To much of the geek-sphere, the iPad is somewhat of a disappointment. It's underwhelming - there's nothing all that surprising in there, no "oh, and one more thing" to throw some real techno-magick spices into the pot. We saw it coming from a hundred miles away, so now that it's finally here, there isn't much surprise left. (read on...)

A few hours ago, Wakemate made an announcement that the shipping for their product would be delayed (it was supposed to be shipping by the end of January 2010). To sweeten the bad news, they thought it wise to add that people who had pre-ordered the product would get some free access to previously unannounced premium features. Perhaps surprisingly for the Wakemate team, the reaction to this has been very negative. (read on...)

Everyone is talking about the "real-time web". That's usually a pretty strong indication of a buzzword that will soon not mean much at all. In fact, some will argue that it already doesn't mean much. And yet, as Paul Graham's web 2.0 article showed, it is possible to extract value even out of apparently meaningless buzzwords. (read on...)

There are countless pundits and other tech gurus putting down Google Wave as a disappointment, lately. Most of the disappointment seems to come from the fact that nobody seems to get what Wave is for. So they compare it to social media. Is Wave the next Twitter? Nope. Is it the next Facebook? Nope. Is it going to replace Instant Messengers? Possibly, in some circumstances, but not any time soon. I believe this is partly Google's fault: they released Wave to geeks and hackers and social media folks first. But Wave is not a geek/hacker tool, or a social media tool, it's a corporate tool that solves work problems (more on that later). On the other hand, they never claimed it would be a Facebook replacement or a Twitter killer. Google calls wave an "online tool for real-time communication and collaboration". The way Google should have advertised Wave is: "it solves the problems with email". (read on...)

There is a debate raging, lately, about whether or not Facebook should block holocaust-denial groups from using its platform. Surprisingly, Facebook, both as a company and as a collection of individual employees with their own opinion, have taken the courageous position that free speech should be respected on Facebook, whether or not they approve of it. (read on...)

Eric von Hippel's concept of early adopters versus lead users is well established. How does it work in practice, though? And why is it so hard to cross that famous chasm? Let's have a look at how this process can unfold, looking at a real life example. (read on...)

Everyone wants their application to 'spread virally'. And why shouldn't they? Viral growth resolves at least part of the expensive and complicated headache of actually marketing your application, by getting the application to grow all by itself. So, then, the question that forms on the lips of any entrepreneur is: How can I make my application viral? (read on...)

Yesterday, I went to my first "proper" start-up conference. As many of my readers know, I am no stranger to the start-up scene... I run a start-up myself (Woobius, a cool collaboration tool for architects and engineers, that helps them save money and speed up the design process), I've written numerous articles about various aspects of both technology and running a start-up (here and in other places), and I'm very active on Hacker News (the start-up news community/hub par excellence). But until yesterday, I'd not been to one of those famed start-up conferences... not FOWA, no SXSW, not TechCrunch 50, not any of them. (read on...)

In large corporations, almost everything new is impossible. Try to do anything new, and typically you are met with dozens of reasons why it can't be done. As a consultant (which I was throughout my time in the corporate world), however, you've been hired to get something specific done, so you don't get to echo the "it can't be done" line back to your client. Your job is, effectively, to do the impossible. (read on...)

Getting a merchant account is a necessary step before you can take credit and debit card payments. That's essential for the vast majority of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-ups, and for many other kinds of business too. Unless you'll be making all your money from advertising, you'll need to be able to take payments.

Considering how many businesses there are out there, one would think this process might be smooth and painless by now. Just apply for a merchant account, sign the dotted line, and receive your merchant id in the mail a couple of weeks later. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Obtaining a merchant account is a potentially long and complex process, particularly if you're a new, small business that's going through this process for the first time. (read on...)