On today’s show we talk about the brand spankin’ new iTunes 11 from Apple with Alex Layne, Stacey Higginbotham explains why the “Internet of Things” is both cool and creepy, and Kevin Tofel talks about using his excess electricity to fuel his new Chevy Volt.

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Today’s episode of the Commutist is brought to you by TriNet – the cloud-based HR partner helping startups and small businesses manage payroll, benefits, and employer related risks.”

Hosted by: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00 – The new iTunes!

10:44 – The Internet of Things

22:47 – Kevin enter the Volt-age

31:34 – Parting gifts:

Kevin recommends the book Make: LEGO and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics

Erica Ogg loves tracking her sleep with the Sleep Cycle app

And after reading this piece on Slate, Chris seeks ideas for “wrapping” digital presents

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T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

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Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00:00 – 0:11:00 – Kevin Fitchard explains everything you need to know about a T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger

0:11:00 – 0:12:00 – Today’s episode is sponsored by the GigaOM RoadMap conference

0:12:00 – 0:25:00 – Stacey Higginbotham breaks down broadband caps, and how they could be capping innovation (and here’s her cap chart)

0:25:00 – 0:36:00 – Om Malik discusses why we just can’t let go of Steve Jobs, one year after his death

0:36:00 – 0:38:00 – Parting gifts

Erica likes the WiThings home blood pressure monitor

And Chris recommends aspiring writers listen to the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast

PREVIOUS EPISODES:
Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected consumer first-quarter 2013: Analysis and outlook
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• A look back at mobile in Q1

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iTunes

SHOW NOTES:
Host: Chris Albrecht

0:00:50 – 0:02:45 – A quick look back at different predictions and topics covered at previous Mobilize conferences.

0:02:45 – 0:04:39 – Size matters (with screens)

0:04:40 – 0:06:09 – Mobile-first world?

0:06:10 – 0:10:22 – Spectrum crisis! Fewer app requests! Sony games on mobile! The hazards of apps in cars!

0:10:23 – 0:12:46 – Mobile first vs. data first and interoperability.

0:12:47 – 0:14:58 – Apple’s influence.

0:14:59 – 0:16:12 – The Mobile 15.

0:16:13 – 0:18:20 – The role of the carriers.

0:18:21 – 0:21:29 – Voice: the invisible interface.

0:21:30 – 0:25:30 – Calling phone numbers vs. calling people: when talking sucks.

0:25:31 – 0:29:00 Mobile stuff you should know: mobile IVF, do not disturb across devices, MVNO.

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Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

Episode 2: The iPhone 5 Event

Episode 1: Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

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• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter

Dan Cerruti, VP Watson Commercialization, IBM
(c)2012 Pinar Ozger pinar@pinarozger.com

IBM’s Watson will team up with Memorial Sloan Kettering this fall and plans to launch in a handful of cancer care centers this year, but Dan Cerutti, IBM’s VP of Watson Commercialization, said today at GigaOM Structurethat Watson could be used in other fields too. Besides healthcare, it’s already working with the government and financial services industries.

“The opportunities are limitless,” Cerutti said told GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham. Watson’s cloud-based services can be layered on top of any application, but “you want to focus on important decisions where the information you have” is less than what’s available. “If a human being was able to read everything that was relevant and remember it,” Cerutti said, “would they make a better decision once in awhile? We think so. Watson can do that and sit at your side as an advisor.”

Does that mean patients will go in and see Watson instead of their doctor? No, “you’ll see your clinician,” Cerutti said. “Watson is behind the scenes and can present to the doc some options of what might be ailing you.”

Check out the rest of our Structure 2012 coverage, as well as the live stream, here.

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I’ve had this founders’ dilemma on the brain ever since I read last week’s Wall Street Journal feature on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO Seeks Help as Site Grows Up, following his company’s announcement, Mar. 4, that it had hired Googler Sheryl Sandberg as COO.

Facebook ‘s board obviously senses that the company needs more adult supervision, but the piece makes clear that Zuckerberg has no intention of giving up the top job yet. So I read with keenest interest this graph the WSJ piece:

Mr. Zuckerberg’s experience is emblematic of Silicon Valley’s accelerated culture, where startups change more in a few years than most companies do in decades — forcing CEO-founders to adapt quickly in order to survive in their roles. The founders of Google, Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc. all handed the reins to outsider CEOs within three years of founding their companies.

Is Zuckerberg adapting enough? I’m not so sure. Then yesterday I read GigaOM colleague Stacey Higginbotham’s column, Zuckerberg Isn’t About the Money, published from SXSW… where Zuckerberg was interviewed by Business Week’s Sarah Lacy.

Stacey wasn’t impressed. She writes that Zuckerberg’s oration, focused on the grand “Facebook vision” rather than more practical business topics such as features-development or monetization

…[demonstrated] the kind of starry-eyed idealism that is either patently untrue or shows how much Zuckerberg still needs to learn about running a company. I’m all for staying focused on your business rather than chasing every dollar, but at the end of the day a company whose CEO is focused on communicating a message rather than figuring out how to turn a profit is delusional. Sure, sometimes the Field-of-Dreams approach works, but sometimes it just ends up like Kozmo or Webvan.

I think Stacey is right, and I’m wondering:

* Is Zuckerberg wise to think he can be one of those very rare founder-CEOs, like Bill Gates, who can run his company from the corner office for its first 25 years? Stats show that most founders cannot do this — no matter how stellar their panel of advisors is — and unlike Zuckerberg, Gates had some very highly-qualified, and older equal partners at the helm of Microsoft from the start. Even if Paul Allen didn’t stay, his influence was important early on.

* How much time does 23-yr-old Zuckerberg really have to “learn” about how to be a CEO? (At the foot of investors like Roger McNamee!)

and…

* Would it have been wiser to give Sandberg the top job now?

Tell us what you think.

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