No Regrets
Posted: March 26, 2010 Filed under: Investing | Tags: Apple Leave a comment »On Twitter, Markos recounts something that will probably ring familiar to most stock investors.
In 1996, I had $5K I was going to invest in AAPL. Instead, helped pay my future wife’s tuition. Today, that $5K would be worth $1.2 million.
Earlier this century, I noticed that shares of a telecom equipment maker were trading just above a buck. I suspected the stock would likely recover, and it subsequently rebounded up past $20 not long after that. I can’t say that I was on the verge of buying the thing, but it has sort of haunted me since.
Tide Rise Creative Ponders Scenarios for #Apple Tablet
Posted: January 22, 2010 Filed under: Technology | Tags: Apple, iTunes, Tide Rise Creative 2 Comments »There’s interesting musing over at Tide Rise Creative’s blog about the possibility that 2010 will be a big year for interactive media and design.
The scuttlebutt is that the Conde Nast, Apple, Bonnier, HP and others are working on a new standard for the display and delivery of interactive magazines. Immersive and animated, these new publications could spell relief for the industry. My money is on Apple to extend iTunes LP/Extras (the tools/environment for album liner notes and dvd-esque menus for videos) to the magazines. Then sell the magazines in iTunes to be viewed on Computers, iPhones and upcoming table (iSlate?). I think all of this runs on Webkit (the rendering engine in Safari, Chrome and other browsers).
Sounds good to me.
Another iTunes observation: the other night I used iTunes to chip in $25 bucks to the American Red Cross’s Haiti efforts. It was the easiest donation, in terms of logistics, I’ve ever made. Frictionless charity.
Naked Capitalism on Apple v. Google
Posted: November 19, 2009 Filed under: Listening, Technology | Tags: Android, Apple, Google, Jimi Hendrix, Naked Capitalism 2 Comments »Naked Capitalism has a good post up on Apple v. “the Android menace.” I understand these posts tend to provoke flame wars, but the comments are also worth scrolling through. They’ve got a high-end readership over there, evidently.
Anyway, an excerpt from the post:
To my eyes, this is looking like a repeat of the Macintosh-PC Wars of the 1990s which Apple lost. On the one side, you have Apple, competing at the high end and very concerned about platform integrity and control, and preventing other manufacturers from building its hardware. On the other side, you have another operating system designed for the lower end and installed on a host of manufacturer systems – which may or may not cause serious platform integrity problems down the line. Who wins that battle?
I have no idea. Part of me is very interested in this topic. Part of me wonders, “in the end, who really gives a shit?” It’s just electronics. Before I had an iPod, I had a Sony portable CD player that I thought was pretty cool.
On the other hand, I still remember how, back in 2002, the iPod put a whole new shine on both music (shuffle!) and e-commerce. I remember marveling to a work colleague about how easy iTunes was. You just found something you wanted and clicked on it. Done.
Who knows. One day all this stuff will be nanotechnologically implanted, which reminds me of a Jimi tune.
But it’s all in your mind
Don’t think your time on bad things
Just float your little mind around
Look out ! Ow!
Salad from a Vending Machine
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Listening, Technology | Tags: Apple, AppleInsider, Le Blog Optimiste, Stone Temple Pilots 1 Comment »Bits and pieces this Thursday.
- NYTimes.com has a podcast featuring the new Weezer album. Not wild about the podcast, but it sounds like there are some quality pop hooks on the record.
- Speaking of pop hooks, I just downloaded Stone Temple Pilots’ “Days of the Week.”
- My new favorite French blog has a post up about a vending machine that dispenses salads and other fresh foods. I’d love one of those in my office.
LOF met à la disposition de l’affamé pressé des sandwichs, des salades de pâtes et de légumes, des fruits en morceaux (selon la saison), des noix biologiques, des jus de fruits pressés, etc…
- Speaking of fruit, AppleInsider reports on Apple’s plans to overhaul their sync capabilities.
Transit Sounds
Posted: September 24, 2009 Filed under: Listening, Recording | Tags: Apple, GarageBand, musical microblogging, Nonsuch, Washington, WMATA, XTC 2 Comments »
Two items this evening.
- That interview with Andy Partridge may or may not send me on an XTC Bender. I’ve just imported “Nonsuch” into my iTunes collection. There’s a record I listened to quite a bit back in college, and here, courtesy of Chalkhills, is probably all you’ll ever need to know about it.
- I’ve been seriously neglecting my musical microblogging. Part of that is that I can’t hook up my MBox to the computer because of operating system issues. This evening, however, I went ahead and put together something. First, I recorded about a minute’s worth of Washington Metro sounds. Then I fooled around a bit with GarageBand. The bass track in here is an Apple loop, by the way. I wish I could play bass like that.
Photo Booth
Posted: August 30, 2009 Filed under: Technology | Tags: Apple, Fender Guitars, Guitars, Photo Booth, Starcaster Leave a comment »Poking around my applications folder this evening, I came across Photo Booth. Brilliant!
I took one of myself that had me laughing so hard that tears came to my eyes. I’d share that one on the blog, but I don’t want to frighten anybody.
Instead, here are two tricked-out photos of the Starcaster.
It’s not that they do commercials…
Posted: July 13, 2009 Filed under: Artists | Tags: advertising, Apple, Blackberry, Bob Dylan, U2 1 Comment »
Following up on a discussion from mpomy.com about the U2 Blackberry ad (a discussion, by the way, which should have started here, given the subject mater. mea culpa.), I did want to clarify that I am not concerned about the integrity of a an artist being compromised by a television commercial. Endorsements are part of the game and always have been.
In the case of U2, is it true that each member of the band could personally finance this massive tour with all its attendant hardware and helping hands? Probably, but why should they have to? A tour this big, with a contraption that could potentially kill thousands of fans in a single night, is risky. What if things go wrong? What if tickets don’t sell? What if refunds have to be issued? The Blackberry deal ensures that the entire crew gets paid and gets paid well without the artists having to take on the potential risk of loss. They’ve conducted their business well enough to have earned that right.
Similarly, if Bob Dylan wants to be associated with hot underwear models, I just don’t see how that is a problem. It’s all far less unsavory than Budweiser or Marlboro footing the bill.
The fascinating thing about the Blackberry/U2 deal is that this band is selling Coke right after getting out of a deal with Pepsi. I don’t know about you, but in my line of work that’s called a conflict of interest and it’s a no-no. I can’t represent FBdN against Delaruss on Monday and then turn around and screw FBdN by going to work for Delaruss on Tuesday. It’s not allowed. What would Honda think if, on the day after their Lou Reed ad buy ended, he was seen scooting around London on a Vespa to the tones of ‘Dirty Boulevard’?
My point was that U2 has gotten so big, that those rules don’t matter. Apple doesn’t have any say. When the deal is over, it’s like it never happened. Similarly, Blackberry has to bow down as well. I picture the conversation going something like this:
Blackberry: And then you could take out a Blackberry in the middle of the song and make a call. It’ll be great!
U2: No.
Blackberry: Or you could raise your hands and the crowd will all lift up their cell phones and it will light up the entire stadium and we’ll zoom in and everyone will be holding up Blackberrys – with the band’s image on the screen, of course.
U2: No.
Blackberry: Well, maybe after the concert clip, we could just show the new phone, just have the ad end with an image of the product on the screen. how about that?
U2: We have a better idea. We’ll show the concert clip and there will be no image of any Blackberry product in the ad at any time. And at the end we’ll let you tell everyone that ‘Blackberry loves U2′. And, for a few extra million, we’ll even let you put your website on the ad. How does that sound?
Blackberry: Great! Perfect! We love it!
