https://blogs.ubc.ca/vishalshangari/2012/11/19/google-apple/

I just read through Vishal’s blogpost about Google being stronger than Apple. He stated the fact that Apple has made a mistake on trying to develop its own map application. I think Apple should have waited until the app is mature enough to give accurate directions but I don’t think developing their own app is a bad idea. We all know for a fact that google has a very well-developed mapping system, but that doesn’t mean that Apple’s choice of developing their own application is useless.

I also don’t agree to his point saying that Google has dominated Apple. Although Although people may think that Apple is not doing quite well this year, I think a lot of people will still choose Apple over Google in terms of hardware.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/christopheryim/2012/11/19/canadians-love-their-cash/

Christopher talked about how Canadians are using more and more cash nowadays, according to the source, “The value of bank notes in circulation has been increasing at an annual rate of 5% since 2000”. I find this quite shocking as I don’t really see people using cash in Vancouver. I see people using debit and credit payment everywhere. As an international student, I found it amusing at first seeing people paying a cup of coffee with their debit. I had always thought that the circulation rate will decrease instead of increasing so steadily.

What interests me more is how Canadians will react now that the new bills are out. I personally like this so much better than the original ones and am more willing to use them as they feel cleaner and nicer. I am guessing the Canadians will use more cash now that the new bills are out. It’s also surprising how Canadians uses larger denomination notes as I would’ve thought that they would use $20 more than $100 bills. I really enjoyed reading this article as I think it’s quite mind-blowing.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57550804-93/twitter-takes-new-steps-to-be-even-more-like-instagram/

Twitter has recently added quite a few features for their users. However, a lot of them are obviously mimicking Instagram, the popular photo sharing app used on iPhones and Andriod phones. It has added the photo searching engine which made it possible for people to look up photos by hashtags. It also lets people that use smartphone to preview photos instead of making them press on the hyperlink of a tweet in order to look at the photo.

I think seeing the change of Twitter is very interesting. It was a really successful site until Instagram came along. In order for them to stay competitive, they have to improve the features and functions they offer to the users. I find it really fascinating to see how people’s preferences can change so fast as there are too many choices out there that they can choose from. Therefore, all the social networking sites have to change constantly in order to adapt to people’s preferences in order to stay competitive. It also reminds me of the cruelty of a society, either adapt and change accordingly, or wait until you’re eliminated, like what happened to myspace.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/tech/105999–ipad-mini-proves-steve-jobs-was-wrong

I think this is quite an interesting article to read about. Apple has recently launched their new product, iPad mini, which is 3″ smaller than the original iPad but it’s much lighter and more convenient. It is also $200 cheaper than the iPad and thus a lot of people bought the iPad mini by the fact that it’s a lot cheaper. However, it doesn’t have Retina display like the original iPad does.

The dilemma that Apple is facing now is now that the new iPad mini is out, why would people still get the original iPad which is cheaper, lighter and more convenient? Although the iPad mini does not have Retina Display yet, but we all know that the it’s very likely for Apple to add this feature in the next generation iPad minis. By that time, the majority of the market will prefer the minis to the original iPad.

Therefore, I’m really excited to see how will the market react to the next generation minis and what will apple do to the original iPads.

I just finished the comm 101 business plan part 2 project together with my group members. I have a feeling that the project will do well as we worked together as a team and we were able to solve all the problems we came across. Every group will eventually have fights about what should and should not be done, out group was not an exception. We’ve had our arguments but the good thing is that we are all willing to talk everything out.

Communication skills are really important when you’re in a business world as you will have to talk to different people. No one will ever have the exact same thoughts and this will be when your communication skills come handy, you will then be able to share thoughts and discuss ideas in a way where no one gets offended and thus deals will be made. Therefore I think comm 101 is a great course for us to start out business journey with as we are constantly bring exposed to cases and environment that we will be in four years later.

http://retirehappyblog.ca/our-best-financial-tips/

Jim and other bloggers from the retire happy blog posted some financial tips that will help people on planning their savings and ultimately their retirement. The points they gave were a little general but they’re really helpful if you actually put them into action. For example, I bet a lot of people know that keeping track of their own daily expenses will help them observe their spendings and find the leakages. However, not a lot of people can actually do that on a daily basis as they will keep forgetting that they have to make a journal. They also talked about focusing on the big picture for example, the retirement plan for a lot of working adults. People are so short-sighted nowadays they always forget their final goal of all the hard work. I also agree with that point made by Jim as he said “the best tip is the implemented tip”. I think that’s so true as we always make plans of what we are going to do but in the end we always make excuses not to do them and thus ruining our own plan. Therefore, I really liked this blogpost as it reminds me of something that I’ve forgotten along the way.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/51908–5-career-damaging-habits-you-must-stop-now

This article talks about some bad habits a lot of people do in office such as gossiping, ordering excessive supplies etc. I think this article is really helpful not only for people working, but everyone in general. For example, it suggested that people should not sigh when they’re working as it will make other people think that you are frustrated at what you are doing. This also applies to our daily lives, for example, if we see one of our group members sighing when we’re working on a project, we will instantly get a feeling that the person is not respecting us and not devoted to the work. I would recommend everyone to read this article. Although they may not seem like anything big, changing these habits will help you go further as you will become a friendlier and more cheerful person and people would want to work with you.

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2012/09/28/apple-chief-extremely-sorry-for-map-gaffe/

Apple has recently replaced the google map with their own map system with the iOS6 update but users have been complaining about the quality and the incompleteness of the app since it came out. Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a letter apologizing to all the angry customers. In my opinion, Apple has done a very stupid move and this might lead to a bad reputation. People might think that Apple has not put its customers in the first place, but it only focuses on competing with its competitors. This move has not only hit reputation, but it has had positive feedback for its own competitor. People started comparing two map systems and apparently, everyone preferred the Google map.

Every step a company make make have huge impact on its reputation. Thus, sufficient preparation and research is crucial for a company’s new product/ a product’s feature.

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2012/09/28/now-more-popular-than-twitter-instagram-takes-risk-and-deletes-feature/

^ an instagram photo taken by me 🙂

Instagram is a very popular mobile app launched on Apple App Store and Android market.   Recent data has shown that the number of instagram users had exceeded that of twitter users(mobile apps). The article suggested that this is because instagram is a ” mobile purebred”, meaning that it can only be used on smartphones unlike Twitter that can also be used on computers. Instagram has first gained its popularity mainly by identifying their opportunities and market. They can only be operated on mobile devices which narrows their target group and also made the app itself more focused.

Although instagram is very successful right now, it is planning to pull off one of its feature, “live filtering” out in the next update. This is definitely a huge risk instagram has to take and the effect is still unknown. As an instagram user myself, I have always loved how easy it is to upload a photo. I have never used the live filtering feature before and I think it is wise for them to pull out unnecessary features. This will be able to help them  maintain the simplicity of the app and attract more users.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9520451/McDonalds-facing-Hindu-protests-over-restaurants-near-holy-sites.html

McDonald’s have recently planned to open new restaurants in religious centers and pilgrimage sites in India hoping to expand their market. Although they are offering vegetarian choices for consumers, some Indians think that setting up McDonald’s near religious centers is very disrespectful to their people and religion. As cows are sacred in India and McDonald’s is accountable for slaughtering millions of cows every year, they think having McDonald’s near the sites is a humiliation. The main ethical issue in the article is that McDonald’s is considered unclean even though they are providing a vegetarian menu to accommodate the needs of Indians. People feel that having McDonald’s too close to their temples will befoul them. Since Indians are very religious, there are protests against McDonald’s recently trying to stop it from opening new branches close to their religious sites. Although opening new restaurants in their pilgrimage sites are not illegal, it’s considered unethical because it has offended not only the people but also their religion. In my opinion, McDonald’s should definitely slow down the expansion as it will not only create a bad image to Indians which will lead to protests and activities against McDonald’s, it may also create a bad reputation round the world.