IBM & Apple Come Together

 

IBM and Apple announced this month their new partnership, a venture the two tech giants have been working together on for several months. In a joint statement, IBM and Apple stated their business enterprise partnership aims to “redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges, and spark true mobile-led business change”.

 

IBM chief executive Virginia Rometty and Apple CEO Tim Cook have their companies working on more than 100 business software programs for Apple’s iOS system, to be available this fall. The apps are being built to address specific industry needs, to turn iPads and smart phones into money-saving tools.

 

Taking the best of both IBM and Apple the partnership is complementary, seen as a huge win-win for both companies. IBM will encourage and advance the “bring your own device” to work movement, offering their employees as well as their business clients iPhones and iPads under an exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement. Other workplaces can expect to benefit as well from the collaboration, which hopes to change service industries to make them more effective and dependable.

 

To learn more about the “landmark agreement” and “applauded move”, visit here.

Dell’s 30th Anniversary: Reflecting Back in Time

 

We aren’t the only ones celebrating our 30th anniversary this year – Dell was also founded in 1984, though at the time the company was known as PC’s Limited.
Michael Dell, then 19, founded his computer company with only $1,000. After his freshman year at the University of Texas, Dell dropped out of college to run his new business full-time – turning that $1,000 into about $18 billion today.

 

Dell’s business model was to create low-cost computers, sell them through catalogs (and later, the internet), and allow people to pick and choose the hardware they wanted. In 1984, a decent PC could set you back about $3,000. When Dell launched their own brand of computers, they were priced starting at $795. A few years after the company started, Dell also offered their first laptop. Today, you can buy a touch-screen laptop like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000, including 4G of RAM, a 500G hard drive, Wi-Fi, multiple USB slots, and an HDMI slot all for about $350.

 

The company has come a long way in 30 years, much like MCG, Inc. To learn more about Michael Dell, and Dell’s 30th anniversary, visit here.

Top Secret Messaging:

The Wickr App

 

Wickr, a top secret encryption messaging app allows users to send and receive private messages, pictures, videos, audios and files. The app hopes to help users “escape the internet” by preserving privacy and security when using their services.

 

Nico Sell, co-founder and CEO of Wickr, keeps her own identity close to unknown and calls herself “properly paranoid”. Sell created Wickr to give her daughters, and others, a tool to communicate “safely, anonymously (and) with the capacity to control what information is retained on the other end”.

 

Sell and her app are part of an ambitious movement taking place in Silicon Valley, with the goal of changing how we live, share, and do business online. Sell wants Wickr to eventually replace Facebook and Skype – feeling that these and other companies are only violating the privacy of their users. Many others are joining Sell in her fight for ownership and control in the Internet space, with the hopes of transforming the marketplace. To learn more, visit here.