Faux News
I finally got around to watching this, and have come to the conclusion that Fox does harm to three groups, but benefits one niche in the process. Continue reading “Faux News”
Category: Economics
There’s an App for That
IFTTT just released an iOS app, which brings all the great features of the website to iPhones and iPads everywhere. One “recipe” that the blog post mentions is the ability to automatically upload pictures from your iPhone to Dropbox or Google Drive. Pretty cool, huh?
Only thing is, many Android phones have had the feature for years, and in fact, I take it for granted that when I snap a picture on my EVO, it pops up in my Dropbox ten seconds later.
New York, New York
From the Times: The average price for a Manhattan apartment this spring was a stratospheric $1.425 million. Stratospheric indeed. It was only four years ago that landlords and leasing agents were providing perks to push buyers to move into vacant apartments. Pretty crazy how fast the real estate pendulum swings. Continue reading New York, New York
New Tech, Old Tech
It looks like Moleskine and Evernote are teaming up, and have launched an Evernote-branded notebook, along with a 3-month premium membership to the online note-taking service. It’s very interesting to see Moleskine’s attempt to hitch its wagon to a product for the smartphone crowd, and Evernote’s desire to classily separate itself from the myriad of … Continue reading New Tech, Old Tech
Digital Wallet, Here We Come!
Amazon first took down Borders, and now it’s got its sights on the US Treasury. Now that Bezos & Co. are done capturing the book world, it’s going after currencies, announcing that it will be issuing “Amazon Coins” to Kindle owners for use in the development and purchase of games and apps on the Kindle platform. The exchange rate will be 100 Amazon coins to $1 US – though no word from Amazon if there will be any equivalent of the Federal Reserve in order to prevent a Bitcoin-like run-up in price. Continue reading “Digital Wallet, Here We Come!”
France Wants Foreign Capital, Except When it Doesn’t
With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo! is on a spending spree. In an effort to become a new online hub for video, the company snapped up the rights to stream episodes of Saturday Night Live – previously a Hulu special – and recently attempted to purchase the popular French video site DailyMotion. However, the government of President Francois Hollande has expressed its objections to the takeover, and sought to block the deal. Continue reading “France Wants Foreign Capital, Except When it Doesn’t”
Selective Regulation
This morning’s Times article on dangerously high levels of pollution in China presents an interesting contrast with much of the country’s other, hands-on policies. By virtue of being a Communist state, China owns – outright or in part – and regulates virtually every major national sector. China Mobile? State owned. Phone maker ZTE? Formed from the ribs of state organizations. PertroChina? You betcha. What these degrees of ownership and oversight mean is that, obviously, Beijing plays favorites with homegrown enterprises, and will squeeze or sanction any foreign firms that don’t play by its rules. The Party knows that it has a large consumer base, and it uses that fact as a fulcrum in ensuring that corporations like Disney don’t depict subversive content, Google filters its search results, and Apple provides upgraded customer service. In fact, the latest Apple charge seems strongly government-instigated, demonstrating that if you can’t join ’em (at least in a venture), you might as well beat ’em. Continue reading “Selective Regulation”
Samsung Launches New Phone, Dubbed Tonolith
Yesterday, Samsung announced that it started production on the Galaxy Giant, a 58.3-inch Android smartphone that stands almost five feet tall. The phone packs a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, 16GB of onboard memory, and the usual layer of TouchWiz. Samsung made it clear that “this is not a tablet or television. It’s simply a large smartphone that we know our customers will love.” Cynics, who felt that the “phablet” definition no longer applies, have dubbed the device a “tonolith,” after the large obsidian slab featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Continue reading “Samsung Launches New Phone, Dubbed Tonolith”
Calling an Audible
T-Mobile, in many respects, has its back to the wall. It did not carry the iPhone until this week. Its 4G network still lags behind those of Verizon and AT&T. And one year ago, AT&T dropped its $39 billion acquisition plans, in light of opposition from the Justice department. And its relatively small hold on the US phone market has meant that the T-Mobile still lags among the big four phone carriers.
Repatriation
Guess which firm and founder fits the following example:
A once-dominant company, brought to its knees by competition from Apple and Amazon, is faced with dropping sales, a sinking share price, and angry shareholders. In walks the silver-haired founder of the company, who volunteers part of his reduced, if still substantial fortune, in order to buy the company and save the brand.
Silicon Spatula 