Ryan's Blog

Data representation has been fairly direct and simple over the last decade, but a new form of data representation is on the rise. Infographics can turn those boring data spreadsheets and statistics into creative and appealing displays that catch the attention of the reader and make it more memorable and unique. The cost of the most basic uses of websites to make Infographics are currently free and can provide you with graphics to display data in a never before seen way. Popular free websites such as Visual.ly have provided users an insight into this fascinating advancement in information display. This can be strongly related to the class discussing MIS and BTM. It shows a strong shift in IT and signifies that companies may soon need to start following this trend before their outdated representations of data result in other companies being able to take over because they’re more responsive and adaptive. If the companies are able to experiment with this new technology before it matures, it may provide them with a competitive advantage of uniqueness in the rapidly changing world of technology. All in all, this new innovation opens up a more artistic approach in data representation.

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When searching for a business blog, I found The Business Blog and a post about investing in the online world. With the widespread usage of the internet, it is not surprising to find businesses and firms emerging onto the web. With this strategy, these companies are able to expand and create a larger market, hence reaching more customers. Financial service providers are increasingly making online investing possible. However, as we know, online crimes like hacking, and frauds also come hand in hand with the internet. Personally, online investments would not be much different from online banking , to keep in mind that more and more people are now enjoying the flexibility and security of online banking. What stands out, not to mention the greatest challenge with online investing would be the process of finding a reputable and safe firm that would be able to satisfy the investor. There are a wide variety of options, and it takes research or advising to find out which one is right for you. In my opinion, once this process is finished, the benefits of online investment would come into place. The flexibility of checking up on your investments online saves time and can keep you more updated, helping you control your investments easily. For investment firms however, it is a win-win situation because their timeliness with the investments allows them to save cots for investment services. Instead, they are able to update investors using the internet.

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Stumbling upon Andrea Banzon’s Blog, I came across a post about Frozen Yogurt and to my surprise, it is one of my favourite treats so I just had to re-post about it. The post mentions Qoola, a local based frozen yogurt company that has started small but has been rising in popularity in the recent years. Their expansion into Burnaby and Richmond as well as the Philippines have caught consumers attention all over (Qoola, 2012). Why? Because of how healthy it is compared to it’s alternatives like ice cream or other fattening desserts (Banzon 2012). I find this is a smart move by Qoola because of their brand positioning and how they have settled into their own niche of healthy products. Not only have they identified their products as nutritious, their competitive advantage of customization with additional toppings makes them unique and stand out from other frozen yogurt sellers in the local neighbourhood. You may wonder how I know so much about the company, and it is because I had a friend that has worked at Qoola and with freebies of yogurt given to me, I had got sucked into the frozen yogurt trend. I found their subtle techniques highly effective which evidently had me bringing my loved ones to Qoola frequently to enjoy their tasty wholesome delights.

Qoola!

Reading on Andrew Huang’s Blog, I came across an interesting post regarding the value of gold over the century and the impact it has on the economy of a nation. Gold has always been a symbol of wealth and luxury and its increasing popularity and price have made the emphasis to that symbol even greater. I was quite astonished to find out that the price of Gold was only $100 an ounce in the 1970s (Huang, 2012) and that the price of it had risen 30 times greater to the value of $3000 an ounce in the present day (Huang, 2012). Like Andrew, the lecture on the Time Value of Money had immediately refreshed itself in my mind. The ever constant rise in price of gold would mean that purchasing amounts of it would be a good investment for the future if you were to resell it because buyers just melt the gold and reuse it anyways. One question I wonder about this post is how the prices of gold fluctuate and rise. Linking to economics, I feel it is definitely about the supply and the demand of gold. Since gold is relatively inelastic and has few alternatives, I believe that this is a factor in the ever rising price of it.

Andrew’s Post on Gold Here!

The revealing of Apple’s new operating software iOS 6 was announced along with their prestigious iPhone 5. The new maps feature was something that many users had been anticipating due to its unique features and had been labelled “the most powerful mapping service” (Apple 2012). Unfortunately, shortly after release of iOS 6, many users had discovered that the maps had not functioned as well as Google Maps, the predecessor on iOS 5. There were many incomplete portions and inaccurate locating information which filled the public with anger. Apples present CEO Tim Cook had to make an apology to the situation and this is surprising because Apple does not usually need to make many apologies. Along with the apology, Apple had changed it’s claim of an all powerful map app back to “a beautiful vector-based interface” (Apple 2012). With Samsung’s competitive smartphone market, the question is: Did Apple purposely exaggerate it’s premature mapping capabilities to raise sales for the new iPhone 5? It would be an unethical business practice by Apple to do so. Personally, I believe with the company’s reputation on the market, it would be an unwise thing to do. Through research, it has been stated by Cook that the maps was released simply because and end agreement with Google was not possible and therefore Apple decided to take on mapping itself. As this is what Tim Cook has stated, this is the truth that Apple wants to let its users know. Hopefully, Apple will release a permanent solution to this temporary problem.

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Apple Maps

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