no problem.

Right now, I am writing this blog post inside Linux on a virtual machine on my MacBook. It works.

I don’t really know what I will do with this other than simply play, but I was afraid that once I moved over to Apple computers full time, I would lose my chance to play with Linux. Now, that is no longer true.

The only problem I am having is I can’t make the screen any bigger than 800 x 600. That is a little confining, but I bet if I up my video RAM, that will be fixed.

Anyway, it is fun to geek it up every once in a while.

I am at an event called the Mind of Moms Summit in Northwest Arkansas. Rockfish Interactive and some other sponsoring partners have brought in some influential Moms that blog to talk to brand people. The idea is to share how social media can make or break brands and how to engage with shoppers around brands.

Other than the social media thing, I am not the target market, but it is extremely interesting. I love hearing about how companies are engaging in a conversation with their customers. This is so important because more and more we are going to find that conventional marketing will grow less and less effective.

I tweeted recently that “I don’t watch commercials. I pay no attention to online ads. I do care about what my friends love. (if they are sincere).” If brands don’t engage in conversation with their customers, customers will eventually begin to lose interest unless you have a truly remarkable product, and most products aren’t.

You need to go to search.twitter.com and search #mindofmoms to join in the conversation.

 

 Conversation with Wyatt: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is a conversation I had with my son tonight. We talked about girls, dinosaurs, spies, secret agents (apparently there is a difference), unibrows a much more.

We are so excited to introduce to the world our brand new kitten Sasha. She is just a couple of months old and she is black with green eyes. A few months ago we lost our first family cat Sophie Boy to old age and cancer. It was sad, but we are super happy again as a family again because of this new addition to our household.

There is a neat website called www.lovemarks.com. Everyone should check it out because it brings up a very interesting aspect to brands. There are some brands that transcend other brands in that they capture the heart of their customer. Some brands that immediately come to mind are Apple computers, Zappos – an online shoe seller, Guinness, Nike, Heinz ketchup, Jeep, Twitter (ironically), Wrangler jeans. Regardless how you might feel about these brands, there are people who not only swear by them but jump to their defense because these brands have moved on from simple recognition to personal identification. The people who love those brands are not only loyal, but they tend to define themselves around that brand. There is a connection there that goes way beyond the product.

Here are ways for Twitter to strengthen love for your brand

1. Engage in conversation
I think one of the best ways to make your brand move that direction is giving customers access and a platform to engage in the conversation surrounding that product. Taking part in the conversation helps customers to gain a sense of ownership in that brand. Strive to make your brand’s Twitter presence a conversation if possible.

2. Haters aren’t necessarily a bad thing
Don’t be afraid of haters, because that opens an organic opportunity for customers who love your brand to defend it which deepens their passion for the brand.

3. Engage your brand lovers
That one sounds a little racy, but what I mean is the people who have gone to the trouble of following your brands Twitter stream are extremely engaged. Give the exclusive offers which will further cement their loyalty. Being special in the eyes of a brand that I love only furthers my love of that brand, and if I can gain access to specials that others can’t makes me feel more engaged.

4. Be careful about stereotypes of Twitter users
Twitter is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Case in point, one Sunday I decided to see what the Twitterverse had to say about NASCAR. I wrongly assumed that the NASCAR fan and the Twitter user were mutually exclusive. I was wrong. There is a huge community that actively engages in conversation around NASCAR during races on Twitter. You may will be surprised by the diversity of the Twitterverse. Your brand has an audience on Twitter.

The bottom line is that Twitter is a powerful tool that can bring both great good and great harm to brands. Good = conversation. Bad = Twitterspam. Make sure to start and maintain good conversation.