HTC One. (Supplied)
HTC needs a more creative marketing department. I understand the company wants to make it sound like its new phone, the HTC One, is the only you’ll ever need. But that philosophy doesn’t really work when it has already released a One X, a One S, the One X+ and so on. And, ultimately, in another year or so HTC will have another phone, it will want you to buy. It makes you wonder if the company can come up with different names.
With the price of Facebook shares dropping to about 50% of their issue price, Mark Zuckerberg and company is likely no longer the darling of Wall Street but regardless, people are certainly still willing not only to hear what he has to say, but also about what’s on his barbecue.
On Sunday, Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook account that he was updating his grilling app iGrill and that caused the servers at iDevices, makers of the gadget, to literally get smoked.
iGrill is a nifty little device with a probe attachment, compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, that allows you to monitor the temperature of what’s cooking on your barbecue. Its accompanying app allows you to monitor the iGrill thermometer from up to 200 feet away via long-range Bluetooth.
According to Chris Allen, CEO, iDevices, the company had quietly rolled out Facebook integration so that you could share with your friends and let them see what you’re grilling right now. They were not planning a major media blitz and figured that the new feature would slowly gain traction.
But of course, Zuckerberg changed all that. They had no idea what he had done nor did they realize that the impact would be so huge it would overload their servers and shut down their site for two hours.
“We were caught totally off guard by Mark Zuckerberg’s post and the immediate influx of traffic,” said Allen.
Allen realized that a quick add-on of servers and bandwidth was needed immediately. Interestingly enough, while excited about what had transpired, Allen quickly dispelled the rumor that iGrill or iDevices had received any actual investment from Zuckerberg, although he would of course welcome the opportunity to work with him. So there’s nothing cooking there yet.
Striking while the coals are still hot, for a limited time, iGrill is offering free domestic shipping (up to $12) when using the code ZUCK during the checkout from iGrillinc.com We still need to confirm this for Canada.
It’s also available online through the Apple Store in Canada for $79.95 CDN, with free shipping included, automatically. The free app can be downloaded from the iTunes Store.
photos courtesy: iDevices, Facebook
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Greg Gazin is the Real Canadian Gadget Guy.
Follow me on Twitter @gadgetgreg or Empire Avenue (e)GADGET1.
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It’s only been a month and a half since we reported here at Canoe Tech Blog about Facebook’s announcing its intentions to acquire Instagram for a hefty $1 billion. Instagram is a free mobile camera app that allows you to quickly select take, edit and share photos quickly and easily. At the time, they said that they would keep Instagram operating as a separate entity. So why is it that today they released their own branded app, Facebook Camera (for iOS devices) which could be viewed as a direct competitor?
The landscape of Facebook’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) continues to change with less than 2 days to go in one of the most anticipated public offerings we’ve probably seen in a long time. I can remember like it were yesterday; in fact it was yesterday, when I was perusing over the 200+ page Amendment No. 7 to Form S-1. This is the document that Facebook filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission which outlines the details of Facebook Inc.’s IPO (with amendments) and which saw the IPO price of the greatly sought after shares move up to $34 to $38 US per share from the initial $28 to $35 US per share.
“One Billion Dollars,” is the kind of thing you’d hear from the lips of Dr. Evil from an Austin Powers movie. But today for the folks over at Instagram, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sounds more like the Easter Bunny than an evil-doer on this holiday Monday, as he announced that Facebook will be buying Instagram for the tune of approximately that same amount – $1 billion. And that’s a lot of eggs.
