Now she’s not the most graceful walker and she’s still learning. She prefers to have something close to balance on, but she’s also not afraid to let go and really try walking without any help. Seeing a child attempt to walk is both hilarious and moving. Most importantly, it’s a inspiring.

Despite frequently falling, she always gets back up. No help, she wants to walk by herself. She’s determined to get from one side of the room to the other, all by herself. It truely is a blessing to watch how persistent she is.

This isn’t a new or ground breaking. In the social space, there’s been a recent conversation about needing to fail before you succeed. For the most part, to me, that’s all it’s been – chatter. It’s been words and a pep talk. But to see that inspiration right in front of your eyes, it really changes your perspective on the concept.

I wish we didn’t lose the fear of failure. We need more people who show determination and are continually getting back up despite falling down.

Size

The first thing that obviously came to mind was the size difference. The Droid X features a significantly larger screen than both the original Droid and the Droid Incredible. I found the 4.3 inch screen slightly bigger than it probably needs to be; however, when placed in my pocket, it felt a lot more comfortable than my smaller Droid. Additionally, as you can see from the picture below, the Droid X is quite slim (dimensions are: 2.6  x 5.0  x 0.4  inches). It took 5-10 minutes for me to get used to the size difference, and after that, I was wishing my original Droid was slimmer. As I mentioned above, despite the screen being a tad too big, overall, the new dimensions of the Droid X are a great update in my book.

Camera/Video

While the Droid X features an 8.0 megapixel camera, to be honest, I didn’t see much of a difference from my original Droid. That being said, I think the camera on both the original Droid and the Droid X put out some pretty solid photos. While it’ll never rival an actual digital camera, for someone who takes the occasional photo on the run or while I’m out at various social events, the Droid X will get the job done. The camcorder was the same thing – comparable to Droid, quality video for a mobile device, I’d still use my Flip. One thing that did bug me about the camcorder was that it was difficult to use. At least for me. The beauty of the original Droid is there’s a little on-screen button on the bottom right of the screen that you tap to record and to finish. Unless I missed it, the Droid X was completely different and not clear on how to start or stop the recording. Again, maybe it was me.

Display/Menu

This was another update/change that I thoroughly enjoyed. The menu or homescreen on the Droid X was a great change and the ease of use was a welcomed change. Not only do they add more screens to sort and seperate for quick-touch access to apps, the menu was more appealing in general. They also added a few more background and wallpaper options that were pretty cool. Small things like this make my review non-technical!

Audio

One of the apps I use the most on my original Droid is the Pandora app. I stream music from my phone quite a bit. The audio on my Droid is fantastic. However, on the Droid X, it’s one feature that I was not impressed with at all. The Droid X has more speakers, yet the audio from both the Pandora app and from YouTube was a bit muffled and not quite as high quality as the original Droid. Please note that I only found the audio inferior in terms of music. The microphone and speaker that are used while making calls produce high quality audio. I didn’t have any issues hearing others talk and according to the phone calls I made, my voice quality was excellent as well. So it kind of surprised me that the audio was drastically worse for music and videos.

Battery

 As a heavy phone user, I did not see any issues with the battery life on the Droid X. I had a bunch of apps constantly running and never needed a mid-day charge. For the average smartphone user, you’ll easily be able to go quite a while before needing to charge.

Final Takeaway

Unfortunately my model didn’t have the Android 2.2 OS. I was really hoping to get a sneak peak at Froyo, but it looks like I’ll have to wait until later this year. Despite that, my overall opinion on the Droid X is that it’s clearly the best Android phone on the market.

If you are looking to buy an Android phone, this is  the one you need to be looking at. Is it enough to get me to upgrade? No. While the biggest draw for me is the size and absence of a physical keyboard (I never use the physical keyboard on my Droid), and the display is high quality, it doesn’t do anything that my Droid can’t do. The improved camera (according to specs) is likely appealing to those who actively use their mobile for pictures and video.

Again, I clearly think the Android is the best phone on the market. I’d take my Droid and the Droid X over the iPhone any day. The Droid X delivers nearly everything you need on a smartphone. I don’t need a front-facing camera, the Android market has more than enough apps and you have the Verizon network. For anyone other than original Droid users, the Droid X is the phone to get.

Disclaimer: The Droid X I tested was courtesy of Albert Maruggi. My review was based purely off my experience with the Droid X. I did not receive any compensation and my device was returned.

While quality is a major part of a product’s success, a great product or brand can go unnoticed if there’s no buzz around it. A large factor of P90X’s success is the fact that, for the most part, the product delivers what it says it does. However, there’s a bigger reason for P90X leading the health and fitness space right now. The reason? Community.

It’s common sense that word of mouth is the greatest form of marketing. Sure, P90X has those sweet infomercials on television, they’re running ads in magazines. That helps. However, the biggest benefit P90X has going for itself is the ringing endorsement from its community.

P90X’s community is loud, they’re vocal and they are supportive. It’s the type of community every brand wants. This isn’t anything new, as Slim Fast, Jenny Craig, South Beach, etc. all have communities as well. So what is P90X doing so differently? What have they done that’s allowed them to create evangelists? Like any product, it works for some and it doesn’t for others. Is it the product that’s created the community, or the community that’s created the product?

The thing that I like about P90X is that they encourage you to be social. They encourage you to get involved with your workout, take pictures, share stories, and really make the workout a part of your life. They want you to be completely emerged with their brand. And it works.

P90X is the first workout routine that, in my opinion, has capitalized on its community and created “fanboys.” The majority of people that I know that have used the P90X product swear by it and have made it known that they’ve used the product. I know that I’ve openly shared my experiences with it and will continue to endorse the product. We haven’t seen this much buzz around working out since Billy Blanks and Tae Bo. The real question is will the P90X community last longer? In today’s social environment, I think the buzz will continue to spread and evangelists will continue to preach “Just Bring It.”

What do you think? Can you have a community if you don’t have a quality product? With P90X, what impact do the actual results have on the product?

Recently, I had an unfortunate incident with someone who I considered to be part of the “friend” crowd. While I won’t get into specific details, I felt like the investment I had put into the relationship wasn’t valued any longer. The friendship was no longer about benefiting the both of us, it was clear this person was more interested in benefiting themselves. I don’t blame this person, and in fact, I blame myself. I blame myself for being naive. Naive about not realizing that everyone has their own agenda in a relationship. Naive about not realizing that when the basis of your relationship began based upon a professional platform, the agenda is cultivated differently.

Now, I don’t feel this person is a bad person. Chances are we’ll bury the hatchet and connect again sometime in the future. What it does show me though is the power of the shift of communication. Had this been someone who I hadn’t truly connected with and was simply a business colleague, it wouldn’t have bothered me as much. To me, this shows that true relationships can come from interacting online. It opens my eyes to so much, both on a personal and professional level.

I’ll be honest, this was definitely a learning experience, but it also was one that, quite frankly, sucked. But it was a lesson learned, nonetheless. Despite being a tough lesson, it was beneficial to me. One that I can take from a personal level and apply it professionally. It shows the depth of trust and respect one can build online for a person, for a brand. From a professional standpoint, do you know how your community feels? Have you invested the time and effort and brought value to your community? And if so, do you know their agenda? Whose interest are you looking out for?

While the consequence of a relationship going bad is severe, the value I received from those “friends” is so valuable that I’m willing to take on the risk associated with forming close bonds. From a brand standpoint, you need to be willing to stick your neck out a little and form those relationships. But also realize that not every member of your community is casual. Some have an invested interest in your brand. Have you evaluated your relationships lately?

Back in October, I received an invite for Wave and immediately began testing it out. You can read my review here. As you can see from my initial review, despite a lot of bugs with Wave, I saw a lot of promise and potential. Google claims to have worked the bugs out and Wave is more stable, however, it still lacks the features that I feel would make it an ideal tool. Most notable is the absence of importing Google Docs. As it stands, you can add an attachment, but you can’t import directly into a Wave for collaboration.

Despite lacking this key feature, I still feel that Wave is a powerful collaboration tool – both internally and externally. There have been a number of examples of companies utilizing Wave: Mashable used Wave to interview journalists; Chris Brogan used it to write a book; and it’s been used at conferences. Clearly, there is use for Wave if you think beyond the basic “IM-ish” functions.

Journalists and social nerds aren’t the only ones jumping on the Wave wagon, as large corporations are beginning to see value in Wave as well - SAP StreamWork announced its integration.

One of the coolest and more promising uses of Wave, and one I’m currently testing, is Unawave. What Unawave delivers is a simple and effective work management application that allows for true collaboration. You can share, assign and track tasks, as well as manage documents. Essentially, Unawave brings the ability for collaboration within a collaboration platform. It’s applications like this that hits squarely on the value Wave provides.

Wave is powerful as a stand alone platform, but once you begin to integrate applications and developers begin to take advantage of Wave’s API, it allows for a great tool within a workplace. While there are still some improvements needed for Wave’s core features, it’s nice to see Google sticking with Wave and realizing its potential.

The way news is reported has drastically changed since the Exxon Valdez spill. The frequency in which information is created and shared is not only greater, but the reach is also much larger. The very nature of what social is – sharing – alone makes the impact far greater than what traditional mediums had on previous crises.

The other issue that is intriguing to me is accuracy. Information – whether valid or not – is being rapidly being shared across a plethora of platforms. In today’s “first to break” society, content is rushed to publication. As a result, distorted facts and information is bound to pop up. However, with the role social plays, assumptions and rumors run rapid. Does the digital space make situations appear larger than they are?

The impact on reputation

As we saw with Dominos, the method in which a brand’s reputation can be tarnished has drastically changed. In a matter of a few seconds, all the hard work you’ve put into establishing a positive reputation for your brand can be shattered. With our focus on social responsibility and social good, are we holding brands to a higher standard than before? What role has digital played on how we define reputation?

So what about the good

Most of what I’ve been talking about addresses the negative impact that digital has on a crisis. What about the positive? One of the biggest benefits digital provides brands is the ability for instant communication. As soon as a crisis happens, a brand can address the public via their website, video, Facebook, etc. While there probably isn’t a resolution, and most of the time the brand will still be trying to gather facts, at least there’s a venue to state what you know and what you plan to do.

One of the big flaws in crisis communication is generally, the message is manufactured. There isn’t any emotion behind it. Most messages and statements are bland and mechanic. You can tell they are trying to avoid conversation. One of the benefits of digital is that it allows an organization to add some human touch to their message. Having a CEO shoot a video or having an executive release a blog post detailing the impact can help ease tension.

Finally, digital helps control the message. While an organization never truly has complete control of the message, digital has provided a method in which a brand can help partially control and shape what’s being reported. By being active and understanding digital, a brand can take advantage of real-time news and continue to update the public without having to rely on another outlet reporting.

So what’s the verdict

It’s clear that digital has a profound impact on crisis. News is shared and reported quicker and faster, although not always more accurately. If anything, the digital revolution is forcing brands to communicate in a more efficient manner. The problem is, however, a lot of brands aren’t prepared or completely understand digital. As brands continue to evolve and adopt a more social and digital lifestyle, the lines of crisis communication will begin to blur with everyday communication. Those brands that understand this will be in a better position should a situation arise.

Stickybits allows users to attach digital content (video, photos, text, audio) to real-world products that have a barcode. Essentially, you scan a barcode with your phone, upload content and send it out through your social stream. Your content is geo-tagged and is now in that product’s cloud. If your product doesn’t have a barcode, you can buy stickybit stickers or print them out and tag products using those methods. The process is the same, regardless of method.

Additionally, brands can attach content themselves, and all consumers have to do is scan the barcode to unlock or view. The uses are endless

While mass adoption is ways out, the potential with stickybits is huge. This changes the way consumers can interact with their brand, it changes the way brands can market their products. Brands can now partially control content, but at the same time, they are also allowing their brands to be associated in any fashion consumers choose. It’s an intriguing blend, that if integrated properly, can be an additional mix in the marketing, advertising and/or communications bucket.

A few ideas:

1. Lets say you’re a musician or an actor/actress. How about attaching an a short “behind the scenes” video of the filming or recording. What if you’re a musician and you attach a hidden code for a free iTunes download? Maybe a movie studio attaches a hidden URL for deleted scenes.
2. Giveaways – This is huge. Think “under the bottle cap” promotions. Instead of printing codes or ‘you are not a winner’ underneath bottle caps, you simply attach the game piece to bardcodes.
3. Crowdsourcing – Want to get consumers involved with creating the newest flavor of ice cream? M&M always asks its community to share their favorite M&M color…now, simply have consumers attach a video or audio and upload away.
4. Measurable – The service is geo-tagged. You can figure out where your products are being sold, who’s buying them, what their feedback is, etc. Perfect way of determining how mobile your customers are. If they are, do you put more investment in mobile marketing? ROI, baby!
5. Integration with augmented reality & 3D – Lets say you’re a clothing manufacturer. How about allowing me to scan the barcode, have the product show up in AR and give me recommended outfits? Let’s say you’re a video game manufacturer, I scan the bardcode and a 3D promo video plays on my mobile.
6. Inventory list – Manufacturers could apply a sticker on a box that lists what’s inside. This concept could also translate to moving companies/services. Instead of labeling each box, simply attach a stickybit and upload the contents.
7. Reviews – Bars and restaurants could attach a stickybit and have patrons leave reviews. Other patrons could then scan the stickybit and read said reviews.
8. Personal business uses – Attach a stickybit to a business card and upload your resume, upload portfolio examples, etc.

With good, comes the bad. The issue of control is definitely a concern. Will people upload inappropriate content and attach it to your product? If I scan a can of Coke, does that mean I’ll always upload content that’s relevant to Coke? Will the service turn into a platform of criticism and dissatisfaction?

Like augmented reality and 3D, adoption is the biggest hurdle. From the brand standpoint, there needs to be value. What is going to cause me to scan the barcode and participate? Why should I promote your product?

From a consumer standpoint, what would cause you to use this service?

Complete satisfaction is something that does not exist in commerce. There will always be critiques, there will always be someone who doesn’t agree with something about your brand. With this in mind, have we become too sensitive as consumers and as professionals? Are we automatically becoming defensive rather than welcoming ways to improve? How do we respond to negative comments?

While I understand that the two individuals reference above receive criticism on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, the one thing that stood out to me was their response. Or lack thereof. Both responses were short, snide and had a tone of “how dare you disagree with me and my product”. I’ve never been in this situation, but I assume that after a while it gets old responding to the same comments. As brands, however, we need to continue to address such remarks.

I know we’ve been fighting this for decades and it’s human nature to become defensive when you feel attacked, but I hope that with social comes the desire to accept and seek improvement. We need to accept the fact that not everyone will agree with us. Not everyone will like our brand. You can’t hide or get rid of criticism. It’s vital for improvement and change. Welcome that feedback. Open your arms. Respond. Show that you truly seek to better your brand/product.

So get off your pedestal, pull your pants up and quit being a sissy.