Blogs

Dear Shawn,

I've been thinking a bit about the iPhone 4 launch and all the attendant hyperbole and downright whining going on. Tuesday morning, I hopped online to reserve our iPhone 4s. 3 minutes later, both were reserved. Every time I utter that, I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out "I hate you!" and were suddenly silenced.

The 600,000 number has been thrown around quite a bit, but it's not the relevant number. 600,000 is merely the number of iPhones that were successfully reserved before they ran out of their reserved stock. It is not the number of people who were online attempting to reserve one. I don't know if anyone knows the real number, but it could be an order of magnitude higher.

When someone says that AT&T or Apple "should have known" how high the demand was going to be, I ask the question "Do you actually know how high it was?" Imagine if your store usually gets 50 customers for its events. Knowing that you've got unusually high demand, you plan for 100 - 200. Then you get socked with 1000.

Every one of these people had to access an AT&T account, which then had to be run through all its algorithms to determine what plan they were on and what they were eligible for. I wonder if the waiving of ETF for any who were eligible this year was simply for their own sake in a vain attempt to simplify matters. Again, this is all guessing. The fact remains, however, that the people complaining do not know what the real numbers are. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

As far as bandwidth goes, we must keep in mind not only how extremely expensive it is to service this many people, but also how hard it is to get new towers past red tape, local politicians who want their palms greased, and NIMBYs. It's an annoying situation to be in. If AT&T and Apple want to deflect complaints, however, they might want to consider being a little more open about what the problems really are.

"BAM Investor's advanced behavioral analysis financial model predicts Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock price to fall to $42 per share as soon as Fall 2010"

That is a *remarkable* prediction - not only for its scope (can any of us really imagine a crash so bad that would cause Apple's stock to fall from its present $271/share all the way down to the predicted $45?) but for its balls if not stupidity.

We'll wait for the fall to see...

One of the main reasons I wanted to buy Apple’s iPad is to use the device as an ebook reader. I’m a big reader, and have thousands of books, but would like to be able to read some books on a portable device.Aside from any discussion of the merits of this, I thought I would look at the two main apps for reading ebooks, Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBooks.

First, Amazon currently has the edge in device ubiquity, with a Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as for the iPad. Apple’s iBooks will, however, be available for these devices in the fall, when the company releases a new version of their software. Amazon also, however, lets you read ebooks on their own device – the Kindle – or on a Mac or PC, with a program that that works on those platforms. Apple will presumably follow suit, with a Mac version of iBooks in the fall, and perhaps even a Windows version.

But the main question remains that of display. Reading an ebook, you want the broadest range of display options, so you can get the maximum reading pleasure from the books you buy.

Amazon’s Kindle App for iPad vs Apple’s iBooks

Apple’s iPhone OS unveiling on Thursday was not the kind of Apple Event where the company shows off a brand-new product, exclaims how it’s the best product the company has ever made, and waits for the oohs and ahs of the invited guests.

Yes, iPhone OS 4.0 was the reason Apple invited the crowd to the company’s Cupertino campus, and that new version of the operating system that runs the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad has some promising new features. But Thursday’s event was a bit less about shiny-product Apple and a bit more about strategic technology company Apple.

Analysis: Apple against the World

Adobe has launched the fifth incarnation of its Creative Suite collection of professional applications for print and Web designers and videographers.

This set of coordinated programs, popularly called Adobe CS5, includes new versions of 14 products and their associated apps, four new online services, and a brand new interactive Web design product.

The new CS5 veers in a somewhat different direction than earlier versions with a specific concentration on online services and Web analytics. Creative Suite 5 products, for the first time, include access to Omniture technologies—Web utilities that capture, store, and analyze information generated by Web sites and other sources.

The updates in CS5—more that 250 new features have been integrated throughout the Master Collection of all programs—address not only technical changes in hardware capabilities to make them faster and more efficient, but also strive to solve workflow problems.

Adobe unleashes Creative Suite 5

At age 28, Steven P. Jobs, Chairman of Apple Computer, was on top of his game—rich, famous, spoiled, and seemingly unrestrained by the usual social mores. He had the chiseled face, jutting jaw and thick black hair of a typical matinee idol.

Yet, he was hardly conventional. The sleeves of the understated gray cashmere sweater he wore that October morning in 1983, on top a simple white, v-neck t-shirt, were pushed up just enough to reveal the coolest watch I had ever seen, strapped high on his left forearm. I wanted very much to get a closer look at it, but I didn’t dare.

My Close Encounters with Steve Jobs (Part 1)

So....does this thing actually work?

I'm testing this service out for an idea we have surrounding Macworld Expo.

Watch their demo. If you like what you see, sign up and add "YML @ Macworld Expo" as a friend:
http://www.dodgeball.com/user?uid=74777

OK...how cool is this? I'm on a freaking *plane* @ 35,000 ft over Reno, Nevada.....and I'm on the Net!

Click here to watch a short video!

Net access is by GoGoInflight.com and is only on American airline flights to/from SF/NYC, LA/NYC and Miami/NYC. $12.95 for the flight duration.

More in flight video here!

Our firend Jeff La Grua passed this along:

Shawn, got this as a forward of a forward of a forward. Its interesting, and perhaps wholly unrealistic, BUT its an interesting thought exercise, and maybe, just maybe, crazy enough to work.

I am against the $85,000,000, 000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I am in favor of giving $85,000,000, 000 to America
in a "We Deserve It Dividend."

To make the math simple, let us assume there are
200,000,000 bona fide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is
about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So
200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that
equal s $425,000.00. My plan is to give $425,000 to every
person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Click here to read more about the "We Deserve It Dividend"

Last Day of August from blatherskyte on Vimeo.

Video shot by our friend J Curtis in HD using a Panasonic HVX200A.

Hello everyone! Thank you and welcome to "The Almost Grand Opening!" - the "real" Grand Opening will be on September 3rd, 2008 but I want to welcome you to drop by and look around.

As we were out riding last week, we met some of the Scooter Divas - 4 delightful women riding their own rides on scooters!

My name is Napoleon (my friends call me "Nappy") and I am an Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). I've somehow managed to make friends with two very nice humans - Shawn and Lesa - who are very kind to me and are going to let me indulge in my wanderlust.

You see, being a penguin, while glorious, does have its disadvantages. The main one being travel.

Oh sure, we can walk all over Antarctica and swim in the sea but, we can't visit Paris. Or Los Angeles. Or the Mediterranean. So, if you're a penguin like me (and I assume you are otherwise, why would you bother reading this?) and have an urge to get out and see the world, being flightless and living at the bottom of the planet presents sometimes insurmountable challenges.

I say "sometimes" because I have managed to leave my homeland (I won't say "escaped" because I love Antarctica!) and will be traveling as much of the world as my flightless wings and tiny feet can take me!

This promises to be quite an adventure - certainly for me but I also hope you, my fellow penguins, will join me virtually. Who knows - maybe I'll get to meet some of you in the Real World.

Enjoy!