How to survive the next wave of extinction of technologies

Do not make fun of the owner of Nook cornered. It could have been you. Can you blame the poor souls who “bought” the vision of the future of Barnes & Noble, when five years ago this is the largest chain of bookstores began selling an e-book reader that promised to be better than the Kindle Amazon?

Things did not go too well since. After failing in an attempt to sink the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble has spent the last year to shift its strategy for the Nook, and with recent reductions of personnel involved in e-reader, the Nook to look close. If you own a Nook, the fate of their books may now be in jeopardy. I’m sorry, bet on the wrong horse.

The fate of the Nook is not unusual in these times. There have always been technologies that fell by the wayside, but technological extinctions may become even more common in the coming years. We are living in an exciting and mysterious time in the technology business, when all makes and models-established business from your Windows PC to the very idea of selling software and hardware-profits are suddenly questioned.

Today five monsters – Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft – to tide over a set of new companies are competing to win every dollar and minute that you spend on technology. While each of these companies offers different sets of technologies, sold under many different business models, they all share a common feature: hook looking deep into an ecosystem of interconnected technologies.

The problem arises when we convinced a technology ecosystem that fails. It is likely that at least one if not more of the technological monsters do not exist today within a decade. Hence the widespread concern when choosing this technology in uncertain times: How do you avoid betting on the wrong horse?

There is hope. Following a simple strategy can make the most of the digital world, while reducing the chances of burning with a wrong move. The issue is to minimize the danger of being trapped in the ecosystem of a single company. The strategy also ensures that you can easily move from one device to another without much problem.

The key is promiscuity. When deciding what to wear, has to rely on technology giant against each other like a technician: take the best resources of each firm and never compromise too much with any of it. This sounds difficult. It’s not. This is the game plan:

BUY APPLE HARDWARE

Phones, tablets and PC of Apple are the best design and best manufacturing market. They are also the easiest to learn and use and more durable. And if you treat them well have much higher resale value than rival devices.

I say this after having tried almost all competitors of Apple machines. Some phones and tablets that are not Apple are almost as cute as the iPhone and iPad (the Google Nexus line is pretty good) but found none that exceed and none use it to give much pleasure.

But the best of Apple hardware is that maximizes its ability to be promiscuous with the software. The Apple App Store has more programs than any other market applications. What’s more, new innovative firms often create applications for the Apple platform before dealing with Android. Since the software is the soul of the machine, the source of all the power of our devices give new solutions best for you is to have devices that can use the widest range of software.

It is a note for those who like to mess with the settings on mobile devices. Yes, Apple restricts how far it can get with deeper thereof. But if you would like to get there, no need to read a column to decide what to buy.

USE GOOGLE SERVICES

Our phone and tablets have the Apple logo, but almost everything we do with them passing through the servers of the companies of searches. It is the application of Google Gmail for email, Google Calendar in to manage its calendar, Google maps to tell you where to go, Chrome to surf the net and even the social network Google Plus, useless for anything other than keep copies of your photos. Throw its data to Google is a good idea for two reasons: First, the company is incredibly good at to handle, gives you access to virtually any device, anywhere in the world at any time. Their services almost never fall, its data is extremely accurate and except for the intrusion of the NSA, Google offers solid security, such as the two-factor authentication.

We also love the practical tips that Google will added as they know more than me (yes we know we sound like a prisoner of war singing the praises of my jailers, but true). E.g. its appeal Google Now, available as part of the implementation of Google search on the iPhone, can automatically predict what you will do next and show relevant information such as guidelines for traffic and boarding passes just when you need them. Even retouch your photos, making it pretty face even more beautiful.

A second: is not committing to Google to give all its stuff? No, and this is the best: unlike many of its rivals, Google lets you download your personal data from most of its services so that it can pass them to another supplier of services.

MEDIA SHOP AMAZON

In the U.S. this may not have any objection. If today looking to buy a film through its notebook with Windows, should you not get a copy that also runs tomorrow with your Android Tablet? If we buy a book to read on your iPad, make sure you also should not work with the Kindle you plan to buy for Christmas?

Different media providers offer different levels of interoperability, but the books, music and movies from Amazon is that you can play with more devices. You can see and read and hear in the media Amazon Apple devices, from Google, the Amazon Kindle line itself and many more, as the cheap devices for streaming TV. Instead of a book from the iBookstore Apple probably never work with an Android phone, because Apple does not really want you to buy an Android phone. So why bother to buy an iBook?

ODDS TO CONNECTORS

In our world of multiple devices, the Amazon store media functions as what we like to call a “connector”, makes a bridge with other alien technologies.

This leads to the most important principle for an uncertain future: invest your time and money on “connectors”. For example, keep all your important documents in the service stored in the Dropbox cloud, because their business model depends on functions everywhere. And so it does: documents created on any machine are reproduced in all their other machines instantly.

Similarly, when someone gives you a work card, you can take a picture with the application Evernote, which also functions as a “connector”, allowing you to access your scribbles machine no matter what happens next. And in a hazy future, who knows what that machine could be?