Surprising technology trends I noticed this month

Google gives up on Gizmo 5 phone service

You can go to the website Gizmo5 and read the announcement for yourself:

“As of April 3, 2011, Gizmo5 service will be discontinued.”

A few months ago, Google acquired Gizmo 5. It even brought the staff on board and made them part of Google. This even looked like a Skype competitor – now they’re dismantling it.

If you are like me, you can substitute Skype out and hook it up to a Google Voice via caller ID. There’s an article on how to do this at Set Google Voice as Your Skype Caller ID.

American Express opening card up to other banks

I remember going though some letters in the AWAI copywriting book of fame. One was from American Express and it ran for years. It make it seem like a privilege to join them.

Now they charged high fees for their card. There were also several flavors of this card, depending on how much you wanted to spend on annual fees. They even had their own bank.

Just this week, I got an announcement in the mail. It’s from the First National Bank of Omaha. They are offering an American Express card through their bank – with no annual fee.

But they also offer one with an annual $99 fee and a Discover card. You can find the cards listed at First National Bank of Omaha Credit Cards.

What happened to American Express and Discover Card having their own banks? Were they both affected by the economic climate or some settled lawsuits?

Walmart is now testing grocery delivery service

You can read more about it at Walmart launches home delivery. And there’s a few nice items I noticed on ABC news:

• Items cost the same as the store items. If I buy Great Value brand milk, I only pay the extra delivery charge.
• The delivery charge is $5 – $10
• There is no tipping of drivers.

I hope the tests go well, as I like shopping at Walmart.

What last week’s Copyblogger post about

It’s really about 2 things – business ethics and professional courtesy. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I was taking creative writing classes at the College of DuPage, I’ve indulged in other academic disciplines. These usually were in philosophy, software engineering and English literature.

I remember taking a class in business ethics. You learn there are certain ethical ways to run a business. It means treating people ethically.

They had several months to tell me what they didn’t like about my comments. They could have commented or sent me an email.   If you applied the same rules of professional courtesy to them – they complain.

To me their logic is very limiting.  If somebody writes about writing or copywriting…yet you must limit your commentary just  to what they write on…how can anybody benefit from additional audience insight?

Remember the Old Kung Fu TV western series? The hero always reflected on his Buddhist training and ethics. For me, it would be ethics taught by Christianity and Buddhism. It could also be ethics taught by Western or Eastern philosophy.

But there’s also parts where the hero reacts, if pushed too far. It usually met some Kung Fu moves.

Related Articles

• D.C. Courts Rolling Out Credit Card Pilot Program (legaltimes.typepad.com)
• Ars readers report credit card fraud, blame Sony (arstechnica.com)
• AmEx profit rises, but costs soar (theglobeandmail.com)
• 8 Reasons To Get an American Express Platinum Card (by 3/31) and Never Use It! (bradsdeals.com)
• Credit Card Cos: Who’s Doing What in Mobile Payments? (gigaom.com)